Canyon of River Charyn - our weekend trip from Almaty. There are more magnificent places further in this canyon probably, where travel agencies go from Almaty. But one would have to go there by all terrain car over upper steppes probably, because there is no path down in the canyon. We went about 3 km up the stream from the bridge, where Almaty - Kegen bus crosses the river only.

River Charyn is nice, but not clean. Water filter would be necessary for staying longer than one day in this hot area. According to LP guide, there should be some campsite (although without water) somewhere, where travel agencies go probably, but it was not so near to the bridge (and bus) as we expected.

Yessik valley. Just about 30 km from Almaty, road goes up from Yessik village to Yessik lake where any path ends at all. Although quite near from Almaty, we met no trekkers in this valley, probably because there was no path to follow there.

One of many log bridges over the wild stream of Yessik river. The only people we met there were local hydrologists, who stayed there and observed the river height to prevent floods probably. They were very kind and hospitable.

Crossing Yessik river - logs are the only way to come over the wild streams.

Trekking poles are necessary.

Local flora.

Local flora.

Lake Akkol in upper Yessik valley

Lake Akkol in upper Yessik valley

The most distant place of our short trek in Yessik valley. Talgar, the highest mountain of Zailijsky Alatau (over 5000 m) should be seen behind us. Because of the lack of paths in the valley, our progress was slower than expected and we returned the same way down to the Yessik village.

If it rains and water is high, the only possibility to cross the river is to wait till the next morning (well, it was raining for about 2 hours every afternoon when we were there, although 30 km away is almost desert).