I went up to the little knob in the center of the photo. Due to time constraints (I had to be back at the bus by 5 pm), I stopped at the shoulder to the left of the knob. Had I had 15 minutes more... There were loads of flowers in the Ala Archa Valley in August:
Edelweiss!
Bugs making sure there will be more bugs
The valley behind the knob; I came up the valley from the left
Looking back down into the Ala Archa Valley
A small alpine hut across the valley from the knob
Horses graze at 10,000'
Hiking close to Bishkek, again with a couple of flower shots
One of the best hikes I have done in Kyrgyzstan was the Shamsi Gorge where you start by walking 2 miles up a dry riverbed in a very narrow gorge where you can at times touch both walls. Visibly in a rainstorm the water will in places be over 10' deep!
If you are wondering why some of the pictures are smaller here, it is because I managed to do the whole hike with may camera set to take low resolution photos.
Sergei's group photo
Some members of the group on another ridge
I repeated the hike to Koltor Lake at 2,720 meters - one guy went swimming!
The lake is really turquoise, this time I managed to walk around the lake.
There was a shepherd taking a break by the lake with his horses and dogs.
Finally, my hike this Sunday which started with a waterfall:
Then we hiked up the small road visible in the photo which goes to a pass at 3,850 meters.
Somebody had been driving on the road very recently!
A second waterfall
Close to where I turned back at 2,800 meters.
Two members of the group providing some scale in the landscape.
