Route des Crêtes

Route des Crêtes (English: Route of the Ridges) is in Alsace, France.

Understand

The Route des Crêtes is an 89 km (55 mi) road in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France, which passes through the Parc Naturel Régional des Ballons des Vosges. It connects Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines (north) with Cernay (south) and runs on the border of the departments of Haut-Rhin (68) and Vosges (88). Most of the route is at an elevation in excess of 950 m (3,117 ft), with the highest point being at the Col du Grand Ballon (1,343 m (4,406 ft)). The road is generally open from April to November, but most of the route is closed in the winter by snow.

The Route

• 1 Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines

• 2 Col du Bonhomme

• 3 Col de la Schlucht

• 4 Jardin d'altitude du Haut Chitelet - a botanical garden specializing in high-altitude plants, maintained by the Jardin botanique du Montet and the Conservatoire et Jardins Botaniques de Nancy.

• 5 Kastelberg - the fourth highest summit of the Vosges Mountains.

• 6 Rainkopf - one of the highest summits of the Vosges Mountains.

• 7 Le Markstein - a winter sports station in the Vosges mountains.

• 8 Col du Grand Ballon - a mountain pass situated close to the summit of the Grand Ballon.

• 9 Château de Freundstein - a historic château.

• 10 Hartmannswillerkopf - a pyramidal rocky spur overlooking the Rhine valley.

• 11 Cernay - a commune in the Haut-Rhin department in Grand Est.

Go next

• Colmar
• Mulhouse
• Black Forest