Location Fonti Minerali, Ceresole Reale – Noasca

Ceresole Fonti 1501 m – quota 2000 sopra la Cà Bianca – vallone del Roc – Noasca 1058 m

A pleasant and easy hike, that begins in the Park environment and then crosses old hamlets placed on the extreme limit of the cultivable stripe. These are proofs of a very intense populating that reached its highest level around the middle of the nineteenth century.

From the Mineral Springs Cross the stream and continue along the road until you cross the state road, turn left onto the carriage road. In Broc, immediately after the two short hairpin bends, take the EPT 542 mule track on the right to the Giraudo bivouac; (pass the Borgata Moies) it climbs in hairpin bends on the left side of the Valle dell’Orco, in a beautiful larch forest, passing near the Truc, Visiret and Reposa granges, with pleasant glimpses of the Crousionay forest which extends on the other side of the valley. At an altitude of 1942, almost at the edge of the woods, you reach a beautiful shelf, on the edge of which the granges of the Cà Bianca overlook; the panorama from here is very extensive, especially over the Levanne group. Climb further north for a few minutes, up to the isolated grange of Prà del Cres 2002 m: here you leave the EPT 542 path which continues to the left towards the Giraudo bivouac and Colle Sià, and turn right. towards the east, along the main valley, proceeding on a slight slope and then slightly downhill. After having descended a bit among raspberries and blueberries and sparse larches (ignore a forest path that goes up on the left), the path runs almost on the edge of the large rocky cliffs that overlook the Noasca-Ceresole road on the right, having on the left the summit of the Mérola (anti-avalanche steps). On the pastures that run along the path you can observe various species of flowers, including arnica, igricelis, deonyx. After a short climb up to almost 2000 m on the watershed of the eastern ridge of the Merola, 2.30 hours, you enter the Roc valley, in a cooler and shadier area (in pleasant contrast with the pastureland environment traveled so far), particularly rich in fauna and frequented by chamois. The path, beaten by the mountain pasture cattle, becomes more evident, it descends into a mixed forest which becomes increasingly thicker and somewhat infested with green alder, until it comes out near an alp located on a hilltop almost at the bottom of the valley, from which short valley to the Roc torrent near the granges of Borgo Vecchio 1567 m, nestled in a suggestive valley barred by a bastion, from which a beautiful waterfall descends, and in the direction of which the Carforon and the Tresenta soar, 0.50 hours. Having crossed the stream on a bridge, you go up a little on the orographic left and head towards the east, touching on an interesting itinerary various successive cultivated shelves, located on balconies supported by rocky barriers, where there are as many villages as Potes, Cappelle, Mola, Maison , Varda 1525 m. These are settlements once inhabited all year round by large families of mountain dwellers who led a life of isolation in the winter, often blocked by heavy snowfalls and avalanches which made the very connection between the various villages and access for schoolchildren problematic. to the school, located in Maison. The houses are very close together, almost for greater protection, but in reality to take up as little space as possible on the cultivable shelves. Various houses have frescoes of religious subjects on their walls (perhaps painted by the same hand of an itinerant artist). After Varda, 1525 m, you descend along a mostly paved or paved mule track, which leaves the Roc valley to enter the lower part of the Ciamousseretto valley. You descend on the right side of the valley, parallel to the stream, in whose bed the large granite blocks dragged by the waters or transported by avalanches stand out. You arrive a short distance from Noasca which can be reached along the carriage road. In the small square on the right you reach the Ristobar Gran Paradiso stopover point 1501 m; 1.40 hours.

From Noasca, leaning against a high rocky barrier, you can admire the beautiful and famous Noaschetta waterfall, which descends from the cliffs above. It is possible to reach its feet, if you wish to observe it up close, by following a path that winds first behind the church and then through a meadow.