Yazili Canyon

This tough day walk beneath Yazilis steep, forested walls is a fantastic section of the 500-odd kilometre St Paul Trail. Many thanks to David Brieses Photodiary of a Nomad for allowing us to quote from his St Paul Trail page.

From David Brieses account:

Yazili Canyon (8km, 270m ascent, 830m descent)

It was another glorious blue-sky day as we set off with Huseyn, our cook / philosopher / humorist, after another of his filling breakfasts. After a short car trip, he dropped us at the junction of a road leading to uruk. We headed off along the gravel road, beneath the shade of tall pines, with views opening out to the north of the winding depths of the Değirmen Canyon and back over its opening to Stler. It was a pleasant stroll and soon we were picking up the red and white waymarks of the St Paul Trail. The road petered out and we followed a track along the bed of a dry stony creek towards the point where the rocky ridge of Erdiasum Tepe plunged into the canyon.

Our path ahead was becoming more obvious, a narrow and steep gap up onto the ridge. We followed the red-white waymarks up it to crest the ridge at a point where a jib of jumbled boulders spilled down from its summit.

From the top, a glorious view of distant Lake Karacaren spread out to the south, while to the north you could look down into the junction of the Yazili, Değirmen and Bagirsak Canyons. Beyond these, on the horizon, lay the snow-capped ridge of 2,635m Davras Dağ. It was a detour well worth making and marked the highest point of our walk. From here it was almost all downhill, 750m into the depths of Yazili Canyon.

From the rock rib, we descended to a small plateau of jumbled boulders, dotted with scrubby oaks and shrubs. The views on this descent, of the sheer rock walls, pine and juniper covered slopes, canyon depths and distant lake, were superb. After a couple of tight squeezes, having to enter a shallow cave to get by one rock face and scramble over a sharp outcrop to get around another, our rapid descent became a gentler downward traverse, mostly in the welcome shade of the rock face above.

The route soon turned steeply down again, this time on a steep slope covered in pines. It was great to be in the resin-scented shade of these trees, dried needles crunching underfoot and clusters of beautiful pink orchids scattered amongst them on the forest floor.

Soon we could hear the sound of rushing water rising up from below. The canyon floor was close as we reached a well-formed track, which led us the final few metres of descent to a road running along the floor of the canyon.

Below us the clear green waters of the Gksu River rushed downwards in a series of rapids and cascades towards the mouth of the canyon. After a quick visit to the river, we climbed back up to the road and followed it southwards. It was in fact part of The Kings Road, built in the 5^th Century BC between Ephesus and Babylon. The rock face on the edge of the road was carved with the occasional Greek inscription, and even an inspirational poem by the 1^st Century AD philosopher Epictetus. History is never very far away in this part of the world.

We continued down the road to reach a narrow point of the gorge, where a small bridge took us across the river. A little further on, we reached a picnic area on the west bank. Our walk was over, as this was the pick-up point for our return to our hotel in Stler.

© David Briese. See his full account and much more in his fantastic website www.gang-gang.net/nomad.

This page is at an early stage of development. Pleasehelp usby giving us your thoughts and sending in photos!Thank you!

See our St Paul Trail page for its full 500km in overview, for detailed practical information and for other walks in the area.

By www.everytrail.com.