The Conzieu Lakes from Saint-Benoît

A slightly longer and slightly steeper alternative route, but still not considered difficult.
There are still beautiful panoramic views, and with a bit of luck, you may see some lovely waterfalls at the start of the hike.

Details

3335055
Creation:
Last update:
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  • Walking
    Activity: Walking
  • ↔
    Distance: 18.39 km
  • ◔
    Average duration: 7h 20 
  • ▲
    Difficulty: Moderate

  • ⚐
    Back to start: Yes
  • ↗
    Ascent: + 722 m
  • ↘
    Descent: - 720 m

  • ▲
    Highest point: 683 m
  • ▼
    Lowest point: 210 m

Photos

Description of the walk

Park in the car park near the Saint-Benoît boules court.

(S/E) Go up the road that runs alongside the cemetery, then continue on your left until you reach a crossroads.

(1) Continue straight ahead on Rue du Bonnard until you reach the crossroads marked with a cross.
Do not turn left, but follow the street, which soon turns into a gravel path. Continue to the main road. Turn right, then a few metres further on, turn right again into Rue Sous Roche. Pass the bread oven. Return to the main road, still on the right. Continue towards the exit of the hamlet to reach a fork.

(2) Turn right. The road begins to climb. Follow it, pass by another waterfall and continue along the winding path to Grange d'Orme.

(3) At the crossroads, turn left. Follow the fairly wide path along the ridge.
After a good kilometre, you will see a small stone house in a meadow on the left.
Just after that, a path descends to the right.
If you reach the red EDF marker, you have gone too far, so retrace your steps for 20 metres.

(4) Go down the path on the right. Walk for about 200 metres until you reach a crossroads.
Turn left, then 30 metres further on, take the path that goes up to the right.
Continue for another 80 metres to rejoin theGR® 59.

(5) You will come out on the eastern slope. Follow theGR® and descend to the road leading to the village of Conzieu.

(6) Turn right. The road quickly turns into a path.
Walk along the lakes. After about 3 km, you will come to a road.

(7) Turn right. After 80 m, take the path on the right and climb for about 500 m.
The path then becomes flatter. After another 300 metres, you will reach a fairly wide path.
Turn left and climb up to the viewpoint.

(8) Retrace your steps for 150 metres and turn left towards the Faroud hollow.

(9) Begin the descent to the crossroads you passed on the way up.

(1) Turn left to return to the Saint-Benoît boules court car park (S/E).

Waypoints

  1. S/E : km 0 - alt. 210 m - Car park near the Saint-Benoît boules court
  2. 1 : km 0.47 - alt. 233 m - Crossroads of the circular loop
  3. 2 : km 2.39 - alt. 241 m - Exit the hamlet
  4. 3 : km 5.49 - alt. 545 m - Grange d'Orme
  5. 4 : km 7.17 - alt. 569 m - Fork in the road before the red EDF marker
  6. 5 : km 7.62 - alt. 565 m - GR 59
  7. 6 : km 8.94 - alt. 367 m - Conzieu. Near - Gland (rivière) - Affluent du Rhône
  8. 7 : km 11.64 - alt. 379 m - Crossroads
  9. 8 : km 13.76 - alt. 653 m - Belvedere
  10. 9 : km 14.43 - alt. 677 m - The Faroud hollow
  11. S/E : km 18.39 - alt. 210 m - Car park near the Saint-Benoît boules court

Worth a visit

(Between 1 and 2) At Sous Roche, if it has rained recently, you will see a pretty waterfall on your right, just behind the houses.
(5) Here you can enjoy a beautiful view of the village of Conzieu, as well as Dent du Chat and Grand Colombier.

Always be cautious and plan ahead when you're outdoors. Visorando and the author of this route cannot be held responsible for any accidents occurring on this route.

The GR® and PR® markings are the intellectual property of the Fédération Française de Randonnée Pédestre.

Reviews and comments

4.4 / 5
Based on 8 reviews

Reliability of the description
4 / 5
Ease of following the route
4.5 / 5
Route interest
4.6 / 5
Yvon38
Yvon38

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of your route : Feb 26, 2026
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

Less difficult than described

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User 3932226

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : Feb 22, 2026
Reliability of the description : ★★★★★ Very good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : Yes

Very beautiful hike.
Beautiful views.
The signage is not always up to scratch, which is a shame.
The route took 5½ hours, including a half-hour break.

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covco
covco

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Jun 03, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

Lovely walk

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opsalys
opsalys

Overall rating : 5 / 5

Date of your route : May 13, 2024
Reliability of the description : Not used / Not applicable
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

On this beautiful Ascension Day weekend, I didn't meet anyone else on this route, which was fine by me.
It was a pleasant ride, and I enjoyed passing under the canopy of trees in the glorious sunshine.

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Annick01
Annick01

Overall rating : 4 / 5

Date of your route : Apr 13, 2024
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : No

A lovely hike with two beautiful waterfalls at the start of the trail and some lovely views.
We set out to do the "Les lacs de Conzieu depuis St Benoit" hike, but from point (3) onwards, we couldn't see the little stone house in the meadow or the red EDF marker, even though there were three of us hiking (lol).
So we did "On the heights of St Benoit" from point (3) with a lovely view from the belvedere.

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Deuxpattes
Deuxpattes

Overall rating : 4.7 / 5

Date of your route : May 20, 2021
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★★ Very good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A very beautiful hike with little mud overall, despite the rain in the previous days.
Thank you for this post.

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muserret
muserret

Overall rating : 4.3 / 5

Date of your route : Aug 13, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★★☆ Good
Ease of following the route : ★★★★☆ Good
Route interest : ★★★★★ Very good
Very busy route : No

A beautiful, very peaceful hike, but certainly because the mountain range was closed due to fire risk, which we hadn't read about at the start.
It's a shame that access to the lakes is all "private". It would have been a nice place to stop for lunch in the middle of the hike.
In the end, we ended up hiking 22 km because we missed a path to the right between points 3 and 4 and didn't see the red EDF marker, but the forest road we took led back to the GR 59 with a small detour.

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Oscar dadou
Oscar dadou

Overall rating : 3.3 / 5

Date of your route : Jun 29, 2020
Reliability of the description : ★★★☆☆ Average
Ease of following the route : ★★★☆☆ Average
Route interest : ★★★★☆ Good
Very busy route : Yes

Beautiful hike, but the descriptions in paragraphs 4 and 6 are not always easy to follow.
At 8, heading towards Creux du Faroud, there are two paths, one to the right and one to the left.
Lack of directional signs... the GR 59 is not maintained on the descent to Conzieu and the signage is not reassuring (danger of rockfalls).
I hike regularly in the mountains and in the Rhône-Alpes region, and the real problem is the signage indicating where you need to go😖
For the number of visitors, I put yes, but I don't know, I met six hikers 🙂

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