Tian Shan Mountains

One of the biggest surprises about my trip was the Tian Shan Mountains (or Tien-Shan) which were always in the background in my time in southern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. They were very beautiful, and much larger than I had expected. After spending time in the flatlands of Moscow and Tver, and before that in St. Louis, it was a welcome change to be able to see the mountains right out of the window.

One morning, I, along with the Baker family, went up into the “hills” outside of Almaty. I use the term hills lightly, because at the elevation of 2,000 meters (6500 ft.), and with a rise of over 1,100 meters (3,600 ft.), these “hills” are higher than many, in fact all, of the mountains in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, for example. Plus, as you can see by the pictures, the really tall peaks still rise up much more, many of them topping out at around 4,000 meters (13,000 ft.) or so. While we were up in the hills, we had a bit of a picnic, saw a wild camel, and spotted a bunch of birds—Dave Baker is a bird watcher. It was certainly an awe-inspiring view!