Corsica 2011 – Lac de Nino (21st July)

For our second (and last) day in Niolo, we had planned a trip to Lac de Nino – one of five most famous Corsican lakes.

Start/finish Main POI Distance Max. elevation Min. elevation Track record
Maison Forestière de Poppaghia Lac de Nino 10 km 1762 m 1061 m GPX file

The track begins at Maison Forestière de Poppaghia (1061 m ASL), few kilometers down under Col de Verghio mountain pass. The hike is very well-known and so we met a lot of people there. It surprised me that most of them were French – usually tourists in Corsican mountains are mainly Germans, Czechs, Austrians and Slovenians.

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

Lac de Nino from Bocca â Stazzona

We set out from the parking place at 9:22 and set out to the south along the marked trail to Lac de Nino. At first it ascended quite gently through the beautiful pine forest of Valdu Niellu (“Black Forest” in English???); however, this changed after about 3 kilometers, when we came out of the forest near “Bergerie de Colga” (1412 m ASL).

The following ascent became much more steep and path was leading between stones and boulders on the direct sun. Furthermore, we had a little problem with orientation. There were cairn-stones everywhere, but not all of them were showing the correct trail. It was necessary to follow the orange marking, that  led us all the way up to Bocca â Stazzona (1762 m ASL), highest point of the track, where we got after hour and a half from the “bergerie” (the time includes some breaks).

Cows at "golf course" near Lac de Nino

Cows at "golf course" near Lac de Nino

From Bocca â Stazzona saddle we could already see our target, Lac de Nino (1743 m ASL). Getting to it was very easy and took us only about 15 minutes. The lake is very beautiful, especially because of a beautiful low grass around it, that reminds some well-maintained golf course. Of course noone is mowing it regularly with a lawn-mower – cows and horses, that can be easily seen around the lake, take care of it…

View to the valley and Paglia Orba

View to the valley and Paglia Orba

If you like by any chance geocaching, don’t miss the chance to log an GC2BKTN Lac Ninu/Lake Nino earthcache. Just take a photo of you or your GPS with the lake (not mandatory) and answer to a few really simple questions – answers to some of them you can find even here on this website…

Paglia Orba and Capu Tafunatu

Paglia Orba and Capu Tafunatu

We returned along the same way we used for getting here. During the descent I enjoyed view to the valley and to the opposite massif of Paglia Orba. I could even recognize a famous rock window of Capu Tafunatu, that is located nearby. It was a great compensation for the day before, when the “Corsican Matterhorn” was whole in clouds…

The whole trip took us 8.5 hours and was 10 kilometers long. The total ascent was 755 meters.


Here is the elevation diagram of the track (generated by my GPS altimeter and processed by Garmin BaseCamp application), please click on the miniature to see the diagram in a full size:

Elevation diagram - trip to Lac de Nino and back

Elevation diagram - trip to Lac de Nino and back

You can also look at the list of some important waypoints. You can download all of them in one GPX file.

Name Description Approx. Elev. Latitude Longitude
PARKING POPPAGHIA Parking at Maison Forestière de Poppaghia 1070 m N 42° 17.064′ E 8° 55.263′
BERGERIE DE COLGA Bergerie de Colga 1412 m N 42° 15.910′ E 8° 55.801′
BOCCA A STAZZONA Bocca â Stazzona saddle 1762 m N 42° 15.546′ E 8° 56.093′
LAC DE NINO Lac de Nino lake 1743 m N 42° 15.359′ E 8° 56.502′

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