Charyn Canyon by motorcycle: what the guidebooks leave out
By Amir · SilkOffRoad Motorcycle Tours
Three hours east of Almaty the steppe stops without warning. The road runs flat to the horizon, and then the ground opens and you are looking down at red rock towers. That is Charyn Canyon. We have been bringing riders here for years, and the place has changed a lot in that time. Here is what we tell our own groups.
We used to ride down to the river
A few years ago you could take a motorcycle all the way down. A rough track drops from the rim to the canyon floor, and we would ride it, park by the Charyn River and put the tents up under the cliffs. In the evening the walls turned orange, then dark red, and after that there was nothing but the river and the stars. It was one of the best camps in Kazakhstan.
That ended on 29 May 2021. A storm with hail broke over the canyon in the early afternoon and sent a mudflow down the gorge. A school group from Almaty was on the canyon floor; a teacher and a pupil were killed. A narrow gorge with high walls gives you nowhere to go when the water comes, and it comes fast.
So nobody rides down any more, and nobody camps at the bottom. You leave the bike at the top and walk. If the sky to the south is turning dark, stay on the rim. We do.
The car park, and why we arrive early
At the top there is now a big car park, and by late morning it is full: coaches, minibuses and day-trippers from Almaty, all arriving at about the same time because they all left the city after breakfast. The canyon took twelve million years to form and the queue for a photo of it can feel about as long.
Come early in the morning instead. The light is better, the air is cooler, and you can stand at the edge of the Valley of Castles and hear the wind. An hour or two later you will be queuing for the same view. On a motorcycle this is easy to arrange, because you are not on a bus timetable.
What it costs to get in
Entry to the park is paid per vehicle at the gate. In 2026 it was around 3,000 tenge for a car and around 1,700 tenge for a motorcycle, which is three to six US dollars. Being on two wheels finally pays off. You can pay in cash, or online with a Kazakh banking app; if you don't happen to have a Kazakh bank account, carry tenge.
What you are looking at
The Charyn River has been cutting through this plain for millions of years. The canyon runs for about 150 km, with walls up to 300 m high. The part everyone comes for is the Valley of Castles, a side gorge where wind and water have carved the red sandstone into towers and walls. From the rim, a path leads down through it to the river; allow an hour or two on foot, more in the heat. Take water. There is no shade to speak of.
Getting there on a bike
Charyn is about 200 km from Almaty, tarmac nearly all the way, across open steppe with the Tian Shan to the south. The riding is easy. Watch for wind on the open stretches and for livestock, which treats the road as its own and has never once checked its mirrors.
Most people do Charyn as a day trip: three hours out, two hours there, three hours back. On a motorcycle there is a better way. The canyon sits in the middle of the best riding in the Almaty region, with Altyn-Emel and its Singing Dune to the north and the Kolsai Lakes in the mountains to the south. Join them up and you have a loop of about 1,000 km, with Charyn as one stop on a real journey.
The season is May to October. July and August are hot on the canyon floor, which is one more reason to be there early.
Charyn on the Almaty Adventure Loop
That loop is a tour we run: the Almaty Adventure Loop. It is our most beginner-friendly ride, six days with four riding days, about 70% tarmac and 30% dirt, on a Suzuki DR650SE, with a ride leader in front and a support vehicle carrying the luggage. We cross the Altyn-Emel steppe, climb the Singing Dune, soak in the hot springs at Chundzha, sleep beside the Kolsai Lakes, and stop at Charyn on the way back to Almaty.
If you were planning to rent a bike in Almaty to see Charyn and Kolsai, this is that trip with the route, the hotels and the timing already worked out.
2027 dates: 29 May – 3 June and 2–7 October. Groups of 6 to 10 riders.