East KZ: Charyn Canyon to Altai/Russia ?
 

Hi all, we will go to Charyn Canyon directly from Kyrgystan. Then we want to go to Russia, Altai region, so direction Semey.
We don't have a real need to go to Almaty.

But it seems from Charyn Canyon heading North, the best way is first West to Almaty via A6 and then North over the E40 to Semey?
We could also look at a bigger alternative, driving the roads in direction of Astana, hoping for better roads. But I have talked to people who've done both roads (they didnt go to Charyn Canyon) and they both complained about bad roads.

Thanks in advance.

Koktal - Altyn Emel - Shubar - Taldy-Kurgan is very beautiful, I would say a better option if you're skipping Almaty.

Is it worth driving that road without visiting the Altyn Emel national park?
And is the road of bad quality?

And what do you mean by Shubar? I find Shubar only much further away, near Astana

What are you trying to do?

As fast as possible -> Take the main road and hope the traffic through Almaty is not too bad.

Most scenic route -> Take the route I described. You can see Shubar on Google Maps. I don't remember it being bad, but I drove it in 2011.

Good question :)

We will try to cross Kazakhstan, after visiting Charyn Canyon area, in very little time. We need to be in time in Mongolia becuase of the visa, and we want to spend some time in Russian Altai as well.

So basically we are trying to figure out how much time it all takes. So maybe the main road over Almaty -> Taldy-Kurgan is the fastest but it will still take two days at least. Maybe three days is more realistic?
If the detour in the end is onky a few hours driving a more scenic road then maybe it is worth it. But we won't be visiting the Altanemil park, this we know.

The distance is not the problem, it is unclear what the road conditions are. I know that most of the road is boring anyway.

We are trying to do it in such a way that we maybe have a week for the Russian Altai.

kz
 

hi,
from kirghizstan border ( karakol) to taldykourgan 2 days, roads are good
. after taldykourgan semei doable in 2 days ( we stopped at ayagouz) roads are ****in bad ...

Ok we went just over Almaty and then up via Taldykorgan and so on. Because we crashed our drone and new propellers were available in Almaty :)

The road was pretty bad, but because of all the bad stories I was expecting hundreds of kilometers of potholes. It was mostly deformed tarmac, and we were a bit surprised that we could maintain some speed over these parts. Anyway, I think it should be possible to do Almaty to the Russian border in 2 days, but that is Mongol Rally style.
And it is pretty hard on the car.

The traffic is Almaty is only bad if you go at commuting times (or on a Sunday evening when everybody is coming home from a weekend in the mountains!). Other times it really isn't a problem, say 1000-1500 weekdays, most of the day at weekends. If you've already been to Almaty then miss it out if you can, there are plenty of little dirt roads out there, otherwise it's a must-visit in the region.