Designated in 1970, the national park extends south and east of Mende across a broad swathe of rugged highlands. For the most part it falls within Lozère, the least populated département in France, a one-time refuge for Camisards and war-time Resistance fighters, where Robert Louis Stevenson marvelled at the primitive beauty of the hills ‘as rude as when God made them at first’.

Mont Lozère rises in the east, a great granite leviathan 1,699 m high and source of the River Tarn. This is prime walking country with wide stretches of undulating, high grasslands, doughty sheep and scattered stone farm buildings set four-square against the freezing winters. The GR68 makes an energetic hiking tour of Mont Lozère, or there are less strenuous discovery paths from the Mas Camargues and Mas de la Barque with guided walks operating during July and August The Ecomusée du Mont Lozere at Pont-de-Monvert is a helpful introduction to the region with maps, information sheets and exhibits, also a gîte for hikers. 

The park headquarters are in Florac, a relaxed little one-horse town at the northern end of the Corniche des Cévennes. Florac makes a convenient starting point for a circular tour of the dramatic Gorges du Tarn and the Gorges de la Jonte, deep craggy ravines carved out of the causses and followed by twisting, cliff-hanging roads which leave you with a heightened respect for dynamite and navvies. Along the way, there are several delightful villages such as perpendicular Sainte-Enimie on the Tarn, with its slippery cobbled alleys and medieval houses, and Meyrueis on the Jonte (both useful stopovers for exploring the region). Millau is another popular base with good public transport connections.  Local tourist offices and information centres burst with information and details of campsites, mountain bike rental depots (several offer to haul you up the causses so you can pedal down with ease), pony trekking, canoeing, and local excursions. Near Meyrueis, there are two famous cave complexes complete with bizarre limestone rock formations: Aven Armand, 11 km NW off the D986; and the Grotte de Dargilan 8 km W on the D139, also known as the ‘Pink Cave’.

South of Florac, Mont Aigoual (1,565 m) is a favourite with walkers, its forests and high pastures encircled by the GR66. There are several well-signposted walking trails that take you scrambling across the desolate sun-baked heights of the Causse Méjean (between the Tarn and the Jonte), while the long-distance footpaths, the GR6 Rhône-Cévennes and GR7 Vosges-Pyrenées, traverse the region and cross each other just south of Florac. The GR67 follows the dusty heather-covered ridges of the Cévennes down to Camisard country and the terraced Gardon valleys planted with vines, mulberry trees and spreading sweet chestnuts.