The Atlas Mountains could be a destination for a whole holiday. However I had only a week and the plan was to erach the Sahara, so I only had a glimpse of those majestic mountains while driving from Marrakech to the Dades Valley.
![Drive through Atlas Moutains - Things to do Morocco Drive through Atlas Moutains - Things to do Morocco](https://www.zigzagonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Drive-through-Atlas-Moutains-Things-to-do-Morocco.jpg)
TIPS FOR TRAVEL PLANNING ADDICTS
Driving through the Atlas Mountains
- Main roads through is generally in good conditions
- There are villages and places to stop along the way
- Sometimes narrow and windging so prepare your motion sickness pill
- The drive from Marrakech to the Dades valley took us the whole day.
Day trips from Marrakech can take you to several valleys in the Atlas Mountains - check out my suggestions
Lower Mountains
After that started our ascension of the high Atlas mountains. The road is quite challenging but as we had a driver, we could focus on the change in scenery from soft peaks with green to bare and sharp summit. We crossed several villages including some where the Sunday market was going on.
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 1 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 1](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-bMQWKSr/1/L/IMG_1444-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 2 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 2](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-HKZJtbx/1/L/IMG_1446-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 3 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 3](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-n6vtDSc/1/L/IMG_1448-L.jpg)
High Atlas Mountains.
Higher up some of us had to focus on the road rather than completely on the landscape as motion sickness kicked in... I wish I had more photos to share but this is it.
Such a bare landscape! I am used to shades of green but here we only had shades of brown.
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 4 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 4](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-Q5HNhXt/1/L/IMG_1454-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 5 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 5](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-Gjr6RZw/1/L/IMG_1457-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 6 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 6](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-3NC5SFg/1/L/IMG_1458-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 7 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 7](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-V7dFfzv/1/L/IMG_1460-L.jpg)
Driving down
Then we drove down to Ouarzazate. Some vehicle carry a heavy load...
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 8 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 8](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-vwgnTv7/1/L/P1000652-L.jpg)
![Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 9 Drive through the Atlas Mountains - Morocco 9](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-KDMQCZb/1/L/P1000664-L.jpg)
And the drive continued to the Dades Valley...
![Down from the Atlas mountains Down from the Atlas mountains](https://zigzag-on-earth.smugmug.com/Travel/Morocco-all/Morocco/i-RDdD859/1/L/P1000689-L.jpg)