France scenic viewpoint
Col de la Forclaz
You can see 63 km from here, looking north-west.
Calculating the panorama…
Drag to turn around. The relief is drawn 2.2 times taller so the ridges can be read; far ridges are paler, as in the real air.
The view
Up to 63 km away.
Calculated on the relief one degree at a time, up to 250 km, with the curvature of the Earth and the refraction of the air: what stands above the horizon from here.
Our own rating, from the relief and the climate only: open horizon (35 points), how far you see (25), sea and named peaks in view (20) and clear months (20).
- 63 kmFarthest ridgelooking north-west
- 88%Open horizonof the circle where the horizon is below your eyes
- 33Peaks in viewnamed summits that rise above the relief in front
- 1,178 mAltitudeabove the sea, at the highest point of the viewpoint
The 33 peaks you can name from here
From west to east as you turn around: height, distance and direction. Each one links to its guide on Peakyas, our mountain atlas.
From the relief only: buildings, trees and haze are not in the model. On a hazy day you see much less; 250 km is the limit of our calculation.
The sun
The best sunsets are from July to September.
When the sun really disappears from this viewpoint — behind the relief or into the sea — and in which direction, on the 15th of each month, in local time.
- Jansouth-west26 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Febwest20 min before the sea-level sunset26%
- Marwest18 min before the sea-level sunset30%
- Aprwest10 min before the sea-level sunset31%
- Maynorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset27%
- Junnorth-west6 min before the sea-level sunset34%
- Julnorth-west4 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Augwest6 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Sepwest14 min before the sea-level sunset40%
- Octwest18 min before the sea-level sunset32%
- Novsouth-west24 min before the sea-level sunset25%
- Decsouth-west30 min before the sea-level sunset24%
- Time: when the sun goes behind the horizon you see from here.
- Minutes: how much earlier the relief hides the sun.
- %: share of clear sky that month (NASA, 2001–2020).
The highlighted months are the clearest. Golden hour starts about an hour before.
The place
Col de la Forclaz.
Mountain pass in Haute-Savoie, France
Col de la Forclaz is a scenic viewpoint in France, 1,178 m above the sea.
On a clear day the farthest ridge you can see is 63 km away, looking north-west.
33 named peaks rise above the relief in front; the most prominent is La Tournette (2,350 m), 4 km away.
The horizon is open, below your eyes, over 88% of the circle.
The skies are clearest from July to September.
Get there and stay
- Camping La Fermecampsite · 3.1 km · 45 within 10 km
- Gîte de Pré Verelplace to stay · 2.2 km · 92 within 10 km
- Doussardnearest town · 4.0 km in a straight linePlaces to stay in DoussardBooking.com · sponsored link↗
- Annecy Meythet airport (NCY)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 18 km in a straight lineCar hire at GVA airport (Geneva)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
A guided tour, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above
The viewpoint and its surroundings.
The satellite image of the 6 × 6 km around the viewpoint, with what OpenStreetMap shows nearby.
Around, in OpenStreetMap
- 59other viewpoints within 5 kmLa Tournette, Rocher du Roux (Panorama), La Serraz and 56 more
- 23named peaks within 5 kmLa Tournette, Roc Lancrenaz, Roche Murraz and 20 more
- 9cable car and funicular stations within 5 kmPlan Bois, Baby du Col and 7 more
- 74marked trails within 3 kmTour du Lac d'Annecy, GR 96, La Tournette and 71 more
- 20shelters and huts within 5 kmCabane d'Arclosan and 19 more
- 59car parks within 3 km
- 4visitor centres within 5 kmReception, Office de Tourisme and 2 more
- 23restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- 45campsites within 10 kmCamping La Ferme, Le Taillefer, Camping du Lac and 42 more
- 92places to stay within 10 kmGîte de Pré Verel, La Maison de Marie, Hôtel Arcalod and 89 more
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet.
In our other atlases
What you see from Col de la Forclaz, and what is near.
Everything around this viewpoint — mountains, water, forests, birds, caves and the night sky — in the family's atlases.
Peakyas134 mountains within 25 km
Canyonyas1 canyons within 20 km
Cascadyas6 waterfalls within 15 kmFigures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, OpenStreetMap, GBIF). Links open when each site is online.
Photographs
The view, as people saw it.
Other viewpoints nearby.
Col de la Forclaz
France
- 55Viewyas Score
- 63 kmFarthest ridge
- 33Peaks in view
- 1,178 mAltitude
Mont Blanc
France · 48 km
- 77Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 1,263Peaks in view
- 4,791 mAltitude
Chaîne des Fiz
France · 46 km
- 76Viewyas Score
- 236 kmFarthest ridge
- 778Peaks in view
- 2,694 mAltitude
Aiguille du Midi
France · 50 km
- 76Viewyas Score
- 249 kmFarthest ridge
- 669Peaks in view
- 3,685 mAltitude
Where these figures come from
| Name and type | Wikidata (Q8559760) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Sun | J. Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms |
| Peaks in view | Peakyas (Wikidata, CC0) |
| Panorama and altitude | Copernicus DEM GLO-90 / GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Clouds | NASA POWER (CERES SYN1deg, 2001–2020; MERRA-2) |
| What is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Sister atlases | Peakyas, Lakeyas, Canyonyas, Cascadyas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
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