Branded Content by Cosmic Press

The Pyrenees are full of natural spectacles that would be world-famous if they lay in the Alps. Chief among them is the Cirque de Gavarnie, a vast natural amphitheatre of rock and ice that has drawn travellers for centuries. It is the perfect starting point for a tour of the range’s greatest wonders.

The Cirque de Gavarnie

The Cirque de Gavarnie is the crown jewel of the French Pyrenees and one of the most extraordinary natural features in Europe. A perfect semicircular amphitheatre carved by ancient glaciers, its walls rise in three great tiers to a height of some 1,500 metres, ringed by peaks that top 3,000 metres and mark the border with Spain. Down its central face tumbles the Grande Cascade, the highest waterfall in mainland France at 422 metres, fed by melting snow and ice above.

The cirque has inspired writers and painters for generations; Victor Hugo famously described it as the “Colosseum of nature,” and it is easy to see why. The walk from the village of Gavarnie to the foot of the cirque is gentle and suitable for almost anyone, following a broad path up the valley to a viewpoint beneath the great walls. For those with more energy and experience, trails climb out of the cirque towards the high passes and into Spain, opening up some of the finest walking in the entire range.

Ordesa and Monte Perdido

Just across the border in Spain lies the Ordesa y Monte Perdido National Park, the cirque’s Spanish counterpart and every bit as spectacular. Centred on the great limestone massif of Monte Perdido, the third-highest peak in the Pyrenees, the park is a landscape of deep canyons, high waterfalls, and dramatic cliffs. The Ordesa Canyon itself is a magnificent glacial valley walled by towering rock faces, with a well-marked trail running its length past a series of waterfalls to the natural amphitheatre at its head.

Together, the Cirque de Gavarnie and the Ordesa park form a single UNESCO World Heritage Site straddling the French-Spanish border, and the terrain between them, crossed by high passes like the famous Brèche de Roland, a natural gap in the ridge said to have been cut by the sword of the legendary knight Roland, is among the most dramatic in the Pyrenees.

The Néouvielle Lakes

Not all the wonders of the Pyrenees are on such a monumental scale. The Néouvielle Nature Reserve, east of Gavarnie, is a landscape of a gentler kind of beauty: a high plateau scattered with dozens of glittering alpine lakes, ringed by granite peaks and ancient pine forests that include some of the highest-growing trees in Europe. Walking here, among the lakes and the pines with the peaks reflected in the still water, is one of the great quieter pleasures of the range, and a wonderful contrast to the grandeur of the great cirques.

The Wildlife of the High Pyrenees

Part of what makes these landscapes so special is that they remain genuinely wild. The high Pyrenees are home to some of Europe’s most impressive wildlife, and few sights are more thrilling than a griffon vulture wheeling on the thermals above the cirque, or a group of izards, the Pyrenean chamois, picking their way across a distant scree slope. Marmots whistle from the boulder fields, golden eagles patrol the ridges, and the range is even home to a small and carefully protected population of brown bears. This sense of walking through a living wilderness sets the Pyrenees apart from the more tamed landscapes of the Alps.

Seeing It for Yourself

The great wonders of the Pyrenees are best experienced on foot and over several days, moving between the cirques and the valleys and crossing the high passes that link France and Spain. The area around Gavarnie and Ordesa is the natural place to concentrate a walking trip, with a network of mountain refuges making multi-day routes possible through some of the most spectacular terrain in the range.

Planning a route through this remote high country takes some experience and organisation, which is why many walkers choose organised pyrenees hiking tours that link the great wonders of the range into a coherent multi-day journey, handling the refuge bookings and route planning so you can focus on the extraordinary scenery. Whether you come for a single gentle walk beneath the Grande Cascade or a full traverse of the high peaks, the wonders of the Pyrenees repay the effort many times over.