End of the Road

On Day 24, the final day of our journey, we followed the Silk Road as far as we could to the Tian Shan mountains on the border of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan overlooking Almaty. 

A 4 km gondola ride took us to the Chimbulak ski resort, over 9,000 feet above sea level. From there, two more gondola rides brought us to the Talgar Pass, elevation about 10,000 feet, twice  the height of Mt. Marcy. 

We hiked up a trail that led to the base of a glacier but had to turn back 45 minutes in or risk missing the final gondola back down a thousand feet to the mountain hotel.

Almaty is one of the finalists for the Winter Olympics in 2022. Based on the infrastructure we saw, they could definitely pull it off. Being rich in oil and gas helps. 

 

The view from our balcony below. Good night mountains. Good night Almaty. Good night path that leads to China. Good night Silk Road.