Saty is a village at the end of a good road, and it looks it. Here the steppe gives way to green pastures dotted with spruce, and in summer, herders bring their horses and sheep up from the valleys and live in yurts on the hillsides. The air is clean and cold, the skies are huge, and the few buildings look small beside the mountains.
The great draw is the Kolsai lakes, a chain of three alpine lakes in a high valley a little farther on, each higher and colder than the last, the lowest at around eighteen hundred metres. A rougher track continues to nearby Kaindy, a lake that was formed by an earthquake in 1911 which caused a landslide to dam a gorge, leaving the trunks of drowned spruce standing in the clear turquoise water like ghostly masts. Both are popular with hikers and horse riders, and the region is also known for its fine wild apples, a reminder that the name of Almaty, the former capital, comes from the Kazakh word for apple.
Riding in this region is serious adventure. The road to Saty is paved for much of the way from Kegen, but surfaces vary, with potholes, loose gravel and occasional animals on the road, particularly cows, horses and sheep. Because the area is near the Kyrgyz border, there are checkpoints, and you may need a border-zone permit to visit the lakes, so check the rules before you go. Weather can change in minutes, with cold rain and even snow in summer, and the dirt tracks can be very muddy.
Fuel is not available in Saty itself, so fill in Kegen or in Almaty, and carry extra if you can. Simple guesthouses offer meals of lamb, bread and tea, and in summer you may be offered kumys, fermented mare's milk, which is an acquired taste. The best months are June to September. Bring warm layers, even in July, and plenty of cash in local currency, since cards are rarely accepted outside the larger towns.