Photo : Ancalagon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Gorges de Kakuetta
The Kakuetta (or Kakouetta) gorges form a canyon about 2 kilometres long in the commune of Sainte-Engrâce, in Haute-Soule, in the Basque Country. Their walls, which rise in places to 350 metres high for a passage sometimes only a few metres wide, make them one of the most spectacular canyons of the western Pyrenees.
Discovered in 1906 by the speleologist and scientist Édouard-Alfred Martel, the gorges are visited today by a path equipped with metal walkways following the stream, up to the Grande Cascade which closes the route after about 2 hours' walk round trip. The damp, cool atmosphere of the canyon shelters special flora, among mosses, ferns and lime-loving plants.
Access to the site is paid (ticket office at the bar "la Cascade") and the site is open from mid-March to mid-November, from dawn to dusk; it is closed in winter because of the risks linked to floods and frost.
