Loop 14: The Tour of Etival

A 22.8km mini trail to be done with the family between Les Crozets, Prénovel, Chatel-de-Joux and Etival in a series of forests, plateaux and lakes in the heart of the Regional Natural Park.
The history of the inhabitants of this region is linked to the bi-activity, they were farmers in summer and in winter they worked the wood. From there was born the turning of very diverse objects, from whistles to skittles. The village of Les Crozets, on the edge of the forests of Prénovel and Moirans, the starting point of this itinerary, was renowned for the manufacture of stamp handles! The route to Les Piards crosses a spruce grove - the local name for a forest of fir trees - and crosses the small Nanchez pass before leading to the Grandvaux plateau with its wide open spaces flanked by fir trees, crossed by streams and fields where Montbéliard cows graze. From Piards, the village where the film "Le Passe Montagne" with Jean-François Stevenin was shot, to Prénovel, a small Nordic sports resort, the route winds its way through the forest and the Trémontagne reach, climbs into the Crochère wood before descending through forest and rocks to Etival, a charming little village. The passage between the Petit Lac, wild in its setting of flowers, and the Grand Lac d'Etival, bordered by meadows and forests, is in the heart of a mountain wetland of unprecedented richness.