Kik plateau
The Kik plateau is the panorama. A limestone plateau above 1,200 metres, wedged between Lake Lalla Takerkoust and the High Atlas, that you climb up by track for the view: the great lake mirror below, the Toubkal ridges, often snow-capped, on the horizon, and a countryside of rolling hills. By far the best moment is spring: the ground fills with green wheat and wild flowers, the Berber villages come alive, and the light is soft. The rest of the year, the plateau is drier and yellower - still fine, but less striking. You do not come for a specific site but to drive, walk and look: it is an outdoor escape, in 4x4, quad or mountain bike on the track, most often paired with the lake just below. One honest reservation: not a tarmac road for a saloon, but an earth track.
The Kik plateau is one of those landscapes you would not suspect an hour from Marrakech. Past Lake Lalla Takerkoust, a track leaves the road and climbs onto a wide limestone plateau above 1,200 metres, where the view opens all at once: the lake set in the hills like a slab of water, and behind it the long High Atlas wall, often snow-topped, with the Toubkal massif. Up there, the track runs between cereal fields and a few pisé villages, in a countryside that, in spring, fills with green and wild flowers. You do not come to the Kik for a monument or a specific village, but for that wide landscape you cross in 4x4, quad or mountain bike - a lungful of air and panoramas, most often paired with the lake right below.
On your own or on a tour?
What to expect
About half a day. Times are indicative.
Departure from Marrakech
Road south-west via the Amizmiz axis, through the Haouz countryside, to the outskirts of Lake Lalla Takerkoust.
Climb onto the plateau
Leave the road for the track climbing up the Kik: at every bend, the lake reveals itself a bit more, far below.
Crossing the plateau
The track runs between cereal fields and Berber villages, with the High Atlas summits as backdrop.
The great panorama
A stop at the best belvedere: the lake at centre, the Toubkal massif on the horizon, the hills unrolling to the mountains.
Back or lakeside lunch
Descent to the lake for a waterside lunch, or direct return to Marrakech.
What you see there
The lake and Toubkal view
The Kik's reason to be: from the plateau edge, Lake Lalla Takerkoust spreads out below like a blue mirror, and behind it rise the High Atlas ridges and the Toubkal massif, snow-capped a good part of the year. One of the finest viewpoints reachable close to Marrakech.
Spring flowers and fields
In spring, the plateau shifts: bright green wheat and barley, poppies and wild flowers, olive and oleander. The countryside is green and alive, you hear the birds, and by far the best season to come up. Come summer, everything yellows and dries.
The Berber villages on the track
The track crosses several pisé hamlets where life follows the rhythm of the fields and the herds. You meet farmers, laden donkeys, children - a lived countryside, not a set. A greeting, a shared tea: the plateau lives at slow pace too.
The track, in 4x4 or quad
The Kik is not a site you park at and visit: a plateau you drive across. Earth track, climbs and bumps, dust in summer: 4x4, quad or mountain bike are the right tools. That is the outing's appeal as much as the view - the pleasure of driving through a wide landscape.
What is included
Good to know
Book your day trip
We do not sell the tickets: booking goes through GetYourGuide. The price is the same as direct, a small commission comes back to this guide.
