When you come to Sochi you should visit at least one of the local relic forests, which have remained unchanged since the pre-historic time. You can see them either in the Canyon of the Psakho River or the Navalishinsky Canyon, but the most acceptable for most tourists is the Yew & Boxwood Grove at Khosta. Alas, many boxwoods are significantly damaged by the firefly butterfly, whose larvae were brought on the roots of trees from Italy for the 2014 Olympics. However, in some places boxwoods are still preserved.
The yew-boxwood grove is part of the Caucasian Nature Reserve, although most of the reserve is located on the Northern slope of the Caucasian Ridge. If you haven’t your own car, the only real opportunity for you to get to the Canyon of the Psakho River or the Navalishinsky Canyon is to join an excursion, while you can get the Yew & Boxwood Grove from the Novorossiysk highway (main coastal road) either on foot or in a taxi for a token payment.
Yew & Boxwood Grove of Khosta is on the slope of the Akhun Mount. This way a forest looked in the period preceding the Ice Age (about 20-30 million years ago), when most part of the Earth was in the subtropical zone. Trunks and branches of trees are covered with thick layer of moss, and lianas are hanging down everywhere. Because of the moss the heads of the trees come so close to each other that semi-darkness always reigns in such forests.
You should determine the time you are ready to spend in this fairy-tale forest and choose either the Small or Big Rings. The length of the Small Ring of the Yew & Boxwood Grove is about 2.5 km, and the length of the Big Ring is about 5 km.
There is a concrete road on the Small Ring and, in principle, while walking on this road you can see all the main tourist attractions of the Yew & Boxwood Grove such from the gorge of foliated rocks called the «Maze» to the viewing point overlooking the white rocks and the giant yew of over 2000 years old. And certainly the moss-covered trees giving you an idea of the relic forest are all along the route.
Big Ring route hasn’t been used for a long time, so it had time to overgrow, but recently the path has been cleared and supplied with pointers. So if you are able to spend in the forest most part of the day, you`d better choose the Big Ring route, going along the bed of the Khosta river.
2 kilometers from the entrance to the Yew-Boxwood Grove is the Devil`s Gate Canyon. This is the deepest canyon of the Sochi National Park, you can swim in it. As in other canyons here you can see beautiful marl rocks. Devil`s Gate Canyon is located on the northern border of the Yew-Boxwood grove and it can be reached by car through the village of Dawn.
