The red rocks of Esch-sur-Alzette
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 7.87 mi
- Elevation gain
- 843 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 843 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,299 ft
- TrailRank
- 39
- Min elevation
- 1,028 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Moving time
- 2 hours 31 minutes
- Time
- 2 hours 41 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2148
- Uploaded
- April 18, 2022
- Recorded
- April 2022
near Grenz, Esch-sur-Alzette (Lëtzebuerg)
Viewed 304 times, downloaded 7 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
The Dutch speaking edition of National Geographic described the mine area around Esch-sur-Alzette as "a bit of Australia in Luxembourg". Although this assertion is a bit exeggerated it's an accurate description of what to expect in this Luxembourgian region near the border of France: a lot of red rocks.
Esch-sur-Alzette, or commonly known as Esch, is the second biggest city of Luxembourg and this is largely due to the prosperous steel industry in the second half of the 20th century. The mining activities in the city stopped in 1997 and now this region is transformed to a very nice area to hike and bike. When I started my hike the mining activities are the most visible phenomenon in the area with diverse buildings dating from the previous century. I would describe the hike even as a bit boring for the first half hour, but then this hike takes an unexpected turn.
You may take that literally as I followed a mountainbike trail which I really liked and the famous red rocks of this region are welcoming me afterwards. In a landscape of bushes and forest I discover this trail and I must say it's really nice and not something you expect in this region of Europe. The different paths are marked really well, but I always opted for the marking with the skewed triangle and two dots. These markings take me to some surprising places such as a narrow ridge overlooking the area.
Maybe the biggest strength of this hike is its variety with paths through forest, meadows and heath. My biggest enjoyment of this hike is to chose my own paths and to see where these paths are taking me. At one time I needed to bushcraft my way through some mud while the other time I enjoyed some very nice panoramas of the area. The last part is not the best part of this hike, but nonetheless there are some sceneries to enjoy.
This trail is easily one of the biggest surprises of this year so far. It starts a bit dull, but gets really interesting once you get to the part of the red rocks (terre rouge). A varied landscape and surprising sceneries are the major selling points of this hike. The somewhat lackluster start and finish are a small price to pay for this really nice hike.
Esch-sur-Alzette, or commonly known as Esch, is the second biggest city of Luxembourg and this is largely due to the prosperous steel industry in the second half of the 20th century. The mining activities in the city stopped in 1997 and now this region is transformed to a very nice area to hike and bike. When I started my hike the mining activities are the most visible phenomenon in the area with diverse buildings dating from the previous century. I would describe the hike even as a bit boring for the first half hour, but then this hike takes an unexpected turn.
You may take that literally as I followed a mountainbike trail which I really liked and the famous red rocks of this region are welcoming me afterwards. In a landscape of bushes and forest I discover this trail and I must say it's really nice and not something you expect in this region of Europe. The different paths are marked really well, but I always opted for the marking with the skewed triangle and two dots. These markings take me to some surprising places such as a narrow ridge overlooking the area.
Maybe the biggest strength of this hike is its variety with paths through forest, meadows and heath. My biggest enjoyment of this hike is to chose my own paths and to see where these paths are taking me. At one time I needed to bushcraft my way through some mud while the other time I enjoyed some very nice panoramas of the area. The last part is not the best part of this hike, but nonetheless there are some sceneries to enjoy.
This trail is easily one of the biggest surprises of this year so far. It starts a bit dull, but gets really interesting once you get to the part of the red rocks (terre rouge). A varied landscape and surprising sceneries are the major selling points of this hike. The somewhat lackluster start and finish are a small price to pay for this really nice hike.
Waypoints
Intersection
1,151 ft
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