Université Grenoble Alpes’ alpine botanic garden at Col Du Lautaret closed for the winter last weekend, so we thought it was about the time to pay a visit on its last day of opening, although the season was already over — there were not too many plants flowering left. Also it was supposed to be the last summer weekend in Grenoble; the temperatures were expected to dramatically drop the this week. However, while it was a sizzling hot day here in town, in the morning when we left and at the mountain pass at 2100 meters it was nice and cool.

Rest stop at Pierre Châtel, between Laffrey and La Mure. It was barely +10C.

Getting to Col du Lautaret was a bit tricky, since the shortest and most convenient route was blocked because the tunnel by Lake Chambon collapsed last year — or at least that’s what we thought when we saw all the “detour” signs. Afterwards we found out that the tunnel was indeed closed, but there would have been a backup road. That would have saved us hours and at least a hundred kilometers.

La Mure.

Now we ended up driving a lot, but had a quite scenic tour of Isère and Hautes-Alpes via La Mure, Corps, Gap, and Briançon, with just little or no traffic.

Another rest stop. Finally the low hanging clouds started to disperse.

Lac du Sautet near Corps.

After Gap the landscape turned momentarily flat.

Some small touristy town after Briançon.

Approaching Col du Lautaret at 2057 meters.

Before visiting the botanical garden we had lunch at at the mountain pass: an omelet with ham and cheese,

and the pot of the day of spaghetti and meatballs. Both portions were huge!

La Meije (3984m) and Glacier de l’Homme viewed from Col du Lautaret.

The botanic garden had sections for all continents with Alpine regions and other areas with similar ecosystems (like Finnish Lapland). The garden was very informative, but unfortunately not many plants were flowering any more.

After a slow stroll through the garden we still felt quite heavy from the lunch, so we decided to take a short hike towards the glacier. The trail was very walkable with negligible ascent — the guide board at the trail head had promised 30 meters of climbing, but it certainly was more.

When we reached the point on the trail facing the glacier, we turned back. Even if the trail was quite comfortable, the steep slopes in all directions were quite vertiginous.

We took the road via Col du Galibier (2645m) back. With sharp turns and lack of barrier of any kind between the road edge and the steep and deep drop down to the valley, it was some knuckle-whitening 8-kilometer drive to the pass. Behind every turn there were motorists or cows, or both, coming up in the middle of the road.

Admiring the scenery was out of question for the driver (or the passenger for that matter)

A group of young Asian guys were taking a break on the top after having ridden their heavily loaded bikes up.

While the scenery on the other side of the pass was no less spectacular, the road was much more relaxing to drive.