Les Cascades du Hérisson, Jura – Complete Guide to 7 Waterfalls

Where are the Cascade du Hérisson 

The Cascades du Herisson are located in the east of the Jura department, 40mn east of the department capital Lons-le-Saunier.

Location: Google Maps

The waterfalls are right next to the 4 lakes area (13mn), and about 50mn south west of Baume-les-Messieurs and its famous waterfall Cascade des Tufs.

How to Get to the Cascades du Herisson, Jura

It’s easy to get to the waterfalls. However it’s actually quite tricky to go to the right place, as you can start the visit from 3 different locations.

Here are the 3 locations, with a quick sum-up on how to get to it and who it’s for.

Bottom of the Falls

This is probably the place you’ve seen on other travel guides, and it’s the most recommended place to visit les Cascades du Hérisson, Jura.

Guess why? It’s a paid parking lot!

Parking Fees:

• <1h: 4€
• 1h-3h: 6€
• 3h-5h: 8€
• >5h: 10€

Location: Parking Bas des Cascades du Hérisson

Middle of the Falls

This parking lot is named “top of the waterfalls”, but it’s actually in the middle. It’s a small, but free parking lot.

Location: Parking des Cascades du Hérisson Haut

Top of the Falls

And finally the last parking lot, which is actually at the top of the falls.

Location: Parking du Saut Girard

Hiking – Cascade du Hérisson Randonnée

As you’ve probably gathered from the previous section, there are several ways to see the waterfalls.

The hike from the top of the waterfalls to the bottom is not a loop; it’s a single trail. You can start the hike and turn back at any point; you can hike to the first 2 waterfalls then head back home for example.

With that being said, here are the 3 main hikes:

• Short hike from the bottom: good way to see the most impressive waterfalls without too much hiking
• Medium hike from the middle: see most of the waterfalls (5/7)
• Long hike from the top: the best way to see all of the waterfalls

Alright, let’s see each one of them in more details!

Wear proper shoes, stay on the trails, and be careful as it gets very slippery when wet

Randonnée Cascade du Hérisson from the Bottom

The randonnée Cascade du Hérisson from the bottom is the shortest hike of the 3, starting from the paid parking lot. You’ll see the 2 biggest waterfalls of the 7, the 2 most impressive: l’Eventail and Le Grand Saut.

Start: Parking Bas des Cascades du Hérisson

Short Impressive Cascades du Hérisson Hike

Easy

1h30    3.3km / 2 miles

229m / 751ft    193m / 633ft

Download GPX

Medium Hike from the Middle

This is the standard hike that most people do, between the short one and the long one. It will take you to 5 of the 7 waterfalls, including the 2 biggest ones.

Start: Parking des Cascades du Hérisson Haut

Medium Hike Cascades du Hérisson

Moderate

2h30    4.54km / 2.8 miles

344m / 1,128ft    344m / 1,128ft

Download GPX

Complete Hike Cascades du Hérisson

This Cascade du Hérisson randonnée is the longest one, and the most complete. It will take you to all 7 of the waterfalls, starting from the very top all the way to the bottom, and back up.

Start: Parking du Saut Girard

Complete Hike Cascades du Hérisson

Moderate

3h30    7.5km / 4.6 miles

369m / 1,210ft    369m / 1,210ft

Download GPX

Below is my experience hiking the complete hike.

Exploring the 7 Waterfalls – Randonnée Cascade du Hérisson

Before starting the hike to the Cascade du Herisson, Jura, we were quite hesitant as to which hike to do. We’d spend the previous day hiking all day: around the 4 lakes of Jura, and high up on the cliffs to Pic de l’Aigle and Belvédère des 4 Lacs.

In the end, we still decided to go for the complete hike, to see all of the waterfalls.

The hike starts with the waterfall “Saut Girard”, the 3rd highest. It’s a 35 meters drop (115 feet), and even though there wasn’t that much water it was still impressive.

Nesrine in front of the waterfall

The hike to the next waterfall is gentle, with almost no incline, on a forest trail. It’s nice and quiet in the forest, with few people around. We hear the birds chipping and the water clapping, and it’s pretty relaxing.

After 20 minutes, we get to “Moulin Jeunet”, a small waterfall with the ruins of an old watermill.

Only 10 minutes and we’re already to the next waterfall, the “Saut de la Forge”. We first saw it from the top, then climbed down the slippery stairs to go pretty close under it.

It was a bit cold that day, despite being in July, so we didn’t adventure all the way under the waterfall. I could totally see myself running under and splashing in the water on a hotter day.

I took a few photos, then we were on our way to the next waterfall, a mere 5 minutes walk away.

Here’s the first view from the top of “Château Garnier”:

There’s a way down to the waterfall, and we climbed down to go on the rocks next to it. We just sat down and ate the first bite of the day, with hot coffee from the thermos.

After resting for a while and enjoying the view, we crossed the river using small stones, to get to the other side (the cave you can see on the photo above, next to the waterfall).

The 5th waterfall, “Le Gour Bleu”, was right below the previous one. We first saw it from above, on the trail going down to it, then made our way down to the water level.

It’s a pretty wide waterfall, and there’s a huge pool of water at the bottom. We weren’t feeling like going in, but there were plenty of kids jumping in the water (looked pretty cold to be honest).

After this one, there’s a huge drop in the valley, and you get over the forest. This is the part with the most incline, and we started hiking down.

Halfway down the descent, we got to a fork in the road, leading to a nice viewpoint over the 6th waterfall: “Le Grand Saut”. It’s the second highest waterfall, with a 60 meters drop (197 feet).

You can actually walk all the way to the base of the waterfall, and even walk under it. However we weren’t sure how much hiking we had left, and decided to stick with the main plan.

Before finishing the descent, we took a left turn and headed to a viewpoint over the last waterfall.

And finally, we climbed all the way down to the bottom of the falls, under the last waterfall: “l’Eventail”. It’s the highest waterfall, with a 65 meters drop (213 feet).

This last one actually had very little water compared to what it usually has, but it still looked pretty cool.

And that was it, the end of the descent from the top of the falls to the bottom! We sat down next to the Maison des Cascades (museum at the bottom), and rested for a bit. We fueled up with hot coffee and a few nuts, ready for the climb back to our car.

Best Time to Visit the Cascade du Herisson, Jura

The very best time to visit the waterfall is spring, when there’s a lot of water in the falls, making them very impressive.

It looks great in all seasons though, and there was still a lot of water in the waterfalls when I was there in July (all photos above were taken in July).

The Cascade du Hérisson, Jura are one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area, and it can get pretty crowded. I recommend visiting on a week day if you can, to avoid weekends (when all the locals come with friends & family).

Visit Jura

Planning your trip to Jura? You’ll find below a few other travel guides & key spots to see in the area.

Cool waterfalls in Jura:

• Cascade de Baume les Messieurs
• Cascade des Tufs
• Cascades du Hérisson
• Cascade de la Billaude
• Gorges de la Langouette

The best hikes around:

• 4 Lakes hike
• Pic de l’Aigle hike
• Belvédère du Mont des Ifs

 The BIG guides:

• Best Hikes in Jura
• Best Waterfalls in Jura
• Best Things to Do in Jura

I hope you enjoy your trip to Jura and to France; if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below, I always reply.

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