أوكايمدن في الأطلس الكبير

The road to Oukaïmeden climbs from the Ourika turn-off through Berber villages to a plateau at 2,600 meters, the highest ground in Morocco reachable in an ordinary car. It takes under two hours and the last forty minutes are switchbacks.

In winter the plateau holds snow and the village fills with families sledging and renting boots. The resort's chairlift has been out of service for several seasons and the announced rebuild has slipped more than once, so we do not sell lift-served skiing here.

From April the plateau turns into walking country: shepherds' huts, ice-scoured slabs, and a set of Bronze Age rock carvings of daggers and oxen that few visitors stop for. Lunch is at a mountain auberge. It is a walkers' day, and the one to take in July when the plain is too hot to be in.