IMAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK
SILK ROAD
EYEWITNESS BEYOND THE STEPPE
The corridors, crevices and towering columns of Kazakhstan’s Charyn Canyon National Park are easily accessible to hikers now that the road here from Almaty has been upgraded and trail signage improved. Words: Jessica Vincent
I’m staring into the yellow eyes of a northern goshawk. He’s perched on a lone rock rising from a sea of scorched steppe, his chest puffed up and head held high like a warrior waiting for battle. I’m so close I can see the markings on his feathers: the tips of his upturned wings are a dark, chestnut brown; his underbelly has cinnamon and white stripes, like the coat of a tiger. He has yellow talons and a curved grey beak sharp enough to puncture a tyre. The encounter takes place en route to Kazakhstan’s
Charyn Canyon National Park, 124 miles east of Almaty, shortly after the driver slams on the brakes. “Eagle,” he says, pointing over the steering wheel to a dark silhouette emerging from tea-coloured plains. Hearts thumping, we grab our cameras and run into the swirling dust to catch a glimpse of Kazakhstan’s national bird. “It’s a hawk,” whispers our Kazakhstani guide, Sergei,
as we inch closer to get a better view of the bird. I can tell Sergei is disappointed, but for someone like me, whose most exciting bird sighting so far this year has been a seagull on Brighton beach, spotting a hawk in the open steppe is more than enough. Back in the car, we follow freshly laid tarmac stretching
towards the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains, near the Chinese border. Part of a major investment in Kazakhstan’s tourist infrastructure, this road was built during the Covid-19 pandemic to improve access from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, to Charyn Canyon National Park. The 50-mile-long canyon is home to one of the world’s largest populations of Sogdian ash trees, as well as dozens of rare animal species, including the Siberian ibex and goitered gazelle. “Kazakhstan is changing fast,” says Sergei as we pull up
to the park’s entrance, where new signage helps visitors navigate the canyon’s trails. Improved toilet facilities and signal for GPS devices have also made the park more accessible in recent years. “Our past was oil, but our future is tourism — especially this kind of tourism,” says Sergei, pointing to a newly installed hiking route map marked with water stations and viewpoints. We’re in the Valley of Castles, one of five canyons in
Charyn Canyon National Park. It seems impossible after the drive here — through plains stretching as far as the eye can see — but now there’s no flat land in sight. Instead, great slabs of red sandstone rise from a ravine 90 metres below my feet like a giant skyscraper city chiselled out of rock. I take a steep trail to the foot of the canyon, running my hands over red and silver earth sculpted by the Charyn
144
NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/TRAVEL
River 12 million years ago. What strikes me most is the silence: it’s so quiet I can hear my heart thumping and the wind whistling between the rock. Were this Arizona, where the Grand Canyon receives 100 times more visitors than Charyn Canyon National Park, I’d be in the company of hundreds of tourists. But here in Kazakhstan — a country that just 32 years ago was still part of the Soviet Union — I have the trail to myself. “Kazakhstan is still a young country, but we have
a lot to offer,” says Sergei. Hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a leather jacket and fingerless gloves, he looks like he’s off to a heavy metal gig rather than out on a hike. “We have mountains, deserts, forests, modern cities and ancient cultures. I think it’s taken time to realise how diverse our country is, but a shift to tourism is changing things.” The next stop is Yellow Canyon, a more remote part
of the park that requires a 4WD vehicle to explore. Our driver — a serious man who hasn’t spoken since spotting the hawk — suddenly breaks into a smile. We pick up the pace on an open dirt track before plunging into a round of ditches and potholes big enough to swim in. The air tastes of scorched earth, and my eyes sting from the dust filtering through the vehicle’s air vents. The car finally slows and the dust settles, revealing the
sun-bleached sandstone of Yellow Canyon. While the Valley of Castles felt like a city, this is like landing on the surface of the moon. Sand-coloured mountains, stretching as far as I can see, have deep lines and grooves etched all over them, like the skin of an elephant. Sergei tells me the lines are mountain highways for the Siberian ibex. I squint in the hope of spotting the elusive horned climber clinging to the canyon walls, but my luck — for today, at least — is out. We walk the ridges of Yellow Canyon until the last light
dips behind the Tien Shan mountains. At this hour, the pale yellow sandstone acts like a blank canvas for the sky, reflecting the deep orange, then the dusky pink of the setting sun. As we race back to Almaty, the sky filling with a million stars, I can’t help but feel a twinge of regret. I want to stay in this starlit canyon a little longer, where big skies are endless and great warrior hawks soar above the open steppe.
HOW TO DO IT Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa operate flights to Kazakhstan via Istanbul and Frankfurt. Double rooms at the five-star Rixos Almaty from £255 a night, B&B.
rixos.com
Right: Charyn Canyon, a three-hour drive from Almaty in Kazakhstan
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204
