Dades Valley

Pink is the dominant note — pink kasbahs perched on canyon ledges, pink sandstone cliffs streaked with iron oxide, pink roses carpeting the valley floor each spring. The Dadès River has carved a serpentine course through the rock, leaving behind a landscape that alternates between tight gorge and open valley, with Berber villages occupying every viable terrace. Almond blossoms add white accents in February. By May, the air is thick with rose perfume from the cooperatives processing petals into water and oil.

The Dadès Valley extends roughly 25 kilometres from Boumalne Dadès into the High Atlas, following the Dadès River through a canyon system of rose-pink sandstone. The valley is the heart of Morocco's rose-growing region — the annual Rose Festival in Kelaat M'Gouna each May celebrates a harvest that produces rose water, rose oil, and rose-scented cosmetics for export. Kasbahs in various states of repair dot the canyon walls, some converted to guesthouses, others slowly returning to earth. The famous hairpin bends of the Dadès Gorge road — a series of switchbacks carved into the rock face — begin roughly 25 kilometres north of Boumalne Dadès.