Kolsai Lakes and Kaindy: a two- to three-day trip from Almaty
Three mountain lakes in a spruce forest and the sunken forest of Kaindy, 300 km from Almaty. How to get there, where to sleep in Saty, whether to hike or ride to the second lake, and what the border zone means.
By Super Admin2 min read
The Kolsai Lakes are called the pearls of the Northern Tian Shan, and for once the cliché is earned. Three lakes step up a gorge among Tian Shan spruce, and in the next valley lies Kaindy, a lake with the trunks of a drowned forest standing in it. It is 300 km from Almaty, too far for a day trip: plan at least one night.
The road
Five to six hours by car via Chilik and Zhalanash, with a mountain stretch at the end. The base is the village of Saty by the lower lake: guesthouses, yurts and home-cooked dinners. Beds run out in season, so book ahead.
The lakes are inside a national park with an entry fee. The upper lake lies close to the Kyrgyz border and needs a border-zone permit; the lower and middle lakes do not, but bring your passport anyway.
The lakes
Lower Kolsai (about 1,800 m) is twenty minutes from Saty, reachable by car, with boats for hire. The middle lake (about 2,250 m) is the most beautiful of the three: eight kilometres of trail along the water and up the gorge, three to four hours each way, or two hours on horseback, offered at the lower lake. The full route is route NTA-4.
Kaindy is in a separate gorge, 12 km from Saty on a dirt road. An ordinary saloon car will not make it; locals drive UAZ jeeps, and from the car park it is half an hour on foot to the lake. Spruce trunks drowned after the 1911 earthquake rise from the turquoise water. The walking option is the three-day route through the Saty gorge.
When
June to September is warm and dry; October brings golden autumn and the first snow on the peaks. In winter the road is difficult, but the lakes freeze, a beauty of its own. The water is icy in every month; swim only by the shore, at your own risk.
A plan
Our collection “Charyn and Kolsai” builds the trip like this: day one, Charyn Canyon with a night nearby; day two, Kolsai with a night in Saty; day three, Kaindy and the drive back with lunch at the Talgar trout farm.