Park · Kaçkar Dağları, Rize
Kaçkar Mountains National Park
Kaçkar Dağları Millî Parkı
A high-mountain national park in the Kaçkar range behind the eastern Black Sea coast, entered at Ayder in Rize, with walking trails through summer pastures and alpine terrain.
Where it is
40.8439, 41.0499
Why go
Kaçkar Mountains National Park covers about 52,970 ha of the Kaçkar range, mostly in Çamlıhemşin district of Rize with parts in Artvin and Erzurum, and was declared in 1994, according to the Nature Conservation and National Parks directorate (DKMP). DKMP names the Ayder gate, 17 km from Çamlıhemşin and 84 km from Rize, as the way in. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Kültür Portalı describes eight walking trails and summer as the walking season. Bears and wolves live in the park. Groups of 12 or more must take an area guide under the DKMP rules; XTOUR has not verified any other permit requirement.
Getting there
The main way in is the Ayder gate, which the DKMP regional directorate places 17 km from Çamlıhemşin and 84 km from Rize; the map sends you to Ayder because the gate itself has no published coordinate. DKMP 2026 fees for Turkish visitors: ₺65 per person or ₺195 per car on the Rize/Artvin side, ₺55 / ₺165 on the Erzurum side. Groups of 12 or more must take an area guide. Winter road conditions and camping rules are not stated.
Best time to visit
Summer, per the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Kültür Portalı.
Through the year
Summer is the walking season (Kültür Portalı). No official winter road or closure statement was found.
Safety
Bears and wolves live in the park (Ministry of Culture and Tourism).
Accessibility
Mountain terrain; no step-free route is described.
Near Kaçkar Mountains National Park
Lake
Uzungöl
A lake-and-village resort area in Çaykara district, Trabzon Province, at about 1,100–1,150 m elevation — a lakeside boardwalk, forested mountainsides, trout restaurants and wood-chalet hotels, reached by a mountain road that real winter snow can disrupt.
68 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Museum
Yakutiye Madrasa (Erzurum Turkish-Islamic Arts and Ethnography Museum)
A madrasa built in 1310 in the centre of Erzurum, now the Ministry of Culture and Tourism's Turkish-Islamic Arts and Ethnography Museum. On UNESCO's Tentative List as one of the Anatolian Seljuk madrasas.
106 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mosque
Hagia Sophia, Trabzon
A 13th-century Byzantine church-turned-mosque on Trabzon's Black Sea coast road, with surviving frescoes including a Pantocrator Christ dome fresco — not to be confused with the far more famous Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, a different building entirely.
115 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monastery
Sümela Monastery
A Greek Orthodox monastery built into a sheer cliff face about 300 m above the Altındere valley floor, in Trabzon Province, reached by road and then on foot along a forest path and a long staircase. On UNESCO's Tentative List.
118 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ