The route leads mainly through woodlands but it gives you the opportunity to see a number of different environments regularly inhabited by the park’s red deer. In fact, this is a crucial area for the species as it represents one of the red deer’s main breeding areas within the Emilian Apennines.
The route is not challenging from a technical perspective, although it is rather long.
The route starts at the park’s visitor center in Poranceto and takes you across extensive grasslands, where you’re likely to hear the bellowing of the adult stags in early fall. Once you’ve arrived at Barbamozza, climb through the beech and chestnut forests until you reach the village ruins at Luogo Umano. Head down through replanted spruce woods to Bargi. Once you’ve reached the grasslands along the base of Mount Stagno’s slopes it’s time to head back to Lake Brasimone, passing through a series of meadows, glades and woods. This array of vegetation at this altitude is the red deer’s ideal habitat: the woods providing shelter and the fields providing food.
It’s not uncommon to see them grazing in the open fields in the morning or evening. This time, once you’re back at Barbamozza, take the small paved road that runs along the banks of the Brasimone Stream, then to the lake and finally back to Poranceto.
