The route
The start is the Cilaos tourist office, rue Mac-Auliffe, where you can park. Without a car, Alternéo bus line 60 runs from the Saint-Louis bus station up to the "Cilaos Ville" stop. Take the rue du Père Boiteau, then the rue de la Chapelle at the "La Chapelle / Îlet à Cordes" sign. A flight of steps, then a concrete lane lead down to the "Sentier de la Chapelle" sign, where the hike begins. Until the road opened in 1973, this path was the only way from Cilaos to Îlet à Cordes.
The path goes down, crossing the Ravine Henri Dijoux five times, lined with red-rooted filaos, an introduced and invasive tree. You pass fields of lentils, grown in Cilaos since 1857. At the "la Chapelle" junction, turn right and climb under the eucalyptus to a ridge facing the Piton de Sucre. The path then drops to the Bras Rouge.
The rest is in the river, which you follow upstream along its banks. There are no more waymarks, only a few cairns: you cross the stream, step over large boulders and sometimes climb them. The Park advises the left bank, which is the only way into the heart of La Chapelle at the end. At the far end, a large pool whose level varies may force you to swim. You come back the same way, with the climb to the village at the end of the day.
The Piton de Sucre is the roof of an ancient magma chamber, formed 200,000 to 100,000 years ago about 1.5 km below the summit of the Piton des Neiges of the time. The magma cooled slowly, deep down, into a pale rock, syenite. The Park points out that it is very rare anywhere in the world to be able to walk into a magma chamber exposed by erosion. The site is part of the UNESCO World Heritage property "Pitons, cirques and remparts". The river's pebbles tell the story: gabbros, oceanites, "roche pintade", trachytes. Colonies of swiftlets, small birds that glue their nests to the rock, nest on the walls, and hot springs leave red iron deposits, as they do further up at the Bras Rouge.
Good to know
The Park rates the trail totally unsuitable in rainy weather and warns of a high, potentially deadly risk of flooding on the Bras Rouge. Never go into the canyon if it has rained or if rain is forecast, even upstream: the mud marks on the walls show how high the water rises. The rocks are slippery, so is the canyon floor, and rockfall at the foot of the Piton de Sucre is a reminder of the risk of falling stones. Bring a torch, warm clothes, a waterproof and something to walk in the water. Closed after Cyclone Garance in 2025, the trail was reopened by the ONF. RandoMafate shows ONF closures and the weather for the day before you set off, keeps the map and your position offline at the bottom of the gorge, and the people close to you follow your outing on a simple web page.
Plan this hike in RandoMafate
The trail map offline, elevation to the metre, ONF closures and the weather for the day, and the people close to you told when you set off and when you are back.
RandoMafate
