Navalishinsky Canyon may be considered as one of the most curious places in Sochi, where you can get to a primeval relic forest. Semi-darkness always reigns in yew & boxwood groves and there you can feel the atmosphere of the tropics.
Navalishinsky Canyon is near the village Krasnaya Volya, 8 kilometers to the north of Khosta (between the Central District of Sochi and Adler). If you go there by car, it is worth combining a visit to the Navalishinsky Canyon with a visit to the Vorontsovskaya cave. This trip will take you a whole day, if you will tour of both places without haste.
In the area of Sochi relic forests of yews and box trees survived only in three places. These are the Wet Canyon of the Psakho River, Yew&Boxwood grove of Khosta, and Navalishinsky Canyon where there are perhaps the most picturesque places.
Entrance of the Navalishinsky Canyon is one kilometer from the village Krasnaya Volya. If you decided to look around the whole canyon and have a trip down the bed of the Khosta river to a camping (approximately 1.5 km), you should agree on it at the entrance, so that they could send a jeep for you to the camping. After the trip down the canyon it will be very difficult and tiring to come back up to the entrance of the canyon.
When coming to the Navalishinsky Canyon you should follow this plan. At the entrance there is stairway leading to the bottom of the canyon. You climb it down to the White rocks. It is the most interesting and beautiful place of the Navalishinsky Canyon. There is a small waterfall between the rocks of white color.
From the waterfall you should go down the most picturesque path in the shade of relic box trees to the place where the Khosta river falls into a small running-water lake. The lake has got the name of the «Saint Pool», and you can have a dip in it and enjoy the surrounding nature.
After that, if you have not much time, you should climb up the same path to the entrance of the canyon, and if you agreed that they will fetch you from the camping, you can have a walk up the river. On the way you will see the most picturesque places of the relic forest, where not only trees but also stones and ground are covered with mosses.
In some places this trip will be rather hard, you will even have to get over stone blockages, but it`s worth the effort. Almost everywhere you will see relic yews and box trees.
The attractiveness of a private trip to the Navalishinsky Canyon is also that they usually don’t bring noisy excursions there, so there won`t be as much people as, say, in the canyon of the Psakho river. So, you are nearly sure to wander along the canyon in solitude.
