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The Great Steppe
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is a vast and surprising country in Central Asia - a place of wide open landscapes and quiet adventure. Here you’ll find mountains, deep canyons, clear alpine lakes, open steppe, and long scenic roads that feel made for travel.
It’s easy to explore, uncrowded, and still very real. You move at a natural pace, stop often, eat simple local food, and see daily life far from mass tourism. Adventure here isn’t complicated - it’s comfortable, flexible, and deeply rewarding.
Kazakhstan is an ideal place to start your journey through Central Asia.
Things to do in Kazakhstan
Highlights
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Kolsai Lakes
Kolsai-often translated as "lake in the valley" or "valley of lakes"-comprises three main alpine lakes sitting in a single forested corridor on the east side of the Kung̈ey Ala-Tau range. The lakes are stacked at roughly 1,800 m, 2,250 m, and 2,700 m, connected by the Kolsai River flowing down from higher glaciers. The water stays cold year-round, often barely reaching 10 °C even in summer. That's the alpine lake reality: beautiful, clear, and cold enough to remind you you're in the high mountains.
Kaindy Lake
Kaindy Lake formed after a 1911 earthquake triggered a landslide that blocked the Kaindy Gorge, creating a natural dam. Rainwater and snowmelt filled the valley, submerging a forest of Tian Shan spruce. The tree trunks-some still standing, others tilted or fallen-protrude from the turquoise water, creating the eerie, photogenic scene the lake is known for. The water is extremely cold year-round, fed by mountain streams. The submerged trees remain largely intact because the cold, low-oxygen water slows decomposition.
Big Almaty Lake
Big Almaty Lake sits at 2,511 meters in the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains, about 30 km south of Almaty. The lake is a natural alpine reservoir that supplies drinking water to the city, which means access is regulated and you can't swim or picnic right on the shore. The water's color shifts from pale green to deep turquoise depending on the season, light, and sediment levels-fed by glacial meltwater from the surrounding peaks. It's one of the easiest high-altitude destinations near Almaty: paved road almost to the viewpoint, dramatic mountains on all sides, and you can be back in the city for lunch.
Shymbulak
Shymbulak is Kazakhstan's premier ski resort, sitting in the Zailiyskiy Alatau mountains above Medeu. The resort covers an elevation range from about 2,200 m (base) to 3,200 m (top of the lifts), with a mix of beginner, intermediate, and advanced runs. In summer, the slopes turn into hiking and mountain-biking terrain, and the cable cars keep running for sightseers and trailhead access. The resort was developed in the Soviet era (originally called "Chimbulak"), renovated extensively in the 2000s, and now has modern lifts, hotels, and restaurants.
Charyn Canyon
Charyn Canyon stretches 154 kilometers east of Almaty along the Charyn River-named simply for the waterway that cut it. The canyon varies between 150 and 300 meters deep, with red and yellow sandstone walls that geologists trace back to sediments from the ancient Tethys Ocean. The most photographed section is the "Valley of Castles," a 2-kilometer corridor where erosion has shaped towers that look like fortress keeps. The Charyn National Park, established in 2004, protects not just the canyon but also a relic ash-tree grove-Sogdian ash, leftovers from the Ice Age. The grove survives in a microclimate along the canyon floor, fed by the river and shaded by the cliffs.
Altyn Emel: Aktau Mountains
The Aktau Mountains are a surreal, almost lunar landscape of white, pink, red, and green striped hills in Altyn Emel National Park. "Aktau" means "white mountains" in Kazakh, referring to the pale clay and chalk layers that dominate the lower sections. The colors come from different mineral compositions in the sedimentary layers: clays (white, gray), iron oxides (red, pink), and in some areas, copper compounds (green streaks). The hills are soft badlands-easily eroded, constantly shifting. Walking through Aktau feels like moving through a geology textbook: you're looking at ancient lakebed and floodplain deposits from 25-30 million years ago, when this was a very different climate.