Gournier cave Choranche cave, Vercors

Located in the Vercors Massif, at the base of the Presles cliffs, in a stunning rocky cirque near the tourist caves of Choranche, lies the Gournier Cave, home to one of the most beautiful underground rivers in Europe.

An incredible underground adventure, featuring a beautiful fossil gallery followed by a canyon traversed by an underground river. This full-day outing will leave you with unforgettable memories.

A crystal-clear lake about 40 meters wide marks the cave entrance, which we cross using an inflatable boat. At the end of the lake, a short secured climb leads to a ledge equipped with a 35-meter handrail, opening into the vast fossil gallery.
This chaotic, 900-meter-long gallery is richly decorated with stalagmites, stalactites, draperies, and gours.

After about an hour and a half, the gallery brings us to the first access point to the underground river, symbolically named the "Dining Room." A picnic break here is well deserved!

For those who wish, a 10-meter descent through large boulders with some crawling passages leads to the underground river.
This first section from the entrance lake offers an excellent introduction to the underground world.

For the more adventurous and less sensitive to cold, we put on neoprene wetsuits to explore the river, which remains clear and limpid throughout, with a water temperature of 7 degrees.
The river journey resembles canyoning and may include a few small plunges and total immersions!

Note: The aquatic section is located far from the exit, so jumps and slides are intentionally small and optional to minimize the risk of accidents, which could be problematic in the cave.

The return journey retraces the path through the large gallery, with a few variations along the way.

The Gournier Cave experience is not a vertical caving route with abseils or rope climbs, like the Eymards Cave, but rather a horizontal exploration with a rare aquatic component.

The 8-hour caving day concludes with an optional final jump into the entrance lake for some, followed by a swim back to daylight and the warmth of the sun!