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WALK 2

Refuge des Merveilles (2111m: 6926ft)

Start	Lac des Mesches (1390m: 4560ft)
Valley base	St-Dalmas or Tende
Distance	12km (7½ miles) round trip
Total ascent	721m (2365ft)
Time	2¾hrs up, 2hrs down
Map	Didier Richard 9 ‘Mercantour’ 1:50,000

Refuge des Merveilles is one of the busiest of all huts in the Maritime Alps, thanks to the proximity of literally thousands of prehistoric rock engravings, a number of which are thought to have been chipped into slabs along the Vallée de Merveilles about 3000 BC. A search for some of these pictographs will add considerably to a visit to the Merveilles refuge, and time should be allowed for this. However, the hut approach in itself makes for a rewarding walk, for the scenery in the lower Vallée de la Minière is lush and pastoral, while the upper valley sparkles with tarns. If you plan to spend a night at the hut, you are advised to phone ahead to check that there’s room – especially in the main season and at weekends, when space is at a premium.

Refuge des Merveilles is one of the busiest of all huts in the Maritime Alps, thanks to the proximity of literally thousands of prehistoric rock engravings, a number of which are thought to have been chipped into slabs along the West of St-Dalmasde-Tende in the Vallée de la Roya, a narrow road (summer bus service) extends for 10km to Lac des Mesches where there are five parking ‘bays’ on the west side. The walk begins by a notice board at parking bay number 1, where a path rises into larchwoods and after some long switchbacks joins a rough jeep track by a National Park information office. Just beyond, on the right-hand side of the stream, stands Refuge Neige de Merveilles (20mins).

Follow the track upstream on the south side of the Vallée de la Minière, soon overlooking an attractive lake. A little over an hour after setting out enter the Mercantour National Park and continue rising gently among larchwoods for another half-hour until you reach a small stone hut by a left-hand hairpin. A trail breaks away from the track at this point offering a shorter, but more demanding, ascent and is recommended. It climbs a short distance, then cuts to the right before resuming the climb alongside some cascades. Rising among slabs, gain height through increasingly rocky terrain until you cross a minor ‘saddle’ and come to a path junction. Bear left and soon rejoin the track, which you follow into a region of tarns leading to the hut.

Lac Long and Refuge des Merveilles

Refuge des Merveilles has places for 75 and meals provision when it is manned – usually from mid-June to the end of September, and at weekends during school holiday periods. (Tel: 04 93 04 64 64, www.cafnice.org) Located on the south bank of Lac Long, it is linked with Refuge de Valmasque (see Walk 1) by a trail which crosses the Baisse de Valmasque at the head of the Merveilles valley.

To vary the return to Lac des Mesches, follow the track all the way (2hrs). This gives surprisingly fine views, especially in its upper reaches. But you should also allow a minimum of 2½hrs to explore part of the narrow Vallée des Merveilles northwest of the hut where many fine pictographs are to be found, then return along the north side of Lac Long to rejoin the track east of the refuge.