Hiking in Cappadocia - Love Valley

Enjoying a peaceful morning on the hotel's terrace

I'm letting the message at the 24-hour coffee shop set the tone for the day. Everything happens for a reason. I try to accept things I cannot change. I wasn't a bit surprised when I received the dreaded text about our hot air balloon ride: "Unfortunately tomorrow all balloons flight has canceled in Cappadocia by civil aviation because of the bad weather condition." Sigh.

Without a doubt, riding a hot air balloon over this phenomenal landscape is the most epic thing you can do in Cappadocia. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and there are few better places in the world to do it than here. But we will never know because they have been cancelled for the two mornings we are here.

Logistics: At $300 per person for the cheapest and shortest flight option, "Royal Balloons" is one of the most popular and reputable companies, and is already booked out through April, May and most of June. I booked online four months ago with Turkiye Balloons for $173. I read you get what you pay for - but I can't vouch for that.

Fortunately there are other things to do in Cappadocia - and Göreme is located in the heart of the various interesting sites! To my delight, it is the ideal base for hiking. There's plenty of trails to explore here for adventure lovers.

When you google what is there to do in Cappadocia, you get all the tour agencies offering similar color-coded tours with "Red Tour" and "Green Tour" being the most popular. They drive you from point to point along the beaten tourist trail. You can also choose horseback riding or an ATV ride. But there's no hiking on any of these tours. You'll have to search deeper if you want to do activities on your own and off the beaten path - without all the tourists that flood to Cappadocia.

Of course I chose the longest, most spectacular hike I could find for today! It goes through the local valleys with the reward of seeing the fascinating and varied eroded landscape. Starting and ending the hike from our hotel, we didn't need the car today.

The unique rock formations, called fairy chimneys, are a result of a geologic process that began millions of years ago following volcanic eruptions that rained ash across the area creating a soft stone (called tuff), which eventually eroded into pillars.

It was easy for us to walk to the Love Valley trail from Göreme

Love Valley is especially famous for its tall, cone-shaped rock formations

The harder basalt erodes more slowly than the softer tuff, forming a protective,

mushroom-shaped cap over each pillar

Any idea why they call this Love Valley?

The loose sand make the downhill sections as slippery as slides

The White Valley connects to the Love Valley

After stopping for lunch in Uchisar, we continued on the shorter loop through Pigeon Valley - named for the many pigeon-houses carved into the sides of the valley for pigeons to roost.

"Pigeon lofts" give the Pigeon Valley its name

The Pigeon Valley trail is shorter, easy and refreshing

Logistics: Starting at Panorama Campground, we used a pretty close variation of the All-trails map: Göreme - Love - White - Uchisar - Pigeon – Göreme. If you go the opposite direction (clockwise starting with Pigeon Valley) the trail is especially well-marked with pink paint. We went counter-clockwise so we could stop in Uchisar for lunch. You also don't want to end in Love Valley in the afternoon, when it is in the shadows. Most of the loop is flat and easy, except when the guy who made the route decides to walk up and down … going down on the slippery slopes is the most technical. A trail shoe is best; our running shoes were a bit sketchy on parts. Read the All-trail reviews for tips. They say to avoid the trail in or after a rain - your shoes get caked with mud that only attracts more mud. It took us 2 hours to finish Love Valley - White Valley trail and less than an hour to complete the loop back to Göreme via Pigeon Valley - at a casual pace. Both loops together are 7.75 miles. If you're walking into Uchisar add another mile. Love Valley is the better hike but Pigeon Valley is much shorter and easier. If you only want to go one way, you can easily take a taxi to finish the loop.

 

We ended the day sitting on the hotel's upper terrace - a big reason why I chose this hotel on Airbnb.

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