Colette's Grand Detour

After exploring Karakol we headed into the mountains to enjoy some of the surrounding landscapes. One particularly famous gorge, about 45 minutes drive from town is the Jety-Oguz Gorge. This translates to ‘Seven Bulls’ because of a stunning rock formation of seven huge red sandstone cliffs that some says looks like a group of bulls standing together.

The gorge itself has been carved out by the Jety-Oguz river, a tributary that feeds Issyk-Kul lake, and the cliffs have been shaped by millions of years of wind erosion. There is another rock formation close by called the broken-heart, where a red cliff has split in two perfectly in the middle.

This is a popular spot for locals to come for day trips and a starting point for multi-day hikes into the mountains. Lots of tourists come here from other parts of Central Asia, and even our tour guide said she had first come here to visit when she was 10 years old.