National Parks in Kazakhstan

Charyn Canyon is the park most visitors see first. The Charyn River has cut a canyon about 150 km long into red and orange sediment, and the famous stretch is the Valley of Castles, a dry side gorge of eroded towers and walls. A path drops about 3 km along the valley floor to the river, where there is a small eco-park with cabins and a cafe. The walk is easy going down and hot coming back up in summer, so carry water and allow two to three hours.

It is about 200 km from Almaty, three hours by road, and most people go on a long day tour or as the first stop of a Kolsay and Kaindy loop. There is no public transport to the rim. Spring and autumn are the best months; July and August are very hot in the canyon, and the light is best in the late afternoon.

The Kolsay Lakes are a chain of three lakes in a spruce valley of the Kungey Alatau, near the village of Saty. A road runs to the lower lake at about 1,800 m, where there are guesthouses and boats for hire. A trail of about 8 km climbs to the second lake, the most beautiful of the three, and the third lies higher still near the Kyrgyz border, which you cannot cross here.

Lake Kaindy is a separate valley closer to Saty, reached on a rough track usually covered in a 4x4 or on foot, then a short walk down to the water. The submerged spruce trunks are best seen in calm morning light. Saty has homestays, and staying a night lets you see both lakes without a 600 km round trip from Almaty in one day.

Altyn-Emel National Park is a vast desert park between the Ili River and the Dzungarian Alatau, north of the Kapchagay reservoir. Its three sights lie far apart on dirt tracks: the Singing Dune, a lone dune about 150 m high that hums when the sand slides in dry weather; the Aktau hills, banded white, red and ochre like a painted badland; and the Besshatyr burial mounds of the Saka. Kulans and goitred gazelles live on the plains.

You need a 4x4 and a park permit arranged in advance through the park office in Basshi village, where there are guesthouses. Plan at least two days. Spring and autumn suit it best; summer is fiercely hot.

Ile-Alatau National Park covers the mountains directly south of Almaty, and much of it is less than an hour from the city centre. Big Almaty Lake sits at about 2,500 m in a bowl of peaks, its colour changing from milky to turquoise through the summer. It is a water supply reservoir, so swimming is banned, and the road above the lake passes a checkpoint near the border zone. The Medeu ice rink and the Shymbulak ski resort, with a gondola up to about 3,200 m, are in the same valley, and side gorges such as Butakovka and Kim Asar have easy day hikes.

For a quick view without leaving town, the cable car up Kok-Tobe hill looks over the city to the Trans-Ili Alatau.

The north’s parks are islands of forest and rock in the grassland, and they are where Kazakh families go on summer holidays. Burabay, about three hours north of Astana near Shchuchinsk, has pine woods, granite cliffs, the Okzhetpes rock and swimming in Lake Burabay. Bayanaul, south of Pavlodar, is the oldest national park in the country, with strange weathered boulders around Lake Jasybay. Karkaraly, east of Karaganda, is quieter, with pine hills around the old town of Karkaraly. Weekends from late June to August are busy; midweek is calmer.

Katon-Karagay is the largest national park in Kazakhstan and the least visited, covering the southern Altai along the Russian and Chinese borders. Trekking routes lead to the Rakhmanov springs and towards Belukha, the 4,506 m peak on the Russian border. Much of it lies in the border zone, which needs a permit applied for weeks ahead, and a local guide is the practical way to arrange it.

West of Astana, Korgalzhyn and Lake Tengiz form part of the Saryarka World Heritage site, with flamingos in summer and huge flocks of migrating birds in spring and autumn. In the south, Aksu-Zhabagly, the oldest nature reserve in Central Asia, protects the western Tien Shan and its wild tulips; the Sayram-Ugam National Park next to it is reached from Shymkent.

Entry fees are small and paid at the park gate per person and per car; some parks, including Altyn-Emel and the border-zone parts of Katon-Karagay, Ile-Alatau and Kolsay, need a permit arranged in advance, so check with the park or your tour operator before you go. Public transport rarely reaches the parks, so most visitors hire a car with a driver or join a tour from Almaty or Astana; a 4x4 is needed for Altyn-Emel and the Kaindy track. Mountain weather changes fast, so carry warm layers even in July. Fires, drones and swimming are restricted in many reserves. Our first-timer’s guide covers transport and money, and the Kazakhstan historic sites page covers Tamgaly and the Saka mounds near the same roads.