The jagged peaks of the Upper Verdon
young rocks
In this high Verdon of jagged peaks, glacial cirques, ravines and scree, the landscape has been shaped by the assaults of a glacier that retreated only 15,000 years ago.
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From the white cliffs of the Gorges du Verdon to the black marls of Tartonne, from the sandstone chaos of Annot to the red gorges of Daluis, via the jagged needles of Haut-Verdon:a journey through 270 million years of earth history, plunging you into another dimension.
In this high Verdon of jagged peaks, glacial cirques, ravines and scree, the landscape has been shaped by the assaults of a glacier that retreated only 15,000 years ago.
A limestone plateau cut by a vertiginous canyon, gorges, clues and sheer cliffs that end in the waters of the Verdon. It will take you just a few minutes to explore this kingdom of white and grey limestone, created by nature 110 million years ago. The viewpoints along the Route des Crêtes are not the only ones to make you dizzy!
Hop, 60 km to the northeast, and we go from white to red. Here, it’s pelites: you’re plunging into the heart of the Gorges de Daluis, whose wine-colored rocks date back 270 million years. It’s like being on another planet.
In the neighbouring valley, 20 km further west, a chaos of randomly balanced boulders awaits you. And a jump to minus 40 million years. It was then, at a depth of 4,000 m, that underwater sand avalanches created the Annot sandstones.
The Annot sandstone is found at an altitude of 2,500 m, where it forms the Lac d’Allos Towers.
Just as an old tree preserves the memory of its growth and the life in its trunk, the Earth preserves the memory of the past… a memory inscribed in the depths and on the surface, in rocks, fossils and landscapes, a memory that can be read and translated.
Art.6 of the “International Declaration of the Rights of the Memory of the Earth” of Digne, 1991
You may think that nothing is more insignificant than a pebble, except for use in jewelry or construction. And yet… the fossils they contain are mines of information! From the springs to the Gorges du Verdon, our rocks are talkative. The geological reserve collects their stories of life before the memory of man, and shares them with us.
