This was my second descent of Ahmetler Canyon. It’s a super fun day, something worth doing a few times. On my first trip through the canyon, I was cold almost the whole time. This time I had a full (as opposed to shorty) 3mm wetsuit. That was enough for the water temperature in September. I happily wasn’t cold at all. The other thing I wanted to improve upon from the first trip was finishing in the light. We dilly-dallied too much the first time and ended up finishing in the dark, unable to see what’s arguably the most beautiful part of the canyon. I saw it this time. However, by the time we got there, I was too tired to take any photos. 🙁 Guess I’ll just have to go back.
The canyon is deep, and the descent is long enough that you have to start early and you’ll probably end up finishing late. With three strong hikers moving quickly most of the time, it took us 11 hours to complete the descent.
The best time for photos is in the middle of the day when the light actually gets into the canyon. I guess the thing to do in order to get good photos of the great bottom section of the canyon would be to start at the bottom and just visit that section in the middle of the day. That’s certainly possible since there’s nothing a couple people can’t climb up through there.
Evren, Bekir, and I drove up from Antalya the day before and camped at the trout farm not far from the main road above the canyon (turn off the highway onto a dirt road where the highway crosses the Karpuz Çayı). The first challenge is finding the start of the hike. Seems like there’s quite a mess of roads at the top of the canyon, and unfortunately looking at my notes that I took just after going through here, it’s not clear. I believe it’s like this: go downstream 1-2km past the Alabalık place (~2km from the highway) and take the first right. That road immediately crosses the creek (a car cannot do this). Continue downstream another 2-3km to the first fork. Go left and switchback down to the stream and then follow a very vague trail downstream to the first rappel point, 10-15m into a pool. Hmmm, I wonder if that will help anyone…
Well, it’s a great day. I’m excited to go back. Any takers?
