Hiking the Lacs d’Ayous in the French Pyrenees

By Roberto (Updated Nov 22)

⏱ 6 min

Hello there! Some weeks ago by the end of May, we headed to the Pyrenees to do a short break and to stretch our legs with some hiking in the wonderful Lacs d’ Ayous route. The Lacs d’Ayous hike is a must if you are visiting the region of Vallée d’Ossau (in France) or Valle del Tena or Panticosa (in Spain). Let us show you what we did ☺️

Where are the Lacs d’Ayous and how to get there?

The Lacs d’Ayous are in Ossau Valley, in the French part of the Pyrenees. The name of the valley comes from the super cute mountain Midi d’Ossau, with a 2,884 m peak. The mountain is always visible, creating a pleasant view throughout the hike.

It’s quite easy to get there by car and the road is paved and in perfect condition. Driving time is 30 minutes from both Formigal and Laruns, depending on where you’re coming from.

Basic information about the main hike

One can do many different hikes in Ossau Valley, but the most famous hike is the Lacs d’Ayous route. There is another route starting in Astún, and other 2-day options in case you want to spend the night in the refuge. We’ll talk more about it later.

For the main hike:

• Distance: 16 km circular route
• Duration: 5 walking hours
• Elevation gain: 1000 m
• Difficulty: Medium, basically because its distance, with some hard parts
• Water: yes, in the Refuge for free
• WC: yes, in the Refuge for free
• Where to start the hike: Ok pay attention. There are 2 parking lots where you can park. One, small and next to the start of the hike is called Parking de Bious-Artigues. Unless you go early in the morning, before 9, you won’t find a free spot there. In case you are not an early bird like us, you will find much more space in another parking lot further away, that is before Parking de Bious-Artigues.

Starting the Lacs d’Ayous hike from Bious-Artigues

Once in the Parking de Bious-Artigues, where there are signs and posters with some info about the route, we can properly start the hike to the Lacs d’Ayous. Firstly, we’ll go South trough the GR 10 path to enter a forest. There are lots of shades thanks to the trees and we follow the river for 2 km.

After some minutes going gradually up, we will arrive to Bious Valley. The vast landscape opens and our sight loses at its end with peaks. Here, you’ll see a bridge crossing the river which marks the intersection of the loop. There are two options now: going left (boring and demanding towards the end) or going right (with refreshing lakes).

Going up to the Lacs d’Ayous

Of course we opted for the right way, following again the GR 10. This path goes up, up and up zig-zagging through a forest, giving you nice views of the Midi d’Ossau. Everything was green for us, thanks to it being springtime. In addition, we found snow on the mountains, which provided a marvelous picture. We absolutely recommend doing this hike in late spring because of this.

If we keep going up, we’ll have our first encounter with the lake. In this case, with Lac Roumassot. Don’t expect something sooo amazing, but the views are nice and so is the waterfall next to it. From there, we have an incredible view from the Midi d’Ossau.

The marvellous Lac Gentau

Our next stop is (in my opinion) the cutest lake from the route. Lac Gentau offers a wide open esplanade where you can lay and rest wherever. Some people were even swimming! The water was cold AF.

Nature has done an amazing job here. All the area seems to be fake with its perfect grass and surrounded by the mountains. Also, there is the Refuge d’Ayous which works as a perfect lookout, where you can buy food, drinks, use their tables or the WC. The refuge looked clean and well maintained. Be aware they don’t accept cash!

➡️ All the info about Refuge d’Ayous.

After a long 1-hour break, some postal pics and having our lunch, we headed to the next lake: Ellen’s favourite.

Completing the loop

Leaving the refuge behind and going up again, trough a zig-zag path, we continue the GR 10 until getting to the biggest lake, Lac Bersau. Thanks to being at more than 2000 meters, the snow was laying on the slopes and the ice melting in the water. The scene was epic.

At this point, we started to feel tired because of the heat. Even with the snow and fresh wind, it was really sunny and decided to move faster to go back to the starting point. Remember that bridge from the beginning crossing the river? That’s where we are going now.

The last lake and the way back

In order to go there, we have to go down trough a rocky and steep path, but we’ll do it with the company of impressive views from Pic Casterau, with Midi d’Ossau at the end and the next lake in front of us. We have to go all the way back to the Bious Valley, and we’ll cross the last lac d’Ayous, Lac Castérau.

This lake looked a bit less amazing than its superior brothers, but still cute as a stop to catch the breath. After descending for a half hour, we arrive in the precious valley, surrounded by green grass and following the river back to where we began.

In our case, we were gifted with nice sunlight and took some more photos before going back to the parking. Finally, we reach the track that brought us to the bridge, and follow it back to where everything started.

This is how we ended our superb hike of the day, and headed back to Sallent de Gallego, ready for a warm shower and a delicious dinner at Gran Pic restaurant.

Other hikes in Spain: