Vallee des Roches

The plateau between Ifrane and Azrou is limestone that has been weathered along its joints into freestanding blocks, pinnacles and low cliffs, scattered across open grazing meadow with cedar and holm oak around the edges - the local name for the area is the valley of the rocks, and it is a landscape rather than a single site. Some of the blocks have caves and rock shelters, several of which have been used and enlarged by people; the best known nearby is the Cave of Friouato in the Tazekka range further east, but there are smaller ones here that shepherds still shelter in. In spring the meadows between the rocks flower and the whole plateau is green, which is the season worth timing for; by late summer it is dry and brown. It is a walking and picnicking area rather than a managed reserve, and the roadside is where most people stop.

What you actually see

• Weathered limestone blocks - freestanding rock standing in open grazing meadow.
• Rock shelters - caves in some of the blocks, still used by shepherds.
• Spring meadows - green and flowering between the rocks from April.
• Cedar edges - the forest closing the plateau on its margins.

When to go

April to June for the flowering meadows. Two to three hours.

Honest expectations

There is no marked site, signage or facilities - it is roadside landscape. By late summer the meadows are dry and brown. Tracks off the road are rough. Litter at the popular pull-ins is a problem.

Nearby

Azrou and the Cedre Gouraud are south-west; Ifrane is north-east.