Geneva: Hiking Mont Salève

Although it is actually in France, Mont Salève is just a short bus ride from downtown Geneva (via Route 8 to Veyrier-Douane, alternatively Veyrier-Tournettes, which are both a 10 minute walk to/from the cable car station). Mont Salève is accessible by cable car to the top (the Téléphérique), driving, OR - as I was hoping for - a hiking trail that would lead us through a small village as we made our way to the summit.

In spite of being given an English hiking guide by the cable car guy, we took a wrong turn and ended up in the huge quarry. It was deserted, so we walked through it for a while, trying to find any sort of trail leading into the woods and up the mountain. Alas, we had to give up, and none too soon -- the quarry workers were just on their lunch break and started to return as we were leaving! On our way out, we noticed the 'no hikers' sign, and realized that we took the wrong bridge over the highway - the one we needed was another 1/4 mile down the road. At this point we had walked over a mile in the heat (90 degrees in Geneva! Crazy!), so we gave up and took the cable car to the top and hiked to the Observatory from there.

It turned out to be a delightful, adventurous day - I don't think we would have been able to get all the way to the Observatory if we'd hiked up from the station. We enjoyed a great lunch at the Observation Tower restaurant, followed by hiking through the Alpine fields full of cows and fabulous views. On the trail back to the cable car station, we passed a Buddhist Temple and paragliding launch zone, an hour of entertainment watching a sport I will never try! It did look like fun, though.

We took the Téléphérique back to the lower station and made it to the bus station just in time. And now we know - next time, we are taking the car up, and hiking DOWN!

https://www.telepherique-du-saleve.com/en/