I explored the beautiful national parks in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia, and found untouched forests and nature at its best!

The Stunning Lagodekhi National Park In Georgia Is Nature At Its Best!

Georgia, the small country nestled along the Black Sea and in the Caucasus Mountains is a country of incredible natural beauty. This Post Soviet nation, a place at the crossroads between Europe and Asia might a be small nation but what they lack in size and population numbers they more than account for with stunning national parks, amazing hiking trails and good old fashioned Georgian hospitality which welcomes any traveller intrepid enough to explore this beautiful part of the world. It's a country that should be bursting with tourists, so get in quick and travel here before the secret gets out!

Lagodekhi National Park in Georgia is just one of the amazing National Parks that I visited in the country during my three month tour last year. And it is beautiful!

Lagodekhi National Park is a place of green, mossy forests, mountain springs, blue skies and wild hiking trails. It's in the far east of Georgia, with the Azerbaijani border on the east side of the park and the Russian border in the north. It's a good distance from the Georgian capital of Tbilisi by old Soviet busses, and is literally the frontier of the country. It's remote, but that just means it's quiet, and well worth the effort of travelling here.

The park is a protected reserve, with 94 square miles of land to explore. It is the oldest protected land in Georgia, with the origins of the park going back to the early 20th Century. It's a haven for wildlife, and the walks and trails can last hours or weeks.

The park begins right at the base of the Caucasus mountains, and ranges in elevation from 590 metres to 2500 metres. I visited at the start of summer, and while the trails lower down were open, the higher elevations were closed off due to snow even in June! I could only walk the forests, and missed out on a 3 day hike to the Russian border where a glacial lake is found straddling the two countries. I was confined to the lower forests, but what I saw still amazed me.

I was hiking through dense, tall trees. There was almost no one else on the trail. I only passed two or three other hikes during a full day's walking here. It was quiet, peaceful, and the perfect place to simply walk and take in the surrounding nature.

I was crossing beautiful rivers, fed from the mountains by glaciers and ice cold, refreshing and drinkable even. The water was fast as the snow was beginning to melt further up, and to get across I walked along fallen trees and negotiated rustic little bridges.

I was hiking to one of the many waterfalls in Lagodekhi. This was known as the Black Grouse Waterfall. The trail ran for five kilometres through the forest, slowly winding uphill, along the riverside and over boulders and huge logs which blocked the path at times.

Deep into the forest, where the trees surrounded me completely, the trail eventually burst into a mossy, green clearing where I found the waterfall falling from above. It was a spectacular sight.

Lagodekhi is a really spectacular Georgian National Park, but it's not the only one. The country is a land of natural beauty, from stunning coastlines to high mountain passes. It's a hikers dream, and a place you should get exploring soon!

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