Hiking through the Verdon Canyon

The Verdon Canyon might be one of the most beautiful canyons in Europe. It’s lokated in in the Verdon Regional Park in Southern France. Hiking in the Verdon Canyon is very rewarding and offers breathtanking views and unforgetable experiences.

Sentier de l’Imbut

The Trailhead of this hike is located next to the “Hôtel du Grand Canyon du Verdon” at the southern rim of Verdon Canyon. The trail starts with 500 m long and pretty steep descent down to the Verdon River. The track may be a little bit challenging for people who are less mobile. Make sure to bring sturdy shoes! Also, the are some steep slopes right next to the track. Alltogether, the hike is challenging but not too hard. It sould be quite easy for experienced hikers.

Pictures of the Trail

Sentier de l'imbut - Ausblick — Sentier de l’imbut – View from the trail

Verdonschlucht - Wanderung — Sentier de l’imbut – View from the trail

Passerelle de l’Estellier

After about an hour, we arrived at the footbridge “Passerelle de l’Estellier”. You can cross the Verdon River there. The bridge is very interesting. It will oscillate quite a bit, when you walk on it.

Verdonschlucht - Passerelle de l’Estellier — Passerelle de l’Estellier

After we huked a few hundret meters alongside the Verdon River, we decided to turn around and go back to the trail head. We didn’t want to spend more time hiking as we were planning on cruising around the canyon a little more. We were also heading for the “Couloir Samson” trail. The walk back up to the trail head was demanding but not as exhausting as we thought.

This is the “Sentier de l’imbut” displayed in Google Maps:

You can also download the GPS files: KML, GPX

Sentier Martel and Couloir Samson

The “Sentier Martel” trail is one of the classic hikes in the Verdon Canyon. The trail leads down to the Verdon River, follows the river for a few kilometers, goes by the Couloir Samson and leads up to the Point Sublime. The hike is pretty demanding. The best way to do it is the following: Park your car at Point Sublime, take a cab or a bus (only in weekends) and go to the trail head at La Maline. This is where you start you 14 km long hike which comes with challenging descents ascents and leads all the way back up to Point Sublime. One of the highlights along the trail are the tunnels that are several hundred meters long. So make sure to bring a flashlight as it can get pretty dark in the tunnels.

As we already did another hike before we arrived at Point sublime, we decided not to do the whole trail. Instead, we parked our car down at a parking lot close to Couloir Samson. From there, you can walk down to the Verdon River, see the Couloir Samson and walk through the tunnels. This will take you less than an hour (depending on how far you want to go).nel gewandert. Wer sich keine 14 km lange Wanderung zutraut kann dort einen super Eindruck von der Schlucht bekommen. Es gibt einen Parkplatz am Couloir Samson, von dem man nur noch wenige Höhenmeter hinab zum Fluss überwinden muss und nach wenigen hundert Metern die Tunnel.

Watch our pictures: