Trabzon Mountain Heritage: Ayder Highland Plateau Hot Springs, Kackar Mountains Trekking, Pontic Mountain Climate, the Firtina Valley Humpback Bridges, and the Black Sea Mountain Ecology
The Trabzon mountain route covers the Ayder highland plateau with the thermal springs, the Kackar Mountains trekking and glacier lakes, the unique Pontic mountain climate, the Firtina Valley Ottoman humpback stone bridges, and the Black Sea mountain ecology with the temperate rainforest.
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Ayder: The Highland Plateau Hot Springs
Ayder, the highland plateau at 1,350 meters in the Kackar mountain range 105 kilometers east of Trabzon, is the most complete mountain resort destination on the Turkish Black Sea coast with the natural hot springs, the traditional Black Sea chalet accommodation, the highland meadows with the wildflower bloom in June and July, and the access to the Kackar Mountains trekking routes that makes it the most popular single highland resort destination in the Pontic region. The Ayder thermal spring water, flowing at 56 degrees Celsius, is the highest temperature natural spring in the Black Sea mountain zone.
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Kackar Mountains: The Black Sea Trekking Circuit
The Kackar Mountains, the 3,000 to 3,937 meter range between the Pontic coast and the Coruh River valley, provide the most challenging and the most scenically rewarding high-altitude trekking circuit in Turkey with the glacier lakes, the alpine meadows, the Ottoman stone bridges, and the traditional yayla highland summer pasture villages that the shepherds occupy from June to September. The summit of Kackardag at 3,937 meters is the highest peak in the Pontic range and the most frequently attempted high-altitude summit in northeastern Turkey.
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Pontic Climate: The Temperate Rainforest Black Sea
The Pontic mountain climate, the most precipitation-intensive in Turkey with the Rize province receiving 2,400 millimeters annually, creates the unique temperate rainforest ecosystem of the Black Sea mountains where the rhododendron forests, the hornbeam groves, and the dense undergrowth of the fern and the wild strawberry form the most un-Anatolian landscape in Turkey. The Pontic rhododendron bloom in May and June, when the mountain slopes between 500 and 2,000 meters are covered in the pink and white flower clusters, is the most spectacular single seasonal natural event on the Black Sea coast.
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Firtina Valley: The Ottoman Humpback Bridges
The Firtina (Storm) Valley, the deep canyon carved by the Firtina River through the Pontic mountains between Pazar and the Ayder plateau, preserves the densest concentration of Ottoman-period humpback stone arch bridges in Turkey with the single-arch stone bridges of the 17th and 18th centuries spanning the river at the points where the caravan route crossed. The Tasmkopru bridge at the upper Firtina valley, the most photographically composed of the stone arch bridges with the jungle-like vegetation growing from the bridge stonework and the river in the gorge below, is the most Instagram-reproduced single landscape image from the Turkish Black Sea coast.
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Kackar Yayla Culture: The Highland Summer Villages
The yayla highland summer pasture villages of the Kackar range, the traditional Black Sea communities that move their cattle from the coast to the high mountain meadows in June and return in September, maintain the most complete traditional transhumance culture in Turkey with the portable wooden chalets, the dairy production of the local tulum and kolot cheeses, and the collective social life of the highland community that the modern tourism has both disrupted and preserved by creating the income that allows the yayla tradition to continue. The yayla festivals of July and August with the horon dancing and the highland food are the most directly authentic cultural events in the Pontic region.
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Black Sea Mountain Ecology: The Endemic Species
The Pontic mountain range contains the highest concentration of endemic plant species in Turkey with the Black Sea rhododendron, the Pontic laurel, the wild Colchic forest species, and the endemic fauna including the Caucasian grouse, the Caucasian salamander, and the the Black Sea brown bear population that the forest density of the Pontic range protects. The mountain ecology of the Black Sea coastal range, the eastward extension of the Colchic biodiversity hotspot that covers the Caucasus region, is the most biodiverse single mountain ecosystem in Turkey.