Kazakhstan Charyn and Kolsai Route: Kolsai Lakes to Kaindy Lake

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Kolsai Lakes

   Kolsai Lakes are three alpine lakes strung out in a valley of the Kungey Alatau range, in the far south-east of Kazakhstan, close to the Kyrgyz border. The first lies at around 1,800 metres, and the second, reached by a longer walk, at about 2,250, with a third higher still in the mountains. The water is a deep, cold turquoise, held between steep slopes of dark spruce, and the reflections of the forest and the sky in the still surface make a memorable sight. The lakes were formed by landslides that blocked the valley, long ago.

   Read the complete Kolsai Lakes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kolsai Lakes is where the day begins. Next is Saty.

2. 2. Saty

   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.

   Read the complete Saty write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Saty comes up 65 km in. Next is Charyn Canyon.

3. 3. Charyn Canyon

   The Charyn river has spent roughly twelve million years cutting a canyon through the red plain of south-eastern Kazakhstan, and the result is one of the great surprises of Central Asia. The gorge runs for about a hundred and fifty kilometres, reaching depths of around three hundred metres, and the most visited stretch is the Valley of Castles, where wind and water have carved the red sandstone into towers, arches and ramparts that seem to have been built by giants. At sunset, the whole thing glows deep orange and the shadows run purple.

   Read the complete Charyn Canyon write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   129 km in you reach Charyn Canyon. Next is Kaindy Lake.

4. 4. Kaindy Lake

   Kaindy is a lake with a ghostly forest. When an earthquake shook the Tian Shan in January 1911, a landslide dammed a valley, and the water that backed up flooded a stand of Schrenk's spruce. The trunks of the drowned trees still stand upright in the water, bare and pale, preserved by the cold, and the lake itself is a deep, clear turquoise. It lies at around two thousand metres, in the Kolsai Lakes National Park, in the mountains of south-eastern Kazakhstan, close to the border with Kyrgyzstan.

   Read the complete Kaindy Lake write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kaindy Lake closes the day.