Piano Grande 5 km
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 3.09 mi
- Elevation gain
- 144 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Easy
- Elevation loss
- 144 ft
- Max elevation
- 4,254 ft
- TrailRank
- 65
- Min elevation
- 4,135 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- one hour 16 minutes
- Coordinates
- 512
- Uploaded
- May 19, 2014
- Recorded
- May 2014
near Castelluccio, Umbria (Italia)
Viewed 8638 times, downloaded 174 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
The hike starts where the road from Norcia/ the Rifugio Perugia (SP477) has descended to the Piano Grande and turns right for a straight 3.5 km crossing of the plateau. You follow a track on the grass parallel to the mountains towards the l'Inghiottitoio (see waypoint), or ponor in English. This is where a stream which starts on the plateau disappears below the mountain. This stream has carved a small valley in the plateau which gives the plateau a breathtaking wildness at low light as seen from the SP477 (see waypoint ‘viewpoint’). After having visited the point where the water mysteriously disappears, you go back upstream and follow the gorge on a small trail. The water flows through small lakes and little waterfalls here and there. You follow the gorge for about 2.5 km upstream while the gorge gets shallower and finally disappears. From this point you go back to the starting point across the grass (you will not find a real path here).
The grass was wet and the trail in the gorge was also muddy during my walk in the beginning of May, so watertight shoes might be advantageous, although I do not know how it is in summer. You cannot buy anything during the hike, the nearest place is Castelluccio.
Waypoints
Information point
0 ft
L'Inghiottitoio
L'Inghiottitoio (or ponor in English) is a place where water disappears in the ground. The stream which originates on the Piano Grande, and has carved a gorge in the plateau, streams towards the mountain only to disappear in a hole in the ground. Nobody knows where this water resurfaces.
Information point
0 ft
Start of stream
When you have walked to the end of the little gorge you have to turn left to go back to the starting point. There are no real trails here, so you have to follow your own course through the grass.
Information point
0 ft
Starting Point
You just park off the road here. There is a track on the grass here, but it is forbidden to take your own car on the plateau. There is enough room to leave your car, though.
Information point
0 ft
Stream
You walk here in the gorge cut out by the stream. There are little lakes, sometimes reflecting snowy peaks, small waterfalls and marsh-like places. It can be muddy.
Panorama
0 ft
Viewpoint
Coming from the pass near the Rifugio Perugia on the Strada Provinciale Di Castelluccio (SP477) you have a magnificent view of the Piano Grande, and the Monti Sibillini. On some spots along the road there is a small lay-by, easiest parking is at the pass. Most pictures I took during the early morning and the gorge the stream has cut out of the plateau is best visible. When I came back later that day, the gorge is not as spectacularly visible as when the light is low.
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