Ugam range

 There are several very interesting gorges on the Ugamsky Ridge within Southern Kazakhstan, which you will enjoy visiting. The only drawback of such excursions is not very good roads when approaching them. The most famous of them is Sairamsu, named for the river flowing in it. The gorge is long, but quite picturesque, especially when approaching the headwaters.  The river is absolutely transparent, since everything is filtered through glacial moraines. The steep slopes of the gorge are covered with a magnificent juniper forest: in the lower part of the gorge from the Zarafshan arch, at the top – mainly from the juniper hemispherical Juniperus semigloboza. Archie is represented by beautiful trees. Because of the large avalanches in winter, they often see a bizarre shape. Among the juniper come across individual Sivers apple trees. The turkish hog consists mainly of birch from the Turkestan Betula turkestanica. A set of plant species is typical of the juniper forest. In the spring in the gorge you can see tulips and other early ephemeroids. The trails leading to the headwaters, especially in the upper part, are quite steep, but the landscape around is interesting. On one of the paths you can get to the moraine lakes, the bottom of which is overgrown with blue aconite Talas Aconitum talassicum and yellow ligularia Ligularia talassica, and very “photogenic”, and the top one filled with water from the snowfields melting nearby and muddy. During the ascent, you will have to overcome several narrow bridges across the Sairamsu river and its tributaries. The second trail leads to the foot of the Sairam peak (height 4240m), which climbers climb. The grand peak is very attractive, and the excursion to its foot will be interesting. To explore the gorge Sairamsu you will be enough for one day. You can spend the night in it at a small camp site in houses without amenities or in your own tents. At the camp site there is a small bath. It is cold at night in the gorge, you need to have warm clothes with you.

 There is another interesting route through the Kaskasu gorge to a flat high-mountain (more than 3000 m) plateau. It is composed of granite rocks, which is rare for the Western Tien Shan. Ostantsy, protruding above the surface of the plateau, are very original and bizarre, from the very plateau beautiful and majestic views of the surrounding peaks of the Ugam ridge. Here you can watch Mengbier’s marmot, Mormota mensbieri, a rare Red Book animal, admire Acantholimon pillows of acantholimones, consider Potentilla Potentilla and Astragalus astragalus, covering some parts of the plateau with rugs. It will be necessary to spend the night in the upper gorge in tents. Climbing to the plateau requires good physical preparation, and to drive through the gorge you need a jeep.