Ofen Pass Road (Zernez to Livigno)

From Zernez take the Ofen Pass road, which runs E from the main road through the Engadine to St Moritz, following the Spölbach upstream through the wooded gorge of La Serra; then a well-engineered stretch of road up the rocky wooded hillside, passing through three galleries designed to provide protection from avalanches. In 3.5km (2mi) there is a fine view down to the right of the wild Val Cluozza, the oldest part of the National Park with the glacier descending the slopes of Piz Quattervals (3,164 m/10,381ft) in the background. The road then follows a fairly level course over the forest-covered Champ Sech, beyond which the Piz del Diavel (3,072 m/10,079ft) comes into sight, and then descends down in a wide curve to the Wegerhaus Ova d'Spin (on left: parking), at the W entrance to the National Park. The road runs downhill, crosses the Ova d'Spin (parking place) and continues along the wooded slopes above the river, then above the Spölbach (parking place) and the Ova del Fuorn, flowing down from the Ofen pass, and comes to the Punt la Drossa (1,710 m/5,611ft): Swiss customs; parking place), in a narrow pass, where the road crosses to the left bank of the Ova del Fuorn. On the right is the entrance to a road tunnel 3.3km/2mi long, belonging to the Munt la Schera hydroelectric complex, which reaches the Italian frontier at the Punt dal Gall (1,963 m/6,441ft) over the River Spöl, at the N end of an artificial lake 8km/5mi long (dam, alt. 1,805 m/5,922ft, 540 m/1,771ft long, 130 m/427ft high, 10 m/33ft thick; capacity 164million cu. m/5,791million cu. ft). A road runs down the W side of the lake through a customs-free zone to Livigno (19.5km/12mi, alt. 816 m/2,677ft: large skiing area, four ski-lifts).