The Vallorbe Grottos - Thursday, June 30th

After we finished at the fort, we drove a short distance to a park right outside the Vallorbe Grotto, a series of caves at the source of the River Orbe. First we pulled out our picnic lunch and ate by the river.

It was a beautiful spot…

and Angie decided to wade in the river. She found out that it was COLD!

After lunch we walked up a beautiful path toward the caves.

The caves were amazing. I was surprised by all the different textures. Some of the rock looked like it had a layer of oatmeal poured over it, some was smooth, and some was bumpy.

At this point we were told that we weren’t allowed to use flashes, so I turned mine off. Unfortunately the cave was really dark and we moved right along (over slippery steps and bridges) so I didn’t have a lot of time to figure out how to shoot well without the flash.
Some of the rock formations looked like different shapes. Here is the “buffalo.”

Some of the stalactites were hanging straight down and some looked like a twisted ribbon.

We walked through the cave on slippery walkways that went over rushing water in some spots. And there were lots of steps. Remember we went down 150 steps in the fort? Well we also came back UP 150 steps (not counting going up and down steps to different areas of the fort), so we were getting quite tired tromping through the cave. It was fascinating, though.

Water rushing through the cave.

After going through the fort and the caves I think most of us were as tired as Simon.

Unfortunately, at this point my camera battery died. We left the caves and stopped at a roadside stand for ice cream. There was a playground so that the children could run off some steam and some animals to see. Then we drove up to a scenic overlook where we got out and enjoyed the sight of Lake Geneva with the mountains in the background.