Porcile Lakes

The starting point is in Val Lunga (the valley to the left of the built-up area of Tartano), near the contrada Arale, when the road ends in the locality of Scesure and path number 112 begins, near a hairpin bend. We are about 1500 m above sea level; here the path crosses a coniferous forest and, then, a series of meadows, with the dry stone walls, barek in dialect, that once delimited portions of pastureland and today tell of the agricultural-pastoral past of Val Tartano. Past Baita Bianca, one crosses a concrete footbridge over the Val Dordonella stream and a series of hairpin bends through cool underbrush. In the background is the murmur of the waters of the Tartano stream, which flow downstream, and just above, are to be crossed on a boulder path in the plain with the Casera Porcile (1803 m), A beautiful sloping meadow, blooming in fine weather, accompanies you toward the Baita Lares. At the fork, follow the path to the left. The path, marked with white-red markers, climbs up rock and path, among bushes and a few larches, until it reaches after a plateau the first lake, at an altitude of 2005 meters, called Piccolo. In sequence, the difference in elevation is modest, there are, each in its own basin, Lake Grande (2030 m) and a little further up, following the signs, Lake di Sopra (2095 m). The viewpoint Trail 101, indicated by a sign a few meters from the third lake, passing over the boulders of a ganda reaches the ridge and Tartano Pass (2108 m asl). It is on this border line between the province of Sondrio and the province of Bergamo that, looking towards Val Tartano, there is the best view of the Porcile lakes.