TURKIYE: Mystic Mountains and Living Simply

In Turkey's mountain regions a yayla is a high-altitude summer pasture and seasonal settlement.

Traditionally, families would move themselves and their livestock from the lowlands to the cooler lush mountain pastures for about 3–5 months during the summer.

They stay in simple wooden or stone houses, graze animals, make products like cheese, butter and yogurt, and then return to the lowlands before winter.

  

Sal Yaylası is a high mountain summer settlement. It is in the Pontic Mountains, a large mountain range running along Turkey’s Black Sea. The yaylasi is surrounded by steep, incredibly green mountains and open alpine meadows that make great pastures for their livestock.

Sal Yaylası is roughly 1,800–2,000 metres (5,900–6,600 ft) above sea level.

The weather is unpredictable and can change quickly with clouds, fog and rain appearing suddenly. This is what it looks like in the advertising brochures.

This is the best that we got while there.

At first I was disappointed the clouds rolled in and we weren’t able to see the view. But then I figured it made it so much more atmospheric and mystic.

The area is known for its wooden mountain houses, scattered across the meadows. They are simple seasonal homes rather than permanent villages. Some also cater to tourists.

Some HUGE local dogs, probably guard dogs for the flocks, greeted us and followed us for a bit from one settlement to another. 

They made us happy.

Eventually the clouds did lift a bit. Just a bit. So we got a glimpse of the views.

 

 

Another yaylasi that we stopped at was Avusor Yaylası, in the Kaçkar Mountains. It is located much higher and is more rugged with an elevation of roughly 2,350–2,400 m (7,700–7,900 ft) at the settlement.

Avusor Yaylasi has stone and wooden houses.

We stopped for a coffee in a very humble little café.

There were chickens and a goat hanging around the cafe.

Unlike the forested lower valleys, Avusor is above the tree line, with wide grassy slopes, rocky peaks, streams and the perennial frequent mist and clouds. We wanted to see the views and hike and the weather forecast the next day seemed more promising, so we came back again the next day. We got lucky this time with sunshine!

We hiked from the yaylasi to Avusor Gölü, a glacial lake at about 2,684–2,700 m (8,800 ft).

If you take the direct route, its about a 3-km hike from the yayla. However, there isn’t a clear path to the lake, so we definitely did not take the direct route.

Before we got to the top, the weather started taking a turn for the worse. Coming from Bangkok, Thailand, Nang was thrilled to see snow. She was also impressed with the low clouds floating by.

As well seasoned Canadians, the snow and clouds didn’t impress us. 

The route down was much quicker. Seeing these simple settlements reminds us of how much we have and we take for granted. 

It brings to the forefront how very privileged we are.