Pyrenees National Park

Chris Veldhuis
Jan 9, 2015
2 min read

Last summer, me and my hiking buddies did a great little trip in the Pyrenees and I was quite surprised by the undisputable beauty of the national park we visited: Pyrenees National Park. I always thought true natural beauty in Europe (without the ski lifts, cheesy chalets, crowded valleys and paved hiking routes) would only be found in Scandinavia. I also thought wildcamping would be impossible anywhere outside of Scandinavia. Both these prejudices were proven wrong here.

Our route started down in a valley with beautiful meadows and pine forests and went up into the mountains only to go down into another valley again. The weather was great as we covered the first miles of our hike and soon we were very near to the destination we had agreed upon for that day: Refuge du Wallon. We found a nice secluded spot in the forest and made camp.

The next day the path led us up a mountain. When we found a nice cascade with a little pool I decided to jump in, cool down and wash myself thoroughly. It was nice to be able to go into a river and not freeze to death, like you probably would in Norway.

As I got out of the water it started raining. Luckily, we were very close to our destination for the day at a height of 2200 meters. Weather conditions worsened once we were up there, and as soon as we had pitched our tents a thunderstorm erupted. It hailed so badly, I thought the stones would cut right through the canvas of my tent.

The next day, everything turned out to be fine. We started walking and reached the highest point of our route at 2596 meters. From now on, we would only go down, which I hated. We crossed the border with Spain, and were there for half an hour. This is what Spain looks like:

Back in France we descended into a gorgeous valley with a large glacier in the back (see the picture at the top). When I walked up to it I could see pieces of ice breaking off and rolling down. Powerful!

We would take another two days to walk back to the car. Which left us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the scenery.

I would certainly recommend going into the Pyrenees. I think it is wonderful to have the freedom of camping whereever you like in a beautiful national park like this on the European mainland. If I compare these mountains to the mountains of Norway, I would say there is more vegetation. I liked the forests and meadows in the Pyrenees.

There are several modest refuges, for example Refuge du Wallon and Refuge des Oulettes de Gaube. Both were available for sleeping and eating, but I would recommend making a reservation if you'd like to use their services.