A few minutes by car from the Vall de Boi is the Spanish National Park Aigüestortes i Estany Sant Maurici, the fourth national park I've been too (after
Picos de Europa, The
Galician Islands, and
Ordesa y Monte Perdido). It's name is Catalan for
Twisting Waters and Lake St. Maurice. Again, to get into this park you park outside and from there can take park transportation inside. But due to the winding trails, it's a van instead of a bus, and therefore much more expensive.
This time we opted to hike the entrance trail. It took a few hours, almost always uphill, and often following a river. The trail sometimes opened up to grassy, mossy pastures with pine trees and the ever-present mountain backgrounds. On our way into the park we passed one of the hundreds of lakes.
When we arrived to where the transportation would have dropped us off, we had lunch in the shade. Then we decided to continue towards Estany Llong, the closest lake on the map.On this hike we came across a herd of cattle grazing. Further on, there were so many streams crisscrossing, that they had built a wooden platform to cross the very alpine valley. Near the end of this trail was one of the shelters and then the rocky path got really steep really fast. Whew! I needed a rest before I could really take in the lake.
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| Estany Llong |
For the first leg of the hike, we passed many other hikers. Then on the second leg, towards the second lake, we only passed people going the opposite direction. So finally, on the way back from Estany Llong it was just us. And it started to drizzle. We took a final walk around the deck they have set up near the starting off point, and hopped in a group taxi back to the car.
