I had come to Bishek, because it was the starting place for my next travel adventure through four of the five ‘Stans (I’d get to the fifth next year), and I came a few days early to enjoy some of the sites. My group tour was going to see a lot in two weeks, but comparatively little of Bishkek and the surrounding areas.
There are a lot of available tours at varying price points, but because I was short on time, I was drawn to the combined day trip to both Chunkurchak and Ala Archa National Park. If I had more time, I might have separated the two to maximize time at both places, but this day tour allowed to get enough of both.
Our first stop of the day was neither of those two places, but rather Skybridge. It is this bouncy suspension bridge accessed by a short hike uphill. I admit I found my first crossing of the bridge to be a bit nerve wracking, because of multiple people on the bridge at once causes it to bounce more. I figured the bridge was strong enough to hold everybody, but it would have felt nice to have a safety harness to the bridge, since my balance isn’t the best. It’s not like I was going to fall off the bridge, but the plank walkway was narrow and I didn’t want to trip and fall.
But soon enough, I was across and a short climb up some stairs brought us to a nice Panorama overlook of the surrounding mountains. The scenery reminded me a bit of Eastern Washington or Montana mountains just on the other side of the mountain pass.
After that brief detour, we made it to Chunkurchak. Another climb up some stairs (I really got in my steps and stairs on today’s tour) brought us to another Panorama view of the surrounding mountains, only this one had the added bonus of adding in some fall colors.
After a nice local lunch of some tasty bread and horsemeat and noodles (eating horsemeat is definitely a thing in Kyrgyzstan), we headed out to our second stop at Ala Archa National Park.
It is a very beautiful and accessible Park from Bishkek, and I am glad we went on a Monday, because I read that it can get really crowded on weekends. The only vehicles allowed to drive into the park are Park vehicles and the electric busses that take you to the end of the road.
A new cable car is installed to take you to a very nice vantage point for views. But we only had a couple of hours in the park, and so I elected to do some light hiking instead. The group followed the paved road to the end of the line, stopping at some nice viewpoints of the river along the way.
The road may end at an old ski base ( and clearly some new construction is going on n the area), but there is plenty more hiking beyond the road via a trail that can get rather rocky at some points, but overall is easy enough to traverse. I elected to leave the group since they were doing something else (knowing what time I needed to be back at the bus), to hike up the trail deeper into the valley.
This is where separating out the two destinations could have been more fruitful. At Chunkurchak, there was a 2.17 kilometer trail through the woods to various panoramic viewpoints that we weren’t able to do for time. At Ala Archa, there are hikes to Broken Heart Rock and the base of Ak-Sai Waterfall. I knew I wasn’t ready for anything super hardcore, because the park was already at a higher altitude than I usually am, and I haven’t done higher altitude hiking in a while. Still, having the time to do both hikes at the locations would have been nice, but again, every travel choice has a tradeoff.
Being very cognizant of the time, and how long it would like take me to return, I didn’t actually make it to Broken Heart. But I did make it to this very nice viewpoint at a bridge crossing that really highlighted the fall colors and the surrounding valley and river very nicely.
All in all, it was a very nice day. Yes, I may not have been able to explore either site to the fullest, but I got a nice taste of both locations, and if I am ever back in Bishtek, I definitely will.do some more hiking. The mountains of Kyrgyzstan are majestic and I can’t wait to see more on my tour.
