"I love the lavish withering of nature!" As it is known, it was "autumn time" ("so charming to the eye!") that inspired Aleksandr Sergeevich Pushkin, an outstanding Russian poet, with the most ravishing creative urge.
1. The unique location of Almaty at the foot of the almost vertical four-kilometer wall of the mountains stretches and shifts all seasons.
2. Autumn comes here in the summer, when the first frosts suddenly break off splendid blossom in the high mountains and alpine meadows in one night acquire a fallow color.
3. And in September, any road to any gorge is the right way from summer to autumn.
4. The easiest route to the autumn is to go along the street Dostyk to the Little Almaty Gorge.
5. However, although the surrounding heights begin to dip rapidly into the beauty of withering, at this time there are still warm and sunny days in the middle mountains.
6. Bad weather usually doesn't last long, and even bad weather is not an obstacle for walking, especially if the goal is to admire the fast-changing and fleeting landscapes.
7. Thus, the enchanting raves of autumn colors as if sliding down from the top to the mountain slopes – demonstratively slowly.
8. The vegetation diversity and plentifulness determines the luxury of pure colors and almost imperceptible nuances.
9. Birches throw out a joyful golden radiance into the world.
10. Aspens fill up the color of the mountain slopes with subtle nuance of copper.
11. Maples and haws bring unspeakable warm shades to the general palette.
12. But the most picturesque and colorful at this time are steep slopes covered with groves of wild apricot – that's the very picture, truly worthy of the most discerning connoisseurs!
13. Another landscape worthy of being seen and appreciated at this time of the year is turquoise mountain lakes, such as Issyk.
14. And only the fir-trees – the background and frame of this Feast of life – become even darker and more severe at this time.
15. The sedate recession (but not the escape!) of the summer makes it possible for any small living creatures (like this blase garden spider) to live peacefully and fulfill destiny.
16. With a quiet rustle the leaves fall, and silence falls upon the mountains broken only by the whistling of the wind in the bare branches.
17. Numerous familiar birds fall silent and disappear and in return, suddenly, woodpeckers visible in the foliage, sounding out their "messages" in the hushed world, are found.
18. And another noticeable representative of local living creatures are fidgety squirrels trying on their new fluffy fur coats.
19. Leaves are falling but fruits continue to hang on the trees for a while; a good flavor supplements to any impersonal aestheticism.
20. Our autumn ends just by winter; but when the mountains are securely frost bound and covered with pure white snow banks, somewhere in the gorges sheltered from the wind, the trees are still shedding the last leaves and flowers.
21. But who said that winter in Ile Alatau is less picturesque and attractive than autumn?
22. All the pictures presented here were taken in the Little Almaty Gorge and its many "crevices", as well as in the Issyk gorge, in the area of the famous lake.
