9/25: Osh-Bishkek: Enjoying Fall Colors in Ala Archa National Park

It was with mixed emotions that we bid adieu to Osh, Kyrgyzstan: We had enjoyed hiking up to the top of Suleiman's Throne, the mountain overlooking the city, especially wandering around the largest market in Central Asia for hours, seeing the largest Lenin Statue in the region and walking from park to park. 

The highlight, though, were our interactions with the people we met and those who spontaneously welcomed us to their city and country, something we've very rarely seen to that extent anywhere else in the world. The grueling, all-day hike we had in the Alay Mountains south of Osh had been very intense but will be an experience we'll never likely forget, nor, for that matter, want to repeat!

We got a quick morning flight back to Bishkek, the Kyrgyz capital, for our third and final stop in the city.

How imaginative somebody had been to make a bench out of old looking suitcases. I didn't have the time to sit there to see if it was as comfortable as it was nifty!

Before we'd left for Osh several days ago, we'd made arrangements with Noora, the owner of the six-room Ocean Hotel in Bishkek who had volunteered to drive us, for a nominal cost, to the nearby Ala-Archa National Park immediately after arriving from the airport. As we drove, Noora talked about how Kyrgyz people speak Russian as their first language because of the influence from the media outlets which are all in Russian. She stated how the government was trying to get its citizens to speak Kyrgyz more often but that is hard when people are inundated with hearing Russian first and foremost. That explained why we kept hearing Russian everywhere being spoken in the larger cities.

Noora pointed out the presidential compound where former Kyrgyz presidents can live even after leaving office.

As we neared the national park, the leaves were changing colors because the elevation was higher than in Bishkek. 

From the park entrance, there was still a long drive to the end of the road where we could begin to hike. 

Beehives:

Noora said the Soviets had built caves in the mountains to place seismic graphs. 

Since 2013, we've been away every fall traveling for several months and have therefore missed what is arguably Colorado's most beautiful season. That was why we'd wanted to come to Ala-Archa for a couple of hours and see the beautiful fall colors in this part of the world.

The drive up the gorgeous Ak-Say Canyon was a beautiful respite from the hustle and bustle of the capital city. 

The Ala-Archa River paralleled the road from the entrance gate to the hotel at the end of the road, about five miles away.

The most popular trekking area near Bishkek was at Ala-Archa National Park. The highest peak was Korona Mountain at 16,038 feet that is a favorite of climbers. No, we had no plans to climb it, just to admire its beauty from a distance!

The trees looked just like variations of the aspens we have back home. 

Before Noora dropped us off around 2, she said she could return at 6 to pick us up for another 1,000 som or $15. We were so relieved because one of our concerns was how we could get to the marshrutka stop, located about 8 miles from where she dropped us off, how often the marshrutkas ran back to Bishkek, etc. 

The 19.4 thousand hectare park was established in 1976 to study and protect threatened animal and plant species. As of June 2017, there were 27 golden eagles, 14 Turkish lynx and 5 snow leopards.

The yurts were empty when we were there. I thought they may only be used during the warmer months. It was gloriously sunny and quite warm but we knew as soon as the sun would go down, it would get chilly in a hurry in the mountains. We had hoped to arrive at the park at least an hour earlier to hike while it was still sunny but Noora had been delayed picking us up in Bishkek.

Within minutes of being dropped off, we saw a very tame Russian red squirrel.

Steven joked that the caption for this photo should be, "Guess where we are and no, it's not Breckenridge, Colorado!"

We decided to take an easy hike along the paved road after challenging ourselves so much lately! 

We really enjoyed walking along the Ala-Archa River Trail as the views were just spectacular.

The park's elevation ranged from 1,500 meters to almost 4,900 meters.

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Even here in Ala-Archa, it seemed we couldn't get away from all the engagement or wedding photos, we'd seen so many of recently! But, it was hard to imagine a more beautiful spot in the setting sun not too far from the capital. 

In the past, I've taken photos of Steven being followed by dogs. Here at Ala-Archa, it was a squirrel following him! What a hoot it was as we watched the same squirrel going around in circles, nonstop!

We later followed the Ak-Sai Waterfall Trail for a good while until it got too hilly and too chilly when the sun hid behind the mountains.

For some reason, this one squirrel kept wanting to jump on my legs but I was no fan of that as I could feel its claws through my thin stretch pants. 

I thought this caption should be "Attack of the Killer Russian Squirrel!"

Unlike Steven, I really lost my enthusiasm quickly for any more hiking when it got cold so we headed back toward the chalet-style Ala-Archa Hotel, by the trailhead and where Noora had dropped us off. 

Since we still had a long time to wait for Noora, Steven opted to sit by the yurts and play his favorite game on his iPad and I went off in search of more pictures to take of this idyllic spot.

This ancient bus from the Czech Republic looked like a VW bus used by hippies from the 60s and 70s!

Andrew: I wonder if Mum would have known what this bird was as I recall her studying birds in her later years.

I finally suggested to Steven we begin to walk back toward the park entrance several miles away so that Noora wouldn't have such a long way to drive to pick us up and it'd be an easy downhill walk for us. He was game so that's what we did.

If you look closely, you can see the line the sun made over the mountains just before it disappeared from view. 

It was so peaceful walking along the river and it made me thankful how lucky we were getting almost like a taste of Colorful Colorado, i.e.the state's slogan, transported to Kyrgyzstan!

We weren't quite sure about the meaning of this sign - was it a No Hunting sign?

Sadly, I don't know my flowers but these were so pretty.

Another view of the quickly running Ala-Archa River: 

As we had had two lousy dinners at restaurants previously in Bishkek, we thought we’d play it safe and choose to eat at the Nathan’s Coney Island, for our last dinner in town, Lil Red. That turned out much better although we both ate chicken sandwiches instead of their famous hot dogs. It wasn’t anybody’s definition of ‘fast food’ as we had to wait 15 minutes for Steven’s second sandwich, however!

We then walked back to Bishkek's main square, Ala-Too Square, expecting to see the lights above the square lit up in the shape and colors of the Kyrgyz flag but we were out of luck as nothing was lit up that night. 

Next post: Onto Tashkent, Uzbekistan!

Posted on October 11th, 2018, from our last night in Tashkent, ready to leave in a few hours for our last 'stan,' Kazakhstan!