Vanoise National Park | Val d’Isère : Alps ski resort and winter sports

A preserved space Between the high valleys of Tarentaise and Maurienne

There is not a hillside, a lake, a landscape that is not worth seeing in Val d’Isère.
Here, every summit is an encounter.

Val d’Isère allows you to enter a totally preserved natural area. Animals and flowers are more numerous; you will approach marmots, ibexes. You will probably see some chamois, or a golden eagle in full flight. You will survey the glaciers, green valleys, rivers, lakes and waterfalls.

This protected area between the high valleys of the Tarentaise and the Maurienne that makes hikers and mountaineers dream.

Vannoise National Park website

Some figures The Vanoise National Park is :

– A park core area of 535 km2

– 400 km of marked trails

– 5 nature reserves in the vicinity of the Park

– 1400 plant species including 65 protected species

– 40 refuges

– The largest French colony of ibex

First French National Park created in 1963

The Vanoise National Park is an authentic “green diamond in the rough” nestled in the heart of Savoy. The first French National Park created in 1963, in reaction to the near disappearance of the ibex in the Alps and following the Italian example of the creation of the Grand Paradis Royal Reserve as early as 1856 (and twinned since 1972), they form the largest protected area in Western Europe of 1250 km2 with maximum preservation: fauna, flora and mineral world. This territory concentrates a richness and diversity of species, both faunistic and floristic, thanks to the variety of environments, exposures and soils. A space of discovery and infinite wonderment!

Created to protect nature, the Park’s main mission today is to safeguard its landscapes, the diversity of its plant and animal species and its cultural heritage.

Its shelters to spend an unusual night

To discover the Park, take your time and spend a night in a refuge or stop for a meal or a drink. This way you can soak up the sights, share moments with family or friends, and meet the refuge keepers. In addition to offering you accommodation and food, the warden will ensure your safety in the mountains. Most of the refuges are guarded in the summer and some are guarded in the spring for ski or snowshoe hikers. Don’t hesitate to ask questions to the keeper before you leave or when you arrive at the hut, he is a knowledgeable mountain man who will be able to advise you and exchange with you on many subjects.

On your way to or from Val d’Isère, you will find two huts located in the Vanoise National Park: the Prariond refuge and the Fond des Fours refuge.

His animals that you will come across

The richness of the fauna of the Vanoise National Park is undeniable. We present here some of the animals living in the Park:

You will find game such as deer, roe deer, chamois and ibex, rodents such as the variable hare which changes color during the seasons, the marmot as well as various voles including the snow vole, the collared field mouse.

You may have the opportunity to observe foxes, badgers, martens, weasels, ermines, bats or even insectivores such as the aquatic shrew.

Then look up to the sky to meet one of the 125 species of birds nesting in Vanoise. Among them, the golden eagle, the crossbill, the nutcracker, the Tengmalm’s owl, the black flycatcher, the great horned owl, the rock robin, the black grouse, the rock partridge, the rock ptarmigan, the black woodpecker, the three-toed woodpecker (observed in France only in Savoie and Haute Savoie) and the tichodrome.

Its flora breathtakingly beautiful

From the pink of the rhododendron to the blue of the Alpine thistle or the gentian through the white of the Edelweiss, open your eyes because you’ll be amazed.

In 2014, 5000 species of plants were counted in metropolitan France. The Vanoise massif gathers 1700 species, that is to say a third of the flora of France on less than 0.5% of the national territory! This exceptional diversity can be explained by the variety of environments present to be linked to a strong variation in temperature according to altitude, to the panel of exposures as well as to the strong differences in the chemical compositions of rocks and soils.