Today we will hike to one of the most picturesque places in Almaty mountains — the Upper and Lower Butakovskiy waterfalls.
Make yourself comfortable – it will be fun!
📹 Butakovskiy waterfall video
🏔️ Butakovsky Gorge
The route starts at the parking lot of the Butakovsky Gorge, after the eco-post.
There, my friend Ruslan and I parked the car, crossed the bridge over the Butakovka River and found ourselves in a spacious gorge.
A bridge over the Butakovka River.
Ruslan is at the very beginning of the route.
It’s beautiful, isn’t it? The forest is on the right, the river is on the left, and the mountains are ahead!
We walked a couple of hundred meters and the landscape changed. The forest was cut down! Hundreds of trees were cut down and taken away in an unknown direction.
If you have any information about these trees, please leave a comment under the article.
We went a little higher and we met a pointer to Bukreev Peak. Also, by the way, a popular route. Maybe we’ll go there too.
Furmanov Peak is already visible. We went there last time.
We came to the place where a tributary flows into the main Butakovka River.
To get to the Lower Butakovsky Waterfall, you need to go along this very tributary, so we cross the bridge over the river and climb up.
Here we cross the river. To get to the Upper Butakovsky Waterfall, you need to go along the main river, i.e. to the right (if you look at the photo above).
Butakovka River in mid-June. Beautiful, not full-flowing.
The lower Butakovsky waterfall is located between two massive rocks.
A well-fed and fat caterpillar.
When hiking, if you look back, you can see the city of Almaty.
In the distance, you can see the city of Almaty.
🏔️ Lower Butakovsky waterfall
Well, here is the Butakovsky waterfall itself. We went on a weekday, so there were no people at all and we were able to explore the waterfall along and across.
And even from the inside. I’ve always wanted to go inside the waterfall.
We did not stop there and decided to look at the waterfall from above.
On a fairly steep slope, to the right of the waterfall, we climbed to the very top through dense thickets.
Please note that you will have to go down the same path that you went up. And it won’t be easy.
View from the cliff above the Butakovsky waterfall.
And here we are at the very top of the waterfall. I had to overcome several steep cliffs to get to such an incredibly beautiful place!
How do you like this view?
These are the rocks we went down to the cliff.
Photos of the Butakovsky waterfall.
Fortunately, they came down unharmed.
🥾 How to get to Upper Butakovsky waterfall
It is necessary to go to the Butakovsky gorge, to the very end. From the very last parking lot, go through the bridge and continue to the fork with the sign. It will take about 40 minutes.
Then we cross the river again and go along the tributary to the waterfall itself. Another 15-20 minutes and you are on the spot!
🏔️ Upper Butakovsky waterfall
This was not the end of our hike and we went to the Upper Butakovsky waterfall.
To do this, we went down from the Lower Waterfall to the bridge and went along the main river to the neighboring gorge (Butakovsky Gorge).
The beginning of the route to the Upper Waterfall.
We came across such a cozy place for lunch. But, judging by the “mines” on the ground, cows have been here.
We refreshed ourselves a little and went on.
Near the river, you can make such shots. Note to fans of macro photography.
The route to the Upper Butakovsky Waterfall is less popular, but there is a good trail here and it’s a pleasure to go.
Vegetation in the mountains of Almaty.
The Butakovsky gorge is quite narrow, which is why there is little sunlight here and therefore there is a short daylight day.
Judging by the snow, it lies here all year round, despite the rather low altitude.
It’s time to make a stop and fly on a brand new Mavic Air 2 drone in the Butakovsky Gorge.
The view from the drone.
Flower meadow in the Butakovsky gorge.
The upper Butakovsky waterfall is located near the snow, far above the pine trees.
A lonely dried-up tree in the middle of a dense forest. It looks dramatic. This photo is in our Instagram.
We turned off the trail and walked straight through the snow. It was a rather dangerous idea, since there was a chance of falling through the snow and therefore we tried to keep our distance from each other.
So we came to the Upper Butakovsky waterfall.
It turned out to be big! Half (or a third) of the waterfall is hidden under the snow.
View of the Butakovsky gorge from the Upper Butakovsky waterfall.
Interesting mountain plants. They look like some kind of algae.
Adventure time!
On the way back, we met a group of tourists who met each other in a Facebook group and decided to go hiking to the waterfall together.
They had a difficult route through the KimAsar gorge and as a result they did not reach the upper waterfall a little. But they will be able to look at it in our photos and videos:)
🚁 Drone footage
🧭 Route diagram and GPX, GPS track
The beginning of the journey is the final parking lot in the Butakovsky gorge, the height is 1837 meters.
The lower Butakovsky waterfall is 2159 meters high, we reached it in 45 minutes from the parking lot.
The Upper Butakovsky waterfall is 2478 meters high, we reached it in 2 hours and 15 minutes from the Lower Waterfall.
The descent took 1 hour and 20 minutes and was easy.
The difficulty level of the route is “easy”, no preparation is required.
🗺️ Route map to Butakovsky waterfall
🎒 Other routes
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Zabugorshiki
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For many years, we have been exploring the trails of the Zailiyskiy Alatau. Having traveled hundreds of kilometers along various routes, both popular and previously unexplored, we have highlighted the most interesting and picturesque ones and now want to share this beauty with others.
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