The Kaçkar Mountains National Park covers 52,967 hectares across the provinces of Rize, Artvin and Erzurum. It was declared by cabinet decision of 11 July 1994 and gazetted on 31 August of that year. What makes it unusual geologically is how quickly the land rises: summits approaching 4,000 metres stand barely thirty kilometres in from the sea, with glacial lakes and alpine meadows between them. Forest covers 35 per cent of the area, 18,013 hectares.
The Directorate records 756 plant taxa here, 54 of them endemic; 149 invertebrate taxa, 6 endemic; and 178 vertebrate taxa. The World Wide Fund for Nature has identified the park as one of 200 ecological regions and one of 9 hotspots requiring protection worldwide.
The forest is layered and mixes conifers with broadleaves. Among the species recorded are oriental spruce, Scots pine, box, Anatolian chestnut, oriental beech, yew, alder and hornbeam, with rhododendron in its yellow, purple and white flowering forms, bilberry, bramble, ivy and ferns beneath them.
The mammals include brown bear, wolf, jackal, fox, lynx, roe deer, chamois, wild boar, wild goat, badger, red squirrel, eastern hedgehog, brown hare, forest dormouse, edible dormouse, martens and several bat species. Among the birds are Caucasian pheasant, chukar, Caspian snowcock, golden eagle, short-toed eagle, sparrowhawk, common buzzard, goshawk, pallid harrier, bearded vulture, Egyptian vulture, kestrel, peregrine, merlin, barn owl and little owl. Reptiles and amphibians recorded here include the common toad, the Caucasian parsley frog, the Caucasian salamander, the nose-horned viper, the Caucasus viper, the sheltopusik and the spur-thighed tortoise.
Six businesses operate inside the park under the park directorate and run by lessees — four in the Ayder section and two in the Çat valley — and beyond these, private accommodation and restaurants are found across almost the whole area, along with day-use areas, tent camping grounds, country cafés, kiosks and shops.
Almost all of the park falls within the Çamlıhemşin district, 65 kilometres from Rize, and there are two entrances from the town: one at the Ayder tourism centre, about sixteen kilometres away, and one at Zilkale, thirteen kilometres away, which is also how the Erzurum portion is reached. The Artvin portion is entered from Olgunlar village, 56 kilometres from Yusufeli.
The numbers on the park's own record say what sort of place this is in high season: a capacity of 1,035,000 visitors and 1,898 vehicles. Besides the accommodation and restaurants, the facilities a visitor will find across the area are day-use grounds, tent camping grounds, country cafés, kiosks, shops, children's playgrounds, prayer rooms and lavatories.
The list of things done here is longer than walking. The directorate names day picnics, nature walks, trekking, orienteering, mountaineering and heli-skiing, along with open-air events, wildlife and bird watching, festivals, organised gatherings and activities for children. It also states plainly why the park counts: with its immediate surroundings it is recognised, not only nationally but internationally, for its wildlife, the richness of its plants and its geomorphological formations, and the directorate calls it one of the most important natural areas in Türkiye. Among the bats recorded here are Brandt's bat, the lesser horseshoe bat and the barbastelle.
- Designated
- 31.08.1994
Entry fee
- Black Sea group 1 · category 1 · Per person
- 75 ₺
- Black Sea group 3 · category 1 · Per person
- 65 ₺
Visiting hours
- Visiting hours
- 08:00 - 19:00
Getting there
- Access
- The Artvin side of the national park is entered from Olgunlar village, 56 km from Yusufeli.
When to go
- Climate
- Across Artvin as a whole, monthly mean temperatures run from 2.8 °C in January to 21.3 °C in August; the mean stays between 15 and 25 °C in May, June, July, August and September; rainfall is heaviest in December (87 mm) and lightest in August (29 mm). Long-term means for 1949-2025 from the Turkish State Meteorological Service (MGM).
