Why this ride
A named mountain-road corridor with sustained elevation change and pass scenery. It links naturally to Kolsai Lakes National Park.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kolsai and Kaindy Lakes Road
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 324 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 56
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Editorial context
Coordinates are curated start-via-end route seeds. They are not a surveyed centreline or navigation geometry. Run road snapping, topology checks, access checks and a live-status review before publication.
Access context
Do not auto-publish. Snap to a routable road network, verify current closures, legal motorcycle access, surface, permits, border controls and local safety information.
Seasonal context
May-Oct
Scenic road chapters
Kazakhstan Charyn and Kolsai Route
12 km on Kazakhstan Charyn and Kolsai Route.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 12 km
- Named road
- Kazakhstan Charyn and Kolsai Route
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Almaty
Almaty means place of apples, or near enough, and the apples are not just a name. Wild apple forests, the ancestors of many of the world's cultivated varieties, still grow on the slopes of the Tian Shan mountains above the city, and botanists believe the fruit began its long journey to the world's orchards somewhere in this region. For most of the twentieth century Almaty was the capital of Kazakhstan, until the government moved to Astana in 1997, and it remains the country's biggest and most relaxed city, with wide tree-lined avenues, Soviet blocks and a skyline of snow peaks to the south.
Read the complete Almaty write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Almaty sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Saty.
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 50 km in. Next is Kolsai Lakes.
3. Kolsai Lakes
The Kolsai Lakes are a chain of three alpine lakes strung up a valley in the Kungey Alatau, a range on the border with Kyrgyzstan. The lowest lake sits at roughly 1,800 metres, the middle at about 2,250 and the top at around 2,700, and each is smaller and colder than the last. They are often called the Pearls of the Tian Shan, which is the sort of name that sounds like marketing until you see the water, a cold, deep blue-green framed in dark spruce forest and sharp ridgelines.
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
At least 139 km in you reach Kolsai Lakes. Next is Kaindy Lake.
4. Kaindy Lake gate
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, late in the day.