Hiking, Trekking, and Culture in the Caucasus, Part 1: Armenia

Although most of the nine days I spent in Armenia were comprised of hiking (three shorter day hikes and a four-day trek), at all times I felt deeply immersed in the culture, history, and religion of Armenia as we traveled from the capital of Yerevan to all corners of this fascinating country. Indeed, since becoming the first country in the world in 301 CE to adopt Christianity as its official religion, religion has never been far from any discussion of Armenia’s history.

The Caucasus is a geographic region located between the Black Sea to the West and the Caspian Sea to the East, essentially connecting eastern Europe with northwest Asia. (As such I have categorized them as both Europe and Asia for these blog posts). As can be seen in the map below, the mountains can be divided into the Greater and Lesser Caucasus. The trek and hikes in Armenia were of course in the Lesser range whereas my next blog post, from Georgia, will be in the Greater Caucasus Mountains.

After the four-day Geghama Mountains trek, one other client and I decided to leave the group and spend a night in Yerevan (which we were driving past anyway) rather than continue to a camp on Mount Aragats, the highest mountain in Armenia and a further 2 hours drive to the northwest. For several reasons, the two of us did not do that final hike, to Aragats’ South summit, the lowest and easiest of its four summits. Three of the other four clients did make the ascent the following day during a weather window. The photo below was taken by one from the South summit. Congrats to them, though I had no regrets at spending my final day in Armenia relaxing in Yerevan.

Stay tuned next week for the second installment of my Caucasus blogs, from Georgia.

The Vagabond Hiker