The Malrif lakes (Grand Laus, Petit Laus, and Mézan) extend in the eastern part of the Hautes-Alpes department to the north of the Queyras Regional Nature Park. They lay in a schistose valley with impermeable soils suspended on a gentle slope on the right bank above the river Guil. The large grassy expanses of the Malrif valley are surrounded by tumbling ridges and connected to the neighboring valleys by low relief passes.