Three lakes within walking distance

From Rimbach-près-Masevaux, three mountain lakes are within easy reach, none of them a long drive away. They are nothing alike, and the choice mostly comes down to how much time and energy you have that day. The Neuweiher lakes, on foot from the village The Grand and Petit Neuweiher sit one above the other at around 880 metres. Two glacial lakes with clear water, ringed by forest. A mountain inn stands facing the water and serves traditional meals: it is often as much the point of the walk as the lake itself. Swimming is not allowed. Lac des Perches, the starkest of the three Also known as the Sternsee, it fills a glacial cirque at a thousand metres. The setting is harsher than at the Neuweiher: rock faces, scree, few trees. This is the lake where you sit down and do nothing, and the one that photographs best. Lac d'Alfeld, twenty minutes by car Alfeld is not a natural lake but a reservoir, held back by a dam inaugurated in 1888: a wall twenty-three metres high and two hundred and fifty-five metres long, considered a feat of engineering at the time. The loop around the lake is waymarked with a blue rectangle and takes about an hour and three quarters for six kilometres and two hundred metres of ascent. From the dam, a path leads in some forty minutes to the Wasserfall waterfall. Swimming is not allowed here either: the lake is a water reserve for the whole Doller valley. Linking them in one outing The lakes circuit strings together the Neuweiher and Lac des Perches from Rimbach, starting at the free car park opposite the church. Allow a good half day. It is a fine route, but it is no stroll: the ascent is real and some sections call for care. Come reasonably fit and properly shod. The full route is on the map on this site, with a GPX file to download before you set off.