Charyn Canyon

A gorge that appears out of flat steppe, with ice-age ash trees beside it

The Charyn river has cut 154 km of canyon about 200 km east of Almaty, roughly 80 km of it proper gorge, and one stretch is called the Valley of Castles where erosion has left freestanding red towers with paths between them. It gets compared to the Grand Canyon, which oversells the scale and undersells how strange it is to come on it out of flat steppe with no warning. About 20 km away is the thing the scientists come for: a relict grove of Sogdian ash, a species held to be a survivor from before the last ice age, protected since 1964 and now inside the national park, which was established on 23 February 2004. Drive from Almaty through Shelek, Baiseit and Kokpek, then a signposted road to parking about 9 km in.