National Parks in Central Asia

The Almaty region has the best-organised parks in Central Asia. Charyn National Park, about 200 km east of the city, protects a long canyon of red sandstone; most visitors walk the Valley of Castles, an easy descent between eroded pillars to the river, where there is a small eco-camp. The 2026 sanitary fee is 865 tenge (about 1.70 USD) per person per day, plus a charge for cars.

Further on, Kolsay Lakes National Park has three lakes stepped up a spruce-forested valley above the village of Saty. The lower lake has guesthouses and a road to the shore; the middle lake is a half-day hike and the upper lake a full day. Nearby Lake Kaindy formed after the 1911 earthquake dammed a gorge, and the bleached trunks of drowned spruces still stand in the water. Most tours combine Charyn, Kolsay and Kaindy over two days.

Ala-Archa Nature Park starts about 40 km south of Bishkek. Entry is 200 som per adult; private petrol cars are no longer allowed into the park, and an electric shuttle runs up the valley to the alpine camp. From there, day hikes climb to the Ak-Sai waterfall and the glacier viewpoints.

Song-Kol, a lake at about 3,000 m in the Tian Shan, is the classic Kyrgyz night in a yurt. Herders move their flocks up in June, and the yurt camps on the shore operate from about mid-June to mid-September. Drivers and horse treks leave from Naryn and from the town of Kochkor. Two hours south of Naryn, the 15th-century caravanserai of Tash Rabat has yurt camps and walks in a quiet side valley.

Tajik National Park covers much of the eastern Pamir Mountains: high desert plateau, peaks above 7,000 m, the Fedchenko Glacier, and wildlife including Marco Polo sheep and snow leopards. There are no park facilities in the usual sense; you see it from the Pamir Highway between Khorog and Murghob, with detours to lakes such as Karakul and Bulunkul. A GBAO permit is required for the region.

Iskanderkul, at about 2,200 m in the Fann Mountains, is three to four hours north of Dushanbe by the road to Khujand. Nearby the Seven Lakes, a chain of lakes in a valley above Panjakent, make a good drive or day of walking.

Ugam-Chatkal National Park begins about 80 km northeast of Tashkent and takes in Chimgan, the reservoir of Charvak and the Chatkal Range. It is the country’s weekend hiking and ski area, with cable cars at Chimgan and Amirsoy. Further west, Zaamin protects juniper forest near Jizzakh, and the Nuratau Mountains have village homestays. Our National Parks in Uzbekistan guide covers them in detail.

Turkmenistan has reserves in the Kopetdag range and the Karakum desert, but visiting any of them means an organised tour with a guide.

Shared taxis and marshrutkas reach the gateway towns, but the parks themselves usually need a hired car with a driver or a tour, which are easy to book in Almaty, Bishkek, Karakol and Dushanbe. Kazakh park fees are paid in cash at the gate, so carry tenge. Overnight camping is allowed in most parks, sometimes for an extra fee.