Col de Guéry

The Col de Guéry, at 1,268 m, is crossed on the D983, the road from Le Mont-Dore to Clermont-Ferrand, on the boundary between Orcival and Perpezat. From Orcival, it’s 7 km: the D27, then the D983 for the last kilometre and a half.

Park in the pass car park: the designated viewpoint is right there, with an orientation table and a picnic area. In front of you, to the north, the Roche Tuilière and the Roche Sanadoire, two giants of phonolite, that grey rock that rings under the hammer: the Sanadoire (nearly 1,290 m) owes its name to the “ringing rock”.

The two pinnacles are the remains of upwellings of viscous lava from the Aiguiller massif, about 2 million years ago, later exposed by erosion.

The Tuilière formed in a single pulse of lava: its regular organ-pipe columns split into thin slabs, the lauzes, which once covered the roofs and gave it its name. The Sanadoire, for its part, was built up by several successive pulses of lava.

Between the two, the Fontsalade valley, a trough carved by a former glacier. Behind you, just below the pass, the Lac de Guéry, the highest lake in Auvergne.