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Difficulty level: tourist hike (T). The whole trail is on a quiet, long dirt road without particular differences in height.
Characteristics: panoramic path dedicated to the forestry, fauna, botanical and ornithological aspects.
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Download the GPX formatDon’t miss a hike in the green Deiva regional forest, an area of great natural value, recognized as a Site of Community Importance (SCI). This is an easy ring-route, recently equipped as one of the “nature trails” of the Park.
After entering the gate and crossing the Giovo stream, take the dirt road that passes in front of the Casa del Custode (Keeper’s House), former Bigliati’s hydraulic sawmill. The street penetrates into a wood of Norway and Douglas spruces. The barking and the dry mud of the trunks point out to the passage of wild boars. The path goes up among tall robinias, maples and hornbeam until it reaches a bend. Scotch and black pines grow on the right, while the path on the left leads to a short meander of the Giovo stream. Back on the trail, after a few hairpin bends, you reach a stretch guarded by stonewalls; a few withered trees and an old post on the left display several holes, carved by a great spotted woodpecker. In the pine forest one can more easily spot the numerous coal mice and a few long-tailed tits. Ignore the road on the left, that leads to a hill and to Castello Bellavista (478), whose outline you can discern behind the large durmast and cedar trees. Shortly after the fork is the start of the ring-route that encompasses the highest peaks of Deiva, laid out north to south:Bric della Rama, Cima di Deiva and Bric di Salmaceto. Turn left into a flat dirt road that covers, on the east side, the foothill of Bric Rocche Turchine (603) and Bric della Croce (621), facing the Beigua mountain.
Among the outcropping rocks, reforestation cluster pines take root here. Behind the panorama on the Sassello hill, the dirt road passes beyond the town of Palorei and its meadows, and continues flat Southward, above the Bonuzzo stream valley.
At the foothill of Bric di Salmaceto, the entrances to the old copper mines are hidden among the swathing vegetation. Once you get beyond a small waterfall, ignore the path on the left that gets to Giovo Mountain and to the Lodrino forts. Instead go down into a stretch rich with sweet smelling daphne until you reach the west side of the hill. The trail at first 10skirts the Tibere stream, revealing a sidecovered in thicker forest in comparison to that on the east of Deiva. Roe and fallow deers find a shelter in this mixed leaf wood. After crossing a river and passing around the Sorite del Groppe hill, you come across a beautiful wood of beeches, and later one of chestnut tree. Carry on straight and, under the northern slopes of Bric Riondo (620), you will meet a new junction that in less than 30 minutes will bring you to the Casa della Giumenta (House of the Mare). Nearby here the Ente del Parco (Park Authorities) retrieved an old dryhouse and equipped a green area as an open-air naturalistic workshop. Continue to the right, among reforestation cluster pines and outcropping rocks, and you will get to Castello Bellavista, where the ring-route closes and goes back down towards the access to the forest.
