The Wet Canyon of the Psakho River is located between the coastal areas of Sochi and Krasnaya Polyana. This is one of the most beautiful gorges of the Sochi National Park. You have to plan several hours for this visit. The Dry Canyon of the Psakho River is 2 kilometers away. You can walk to it along the river or drive by car along the road around.
Psakho River Canyon is located 25 kilometers from Sochi Olympic Park. Moving along the New Krasnopolyansky Highway, you need to turn left towards the village of Galitsyno. After passing it, you need to turn left onto a dirt road. It descends into the valley with a significant slope. The road is passable for ordinary cars, but after the rain, it is quite risky to drive on it.
Off-road, you need to drive only 2.5 km, and you will arrive at the recreational area of the Wet Canyon of the Psakho River (the river flows through the canyon). There is a cafe and parking. Entrance to the canyon is paid, the ticket price is 200 rubles. 2 kilometers away, on the site of the old riverbed, there is a Dry Psakho Canyon (there is no river there).
Psakho River Canyon Recreation Area
A significant part of tourists visits only the Recreational area of the Psakho River Canyon, where wooden decking is laid for walking. You can walk along them over the white cliffs of a deep canyon. The height of the rocks above the river in this place exceeds 20-30 meters. This is the narrowest part of the Psaho Canyon.
Be sure to go to the place where the Psakho River flows into the canyon. Here the layers of marl rock have a beautiful wavy shape. In this place, you can take photos that travel companies usually put in guidebooks when they write about excursions to the Wet Canyon of the Psakho River.
The boxwood grove, which grows in the recreational area of the canyon, was of great interest. Back in the 2010s, this grove looked amazing. Moss hung from the branches of boxwood trees directly above the wooden decking. It felt like you were in an ancient relic forest. Alas, by the early 2020s, boxwood trees had died and now do not look so impressive. This happened because of the firefly butterfly, whose larvae were brought on boxwood from Italy for the 2014 Olympics. So far, partly healthy boxwoods have been preserved in the Navalishensky Canyon, as well as in the Yew-Boxwood grove.
Unequipped part of Psaho Canyon
1 hour is enough to visit the recreational area of the Wet Psakho Canyon, however, the real beauties are in the depths of the canyon. You can go there, but it is important to understand that there are no paths there. You should have comfortable shoes and minimal physical training. In some places, the passages between the rocks are narrow, somewhere you will have to climb over the rubble, but, in general, this route is quite easy.
The distance from the Recreation area to the waterfall is 2 kilometers. The height of the only large waterfall on the Psakho River reaches 3 meters. Near it, you can turn right and exit into the Dry Psakho Canyon. If there is a wish and time, then you can go further along the wet canyon, and then return back, however, most tourists turn right near the waterfall.
For 2 kilometers, the Canyon of the Psakho River is quite wide. The rocks are up to 50 meters high, but they are far from the riverbed. Branches of box trees covered with mosses hang over the river. The rocky banks of the river have the traditional layered structure of marl slabs for these places.
The flow of the Psakho River in the canyon is very uneven. In some places, it looks like a shallow stream; in other places, the water forms large pools (fonts). You can not only swim in them, but also dive from high cliffs. The color of the water of the Psakho River is mainly turquoise, but in deep backwaters it turns dark green.
Of all the canyons of the Sochi National Park, this Wet Canyon of the Psakho River can be called one of the most beautiful. Also in Sochi there are almost no canyons where you can walk along the river gorge for such a long distance. In other places, as a rule, there are insurmountable areas, sometimes you need to swim or walk waist-deep in water.
