Sonntag, 19. Mai 2013
Jiuzhaigou 九寨沟
highpeak, 15:28h
Guess the next morning wake up time? You are right: 6.30 am! Jiuzhaigou National Park opens at 7.00 am and we managed to be part of the first ticket purchasers and hopped on one of the first small busses heading up.
The park has actually 3 valleys, 2 of them starting from the main tourist center 14 km away from the main entrance. Our bus directly headed up the valley to Swan lake, about 17 km from the tourist center. We got off the bus at 8.00 am and started our walk down. Again wonderful forrest area, the trees were so green and healthy, its long time ago we had forests like this in Germany.
Our plan was to walk down the whole 17 km to the junction, but unfortunately part of the trails had been restricted due to forest fire danger. In the morning it was still pretty cold, but after the sun was climbing over the high mountains the first rayons warmed us up.
As more we descended as more tourists (mainly tourist groups) showed up, but as our intention was to hike as most as possible we could find enough places which were remote and had spectacular places to take photos.
The color of the many lakes here was even more blue and green than we experienced in Huanglong and the best was that our prayers had been heard and we got perfect sunshine to enjoy this unique place.
Betweem two lakes we also found a nice waterfall, its not the Niagra falls, but great to see.
After about 3 hours we arrived at the junction and took another bus up the 2nd valley. Honestly this part of Jiuzhaigou is not as interesting as the 1st one, only one lake at the top and another nice one about 3km more down, afterwards quite dry area.
So we did not spend too much time here, after the 2nd lake took the bus back to the junction and had a rest in front of some nice waterfalls (beer was cold!).
So far we already had walked for about 15 km today and the way to the entrance was still 14 km away, so we decided to walk as much as possible back, as the landscape according to our guidebook was much more promising than the 2nd valley before.
The book was right, walking through the forrest along a wild water river and from time to time again nice lakes with almost the same great color as on the top.
At km 10 on the way down we had to give up (badly blisters on my feet),
hopped on the bus and driving the remaining part back to the entrance. From here still 3km to walk to our hostel, luckily we find a kind of beer garden with really cold beer to reward us for this fantastic day in one of the best nature scenes I had ever seen and with 27 km our longest hike during this trip so far.
We spent another night in the hostel, missed the only bus at 07.30 am to Songpan the next morning (really couldnt get up again so early), hired a taxi and spent a relaxing day in Songpan before we will take our first flight during this trip to Chengdu.
The park has actually 3 valleys, 2 of them starting from the main tourist center 14 km away from the main entrance. Our bus directly headed up the valley to Swan lake, about 17 km from the tourist center. We got off the bus at 8.00 am and started our walk down. Again wonderful forrest area, the trees were so green and healthy, its long time ago we had forests like this in Germany.
Our plan was to walk down the whole 17 km to the junction, but unfortunately part of the trails had been restricted due to forest fire danger. In the morning it was still pretty cold, but after the sun was climbing over the high mountains the first rayons warmed us up.
As more we descended as more tourists (mainly tourist groups) showed up, but as our intention was to hike as most as possible we could find enough places which were remote and had spectacular places to take photos.
The color of the many lakes here was even more blue and green than we experienced in Huanglong and the best was that our prayers had been heard and we got perfect sunshine to enjoy this unique place.
Betweem two lakes we also found a nice waterfall, its not the Niagra falls, but great to see.
After about 3 hours we arrived at the junction and took another bus up the 2nd valley. Honestly this part of Jiuzhaigou is not as interesting as the 1st one, only one lake at the top and another nice one about 3km more down, afterwards quite dry area.
So we did not spend too much time here, after the 2nd lake took the bus back to the junction and had a rest in front of some nice waterfalls (beer was cold!).
So far we already had walked for about 15 km today and the way to the entrance was still 14 km away, so we decided to walk as much as possible back, as the landscape according to our guidebook was much more promising than the 2nd valley before.
The book was right, walking through the forrest along a wild water river and from time to time again nice lakes with almost the same great color as on the top.
At km 10 on the way down we had to give up (badly blisters on my feet),
hopped on the bus and driving the remaining part back to the entrance. From here still 3km to walk to our hostel, luckily we find a kind of beer garden with really cold beer to reward us for this fantastic day in one of the best nature scenes I had ever seen and with 27 km our longest hike during this trip so far.
We spent another night in the hostel, missed the only bus at 07.30 am to Songpan the next morning (really couldnt get up again so early), hired a taxi and spent a relaxing day in Songpan before we will take our first flight during this trip to Chengdu.
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