Lauzon lake (and Blue lake)

Located at the end of the enchanted valley of Valgaudemar, Lauzon lake and it’s little secret brother the “Blue lake” are two easy-to-reach hiking goals for everybody, starting at the Gioberney hut/hotel. All the pictures here were shot during a 4 days trip in the Ecrins mountains in june 2016. First part of this trip, the Lauzon lake hike is also the one that give the best glimpse of what to excpect in this National Park : snow caped summits at 360°.

The path that leads hikers to the Lauzon lake is the same that goes to the Pigeonnier refuge. Simply follow the trail to the refuge from the Gioberney hotel/hut and you will get there after one hour of a nice ascent. We did the hike by the “left trail” but the lake is also reachable by the “right one” as the trail is a loop (another good point).

Lauzon lake is a famous hike in summer and once you get there it is easy to understand why : snow summits, rocky slopes, green and strong nature… a little paradise hidden right in the middle of French Alps.

After having set up the camp, we decided to go for a small hike to find the Blue lake which is an off trail one. Indeed, the weather was too clear for my photography tastes with too much warm haze. The Blue lake was supposed to be 150 meters higher than the Lauzon lake, but this evening we were not lucky enough to find it. Anyway, the landscape is so gorgeous than we simply enjoy being there exploring around.

After a quiet night livined up by some wild goat growls wandering around their water supply, I woke up early before sunrise to try to find again the Blue lake. This time, I found it after a less than 30 minutes ascent following a wild pass in the grass on the left of the trail that goes from Lauzon lake to Pigeonnier refuge.

The Blue lake is very different from its brother : Lauzon is dark and deep, Blue is small with really clear waters. I stayed on its shores for the sunrise and like always in this case, I really enjoyed this simple but great pleasure of life : being alone in a quiet and wild place like this one. Few wild goats still to watch me for few minutes, but from their “classic” safe distance…

After a nice photos session at Blue lake, I came back to Lauzon to wake-up my brother and realized than this one is so much more beautiful seeing from above…

I think all these pictures will give you the best idea for a trip in this area : doing a hike to both lakes and not only stopping at Lauzon one. If you manage to find the Blue lake easily you can complete the whole loop in a duration of 1h30/1h45 (depending of the bags you carry…). And I’m pretty sure that seeing far in altitude the Pigeonnier refuge during all the hike will also make you want to visit it one day. Like me… Can’t imagine the view from there !

Map