Ifrane National Park

The park covers around 125,000 hectares of the Middle Atlas and holds the Atlas cedar, Cedrus atlantica, in the largest concentration anywhere - the forest around Azrou and the Cedre Gouraud stand is the emblem of it, with trees several hundred years old and some of very large girth. The other resident is the Barbary macaque, and this is where most visitors see one: troops live along the road between Ifrane and Azrou and have been fed by passing cars for so long that they now depend on it, which has damaged their health and behaviour and is the single biggest problem the park has. Feeding them is prohibited and should not be done, however insistently they ask. The park also has volcanic lakes - dayet in local usage - forested valleys, and Ifrane town itself, built in the 1930s with alpine roofs and now unlike anywhere else in Morocco.

History

The park was conceived in 1994 and established in October 2004 with 53,800 hectares, was enlarged in April 2008 to take in wetlands and high-altitude forest, and now covers 125,000 hectares; in 2021 Barbary sheep and crested porcupines were reintroduced (Wikipedia, Ifrane National Park).

Highlights

• The world's largest cedar forest - outside the Himalaya, Atlas cedar in depth.
• Roadside macaques - habituated troops, and the harm that feeding them has done.
• Volcanic lakes - dayet scattered through the forested plateau.
• Ifrane town - built in the 1930s with steep alpine roofs, unlike anywhere else here.

When to go

Spring and autumn; winter for snow in the cedars. A day.

What to expect

Do not feed the macaques - it is prohibited and it is what has damaged them. Vendors sell peanuts for exactly that purpose at the roadside; buying them makes it worse. Lake tracks are rough. Winter snow closes some routes.

Nearby

Azrou is south; Fes is north.

Key facts