Tinerhir Things to Do

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A village or two after Ait Haini the paved road stops, and it becomes as the moroccans say; "piste" That means unpaved road with big holes, big stones and the whole thing.
After this specific village (ask in the village) you'll have to turn right direction of the mountains. As the road stops, you'll get out of the car and start walking for about 30-40 minuts. You'll pass a waterfall, and some irrigation system. Some young boys will lead you to the salt mines. They can't be missed actually, as you'll see many donkey's coming back from that direction, fully loaded with salt stones.
You can visit the mines, there are people working with big axes into the walls to remove the salt blocks.
You won't see much (probably none) other visitors here. No admission, but you can give some dirhams to the young boys or the workers to lead you around.

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We hired a grand taxi (Hassan) with driver to explore the Todra vally. We drove about 50km's into this wide vally, and came through stunning berber villages. First we reached the berber village of Tamtattouche. Further on we reached Ait Haini and some even smaller village we don't even know the name of.
Many shepherds and cattle in the mountains, and many children waving at you.
We felt as if we were in mountain villages in Nepal again. People looked diffrent, villages looked diffrent as in the moroccan city's.
Unique experience

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Beautifully situated. Just follow the narrow road from Tinerhir to the Todra Gorge. After 15 km you'll reach the gorge. The walls of the Atlas mountains rise 300meters high at his narrowest point. A smaal river (todra river) is running through it. Many moroccan family's picknick in the gorge. The stone is pink to yellow and the walls rise high above you. This is one of the highlights if this region.
The gorge is easily accesible by car or by foot. Stunning sights. After the narrow gorge, the vally becomes wider , and there are intresting Berber villages in the Todra vally.

After the turning the bend, away from the crowded first few hundred meters, we had to walk on a very dull road and saw ... nothing.

As said, there was no mre water, the burn was burning and the scenery wasn't that spectacular.

We had trouble finding some shade to picnic and returned after half an hour.

Advice: don't do it in august

From Tinerhir, it's best to take Grand Taxi for 6 dirham per person.

At the entrance of the Gorges (free) you find some stalls to buy food, water but also some restaurants.

The first few hundreds meters were along some small river but were very crowded. Lots of local come there to picnic and we wanted to go to a quieter place.

But, after the first bend, there were no more people but no more water also...

Tinerhir is a good place to buy Berber carpets and rugs, and there will be no shortage of people offering to sell you one. Most are very friendly and even if you're not interested in buying they're still happy to tell you all about the carpet making process. Proper Berber rugs are made by hand (only by women) and are all distinctive, the patterns and colours telling a story or providing a meaning. For example, some rugs are particularly good for making babies on, I was told. Even though I was never looking to buy one it was very interesting to hear about how they're made and see all the different designs.

What is on the other side, is more or less only what was on the side you came from: A river with normal, red mountains on both sides.

On this side, you see that the gorge is not just a passing through the mountain. It is also a part of the road between the villages of Tinerhir and the valley of Aït Morrhad, where Tamtattoucht is the first important settlement you come to.

Sun only accesses the bottom of the gorge, where a ice-cold river flushes through, in the morning. Later in the night the gorge gets its own climate, and while evenings are damp and warm in the nearest village, they easily get to be freezing here.

You can walk through the less than 600 metres of the gorge.

Halfway through, you realize that even if nature is especially harsh here, tourism has left its lasting traces. At one of the few points where the peebles along the river gives enough space, a handful of houses has been put up.

Here you will find restaurants and even a hotel. A great place to pass a night, and definitely different from most hotel experiences.

This would easily allow you the chance of making a walk through the gorge at the middle of the night.