Hiking in Ala Archa National Park near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Ala Archa National Park just outside Bishkek

Trekking is a growing tourist attraction in Kyrgyzstan, and no wonder.  The Tian Shan Mountains cover 93% of the country, towering above the landscape with their jagged peaks 15,000 to 25,000 feet high.  The river valleys are steep and gorgeous, filled with gold, red and orange poplars and birch trees at this time of year.

one of Ala Archa's river valleys, from the trail

We hiked a trail Don and I had taken last year, up a steep mountainside above a deep valley.  Glaciers and snowfields top the surrounding peaks and narrow (right now) streams, milky white from glacier melt, flow down the valleys.  You can see, though, that the spring runoff turns them into wild torrents that further shear off the banks of the rivers, cutting the valleys ever deeper.

view of the peaks from Ala Archa entrance

During the Soviet era, Ala Archa was off limits to most of the people.  Only government officials could visit the park, where they had fishing, hunting and other leisure activities to themselves, unbothered by the masses they controlled so completely.  Upon independence, Ala Archa was declared a national park, open to everyone.  So, today, people can come to picnic, trek or climb the rugged mountains, and the area is a major attraction for visitors to Bishkek.  We passed trekkers as we came down the trail, burdened with heavy packs for a week-long hike up the valleys and over the passes of this spectacular wild area.