Pellaud lake

A short excursion starts from Chanavey hamlet, crossing the bridge over the river, and follows for long stretches the cross-country skiing track that doesn't have to be trampled. You will cross many different environments, being able to observe some characteristic corners: the wood of larches and alder along the brook, the villages of Oreiller and Bruil, almost all refurbished by now, waiting for the typical mountain architecture, the valley's headquarter of the Park rangers in Bruil. Other than Bruil the path continues along the Dora di Rhemes, in all it's enchanting variability of mountain stream, to then meet a staircase that allows to overcome a rocky wall and arrive first in Chaudanne and then, skirting the village, to the Pellaud area, with its ponds inhabited by trout and red frogs, dipped in a secluded and bright grove..

Larches and pruces that encircle the lower lake, are also protectors and undisputed guardians for centuries: the pond, actually fleeting, could not exist if there wasn't that wood that with his shadow allows life to common frogs and trouts that require cold waters, while their branches give hospitality to red squirrels, chickadees, woodpeckers, crossbills and pine martens. In the upper lake there is the oldest hydro power unit of the valley, still with the construction date engraved on the lintel.

Way back from the outward path or by the road (in the absence of danger of avalanches), closed to vehicular traffic and left covered with snow until the entrance of the main village... Along the path, on the way, it will be easier to spot animals on the east-facing slope, that in spring allows the melting of snow earlier and, in the section between Bruil and Chanavey, it has rocky vertical areas often frequented by ibexes.

Not to be missed:
- Rhêmes Notre Dame Visitors Centre of the Gran Paradiso National Park
- Oreiller, Bruil, Chaudanne, Pont  and Pellaud villages
- dairy in Bruil
- mill furnace in Chaudanne (it's not possible to visit the furnace during winter)
- old hydroelectric plant in Pellaud