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At the foot of the eastern slope of the Vercors, the banks of the Tithonian limestone massif stands like a reply to the Urgonian cliff overlooking them. The barrier thus formed isolates, between the two rock steps, a series of valleys parallel to the crests, with the rivers rejoining the main Drac Valley via valleys that run perpendicular to the main direction of the drainage system.

This landform, set discretely apart from the Drac Valley, creates a protected environment "engraved" at the foot of the walls of the Vercors, but overlooking the Drac Valley.

The legendary Mont Aiguille, which is detached from the Vercors rock step, is of the same elevation and in particular has a summit of the same Urgonian massive limestone massif in the form of a cliff, giving it its distinct silhouette.

It could also be called the valley of cirques and small anticlinal valleys.

At the foot of the Deux Soeurs and the Gerbier rock formations, Prélenfrey, the first site when leaving Grenoble, is magnificent. The Château-Bernard lies in splendour at the foot of the perfectly continuous rocky cliffs. Gresse is imposing beneath a horizon of the Petites Dolomites, which culminate in the Grand Veymont. La Bâtie is extraordinary at the foot of Mont Aiguille. Chichilianne is moving in its isolation and the omnipresence of Mont Aiguille. The adjectives are lacking to describe these landscapes, which are among the most beautiful in Isère. In good weather these landscapes can even be seen from Grenoble, and as one approaches, they are always framed by grandiose, even emblematic, motifs that heighten expectation and keep their allure, for they are composed and preserved by centuries-old activity that has taken stock of the mountain's power and created its own motifs there.

The villages are built in the centre of a cirque or a small anticlinal valley and form the focal point of a hedged farm landscape that spreads to the forest edge. This is known as mountain bocage, whose hedges accompany the roads, except at Château-Bernard, which has seen agricultural activity give way to hiking tourism, and whose very diffuse buildings disappear behind the vegetation.

The lanes and trails, along with the waterways, are among the most dynamic motifs of our landscapes . They open up perspectives and horizons to those who travel them. Without them, the perspectives and horizons would remain distant and inaccessible, and thus more frustrating than moving. They make up the tertiary road network, which should be distinguished from the primary network of main roads and the secondary network that links the hamlets and villages on the slopes and terraces. It is used mainly in summer and links alpine grazing, the cornerstone of the mountain agricultural system, with the villages. It is interspersed with peaceful clearings and climbs along suspended valleys that lead to the peaks, and whose openings constitute one of the strong points of attraction of the mountain landscape. It is worth emphasising their interest.

The value of these landscapes depends, everything else being equal, on the secondary road network, which captures the worth of the kind of roads that anyone likes to travel, not only because of their usefulness but also for their comfort, which is decisive for the pleasure of the visitor, rambler or hiker: "A dynamic perception of the mountain landscape, following its traditional roads and paths, provides an agreeable and easy reading. This can take place slowly, at the pace of a person on foot, so as readily to take in the successive visual sequences, images of the labour of man and beast, with new landscapes continually being discovered. The visual and plastic qualities of the path are also predominant: the ‘drailles', the paths for the seasonal migration of sheep, bordered with vertical stones, rise like endless threads towards the alpine meadows, leading the observer to feel an integral part of the landscape that they are viewing: the person becomes a native going along their way. This process would not take place if the landscape were approached by a modern tourist route, with lesser visual quality, which did not always follow the logic of the traditional layout and which replaced a system of progressive discoveries by transition-less shocks". (CEMAGREF)

At Prélenfrey the décor changes as the forest climbs upward towards the rocks. It is divided between deciduous trees and conifers, which are grouped like tongues heading towards the Arzelier peak, which is covered in trees. The buildings of the resort are barely visible. At la Bâtie , there is a surprising "garden" surrounding the building, accentuating the effect of a composition constructed in the heart of this grandiose scene.

Gresse-en-Vercors occupies the centre of the most extended open site in the valley . It was even more open in the last century, following large-scale clearing that led to the development of fields and hay meadows that preceded the alpine meadows, which were used by large numbers of livestock. The landscape then took the appearance of a coloured patchwork of plots of rye, wheat and oats, the result of the arduous labour of a population that worked the land by hand, despite the risk of avalanches and landslides caused by the excessive clearing of the steep slopes. It was about 1850 that "the forestry administration undertook a vast programme of reforestation to stabilise the denuded land and to combat the accelerating erosion", and "it was at this time that the forest began to reconquer the landscape and re-enclose it" (Fischesser, 1989:82). This reconquest is worrisome, here as well as in all the valleys affected by the abandonment of farming.

The forest is a major attraction. and calls for a rigorous policy to master its scale, promoting an all-ages selection forest and organising the forest edges as inviting places, for example, as exhibitions of plant life highlighted by deciduous trees. In summer, it is visited by hikers and horseback riders, and in winter by cross-country skiers, who use trails that often run along the forestry tracks. In this respect, it deserves to be seen as a large park and not as a dubious or even hostile environment.

In addition, it is important that the open continuities included there are of sufficient size to establish an equilibrium in a setting that is magnified by the formidable horizon of large chalk cliffs and the Grand Veymont. Maintaining these open continuities would thus be a priority and would entail clearing surfaces that were being colonised maintaining them as grassy meadows and preventing construction on areas that act as a transition between the forest and the edge of the villages. The piedmont area bordered by Gresse, la Ville, Alleyrons, Brisou, the Col d'Allimas and Uclaire is particularly representative of this problem due to the construction of the resort some thirty years ago. Even more problematic than the sight of the station is the growth in construction, which is felt as an intrusion onto the open meadows that have been invaded. Landscape quality requires that construction be controlled in order to promote an image that is welcoming to multi-season and multi-sports tourism.