A Day in the Kızılcahamam and Çamlıdere Geopark

The reason to start the day here is simple: before you meet the basalt column, the petrified tree and the hot spring in the field, you read on the panels why they are all here. The Kızılcahamam Municipality's museum is in the district centre, in the Akçay neighbourhood. The layout has two floors. On the ground floor ten displays cover the formation of Anatolia, volcanism, the geological timescale and how a tree turns to stone; the 23-million-year-old petrified wood specimens are also on this floor. Upstairs fifteen displays introduce the geopark's stops one by one: the Pelitçik and Yahşihan fossil forests, the Güvem-Beşkonak lake deposits, diatoms, basalt columns. There are microscope tables, a film and interactive games; if you have children with you, give the first half hour to this floor, and patience in the field will come easier.

What to look at: the trunk cross-sections in the cases. Annual rings and vein structure can be read on the stone; at Pelitçik you will see the same texture in place, but there you cannot lean in as comfortably as here. The three volcanic phases named on the panels will come up again all day; note which stop belongs to which phase, because the colour and texture of the rocks in the field follow that sequence.

Check the municipality's page for opening hours and fees. Because the museum is in the town centre, Soğuksu is a few minutes' drive; the national park entrance is right above the town. This is also your last easy chance for lunch and fuel in Kızılcahamam, since options thin out on the Güvem road.

Source: Kızılcahamam Belediyesi, Jeopark Müzesi sayfası; Wikipedia, Kızılcahamam-Çamlıdere Jeoparkı.

Soğuksu begins right above Kızılcahamam and was declared on 19 February 1959 as Türkiye's second national park. Its 1,187 hectares climb from 1,030 metres to summits close to 1,780 metres; the highest points are Arhut and Tolubelen. The park sits in the belt where the Central Anatolian steppe turns into the North Anatolian forest: Scots pine dominates, with black pine and fir completing the picture. 428 vascular plant species have been counted, 50 of them endemic, among them the Kızılcahamam red mountain tulip.

On a geopark route this stop does two jobs. First, rock: the park is built entirely of volcanic material, andesite, basalt, tuff and agglomerate. Second, trees: between Kuzcapınar and Uzunkavak, on an area of roughly a thousand square metres, pieces of silicified wood lie on the surface; sources date them to between 10 and 15 million years ago. Before Pelitçik, you get a small rehearsal of the fossil forest here.

Look up as well. About 160 bird species are recorded in the park, and a colony of 30 to 35 endangered cinereous vultures nests here. In the morning the large black silhouette gliding on the thermals is not hard to spot, and binoculars help. The trails total 16 kilometres; there are marked routes and cycling paths, so pick up a map at the visitor centre. Picnic tables, grills and the campsite are around the main entrance; 70 percent of the park is a conservation zone, so stay on the path. There is an entrance fee; check the current rate and hours on the national park page. With two hours you can complete one trail and see the silicified trees too.

Source: Kızılcahamam Kaymakamlığı, Soğuksu Milli Parkı; Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı 9. Bölge Müdürlüğü; Wikipedia.

Turn off at Kızılcahamam onto the Güvem-Çerkeş road; after 18 kilometres, two short of Güvem, you reach Seyhamamı. The spring that names the village is the geopark's hot stop: water rising where a north-south fault crosses an east-west one surfaces at 44 degrees. Every hot spring here is the legacy of the same volcanic system; the lava cooled millions of years ago, but the heat at depth still warms the water and pushes it up through the faults. The spring and the basalt columns share a road for a reason: both are products of the same fracture line.

Kızılcahamam's thermal history reaches back to Roman times; the remains of a Roman bath in the district centre are taken as evidence. The official pages also tell a legend tying the district's name to Timur's reaction to the hot water after the Battle of Ankara in 1402. What sets Sey Hamamı apart, in the municipality's description, is that the water collects in a natural pool. The facilities, damaged in the Çerkeş earthquake of 1943, were later repaired and reopened.

Give it an hour: bathe, or just pass through the village and see where the spring emerges and steams. If you bathe, check hours with the municipality, bring a towel and slippers, and keep it short. If time allows, drive a few kilometres on: past Güvem, in the gorge by Fındıklı, the Beşkonak basalt columns rise on both sides of the road, lava 20 to 25 million years old that split into hexagonal prisms as it cooled, known locally as Sabun Kayalar, the Soap Rocks. A roadside look, not a stop: pull off the road, take no rock or fossil, then return to Kızılcahamam.

Source: Kızılcahamam Belediyesi, Seyhamamı Tarihi Kaplıcası; Kızılcahamam Kaymakamlığı, Jeopark durakları, Kaplıcalar ve Beşkonak Bazalt Sütunları Jeositi.

In the afternoon return to Kızılcahamam and head towards Çamlıdere; between Pelitçik, 11 kilometres southwest of the district centre, and its neighbour Yahşihan, a three-hectare area is registered as a first-degree protected site. This is the geopark's best known geosite: on the slope, roots, trunks and branches lie turned to stone. Geologists date the forest to the Early Miocene, between 23 and 15 million years ago according to the sources; it was a mixed forest of pine and oak, and the official pages add juniper. Silicification began in the silica-rich water of volcanic lakes: silica spherules settled into the cell walls and veins of the wood, and the ash of later eruptions covered everything and kept it for millions of years. The rings and veins you see today are not the tree itself but the silica and opal that replaced it.

The petrified pieces are concentrated in a band 250 to 300 metres long; experts from the Chamber of Geological Engineers and MTA write that excavation would expose the trees with all their roots and trunks, and that the site deserves to become an open-air museum. A landscape and visitor layout project has been prepared; even so, ask the Çamlıdere District Governorate about entry conditions and whether a guide is required, because free movement in a protected site is not always possible. Do not move or step on any piece.

Remember the trunk cross-section from the museum; here the same texture lies on a muddy slope at a far larger scale. In the centre of Çamlıdere, agate from these geosites is worked into jewellery and souvenirs. From the fossil forest return to Çamlıdere, then 15 kilometres to Çamkoru.

Source: Çamlıdere Kaymakamlığı; Atabey ve Saraç, JMO; Gürgen ve Çiçek 2009, DergiPark; Wikipedia, Pelitçik.

End the day at Çamkoru on the old Ankara-Bolu state road. It is 15 kilometres from Çamlıdere, 38 from Kızılcahamam, 110 from Ankara and 50 from Gerede. Declared on 9 April 2008, the nature park covers roughly 220 hectares and is recorded as the country's 23rd nature park. The old highway cuts the area in two: on one side a forest of Scots and black pine of middle and mature age, on the other forest clearings and Çamkoru Pond. The vegetation again belongs to the transition belt between steppe and northern forest: pine and oak species, aspen, hornbeam, fir and shrubby cinquefoil.

The thing to do is walk. The paths around the pond and through the forest are flat and short, ideal for stretching your legs after hours in the car and on slopes. There is trout in the pond; morning and evening you can watch the rings breaking the surface near the shore. A deer breeding station raises animals here for release into the wild; you will see the fence from a distance, do not approach it. Wolves, jackals, foxes and wild boar are also recorded, so do not wander into the forest after dark.

Facilities: a Nature Education Centre, a country cafe, a volleyball court, toilets and an entrance control point. Tent camping is possible, and the Ministry of National Education's scout camp is inside the area. There is an entrance fee; check the regional directorate's page for the rate. Summer evenings are cool, so bring an extra layer. For the return, either drive the old road to Kızılcahamam and join the D750, or connect to the motorway from Gerede; either way, set off in daylight.

Source: Tarım ve Orman Bakanlığı 9. Bölge Müdürlüğü, Çamkoru Tabiat Parkı; Wikipedia.