Ala Archa National Park

Monday 17 August 2026 

Today we visited Ala Archa National Park.  It’s close to Bishkek so was an easy day-run.  We had intended to walk to the waterfall, 4 km with 700 m ascent from where the National Park bus dropped us, but Timur persuaded to hop in the cable car for the first 2 km (few hundred metres ascent).  This turned out to be advice worth listening to.

We took an hour to walk up to the Aksay waterfall which was freezing as it was fed by glacial run off.

We then had what our tour delightfully named a “picnic in the nature” which was the first of many.  I ate the Turkish Air gluten free roll I’d saved from our flight, with the usual dried fruit, nuts and bananas.  

Thanks to Timur’s insistence that we used the cable car, we had spare time and energy to push on further up into the mountains.

Timur's hat broke so he adapted a sun protection from a spare shirt.

We walked/scrambled 2.4 km and ascended 700 metres to 3340 m. The sign had said it should take 2:30 which showed how hard it was!  It was exhausting in the heat at +3000 m but we persevered and reached Razeka Station in 2 hours.  We were pleased at our fitness/stamina.

Razeka Station is a ‘base camp’ for climbing further into the mountains.  There was a small bar, full of slightly crazed-looking dancers, where we bought tea.

We popped over the ridge to see the valley behind which was awesome.

Suddenly, a casualty appeared. We initially thought it was a practice run, but he appeared to have broken a foot/leg.  We were reminded of the danger of walking in the mountains by a rock face at base camp which memorialised some who have died.

We headed down which was a different kind of hard to ascending.  Slipping was our major concern as much of the path was loose scree and dust.  We took our time and descended with me only slipping twice and JC, who had smartly donned walking boots as opposed to my walking trainers, had limpet-like grip and stayed upright.

Great views.  The dust is building work - they appear to be extending the cable car and building a 'resort' up here.  Progress apparently.

We weren’t down and back in the car until 1900, then it was back to Bishkek and supper with our tour operator to discuss the plans ahead. Back at the hotel for 21:30, packing and sleep.