Andorra · AD

Estany Basseta

Estany Basseta is one of Andorra's small high-mountain tarns, a still glacial pool tucked into the rugged lake country of the country's south-east, on the Escaldes-Engordany and Encamp side of the Pyrenean crest. Reached on foot and set well above the tree line, it belongs to the cluster of granite cirques and mirror-like ponds that make this corner of the principality a quiet playground for hikers. The name 'basseta' simply means a little pond, and that is exactly what you find here: a compact sheet of dark water fringed by rock and alpine pasture, in the company of several other tarns. The payoff is not one grand lake but the feeling of a whole high landscape at your feet — open water, wind-scoured granite and long views toward the ski ridges of Grandvalira and the road that climbs toward France.