Park · Kazbegi Municipality, Mtskheta-Mtianeti
Kazbegi National Park
ყაზბეგის ეროვნული პარკი
A national park on the northern slopes of the Greater Caucasus around Stepantsminda and Mount Kazbegi, in the Tergi basin, with alpine meadow, cliffs, glaciated peaks and forest.
Where it is
42.7144, 44.6664
Why go
Kazbegi National Park, established in 1976 and managed by the Agency of Protected Areas, lies in Kazbegi Municipality on the northern slopes of the Caucasus, in the basin of the Tergi river, with its lowest point at 1,400 m. About 35% of it is forest and the rest is alpine meadow, snow-covered peaks and cliff; the national tourism administration records 1,347 plant species. The agency measures its sights from Stepantsminda, where the park's visitor centre is: Gergeti Trinity Church under Mount Kazbegi, the Gveleti waterfall in the Dariali area, the Sno valley and the village of Juta, and the Chiukhi massif. The agency also presents the Truso Travertines and Abano Mineral Lake natural monuments in the Truso valley. Each of these is a separate outing.
Getting there
The park's visitor centre is at 2 Aleksandre Kazbegi Lane in Stepantsminda, and the agency measures its sights from the town. The map pin is the visitor centre, not an entrance: the park's sectors around the town are reached separately. Road conditions, permits and seasonal access are not stated here.
Near Kazbegi National Park
Waterfall
Gveleti Waterfall
The larger of two waterfalls above Gveleti village near the Dariali gorge, a thirty-metre fall reached on foot after a short drive north from Stepantsminda.
4 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Gergeti Trinity Church
A walled 14th-century church on the hill above Stepantsminda, standing in front of Mount Kazbek, which rises to 5,054 metres behind it.
7 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Monument
Stone Heads of Sno
An open-air gallery of monumental stone portraits carved by self-taught sculptor Merab Piranishvili into granite boulders on a hillside at the edge of Sno village, Kazbegi Municipality, begun in 1984 and still growing today.
12 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Mountain
Chaukhi Pass
A high walking pass below the rock towers of the Chaukhi massif, climbed from Juta village near Stepantsminda and looking down on the Abudelauri lakes on the Khevsureti side.
22 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ