Red Valley Tickets and Tours | GetExperience.com

Red Valley and Rose Valley lie side by side between Goreme, Cavusin and Ortahisar. Iron in the tuff gives the rock its colour. It runs from pink to rust as the sun drops, and that is why people walk here in the evening.

Neither valley is a fenced site with opening hours. No gate, no ticket office, no closing time.

The chapels nobody signposts

• Hacli Kilise. The Church of the Three Crosses, up a ladder, with its cross carved into the vault.
• Kolonlu Kilise. The Columned Church, free-standing columns under a dome, further out and usually empty.
• Ayvali Kilise. The Quince Church, off the Rose Valley path and easy to walk straight past.
• The keeper. One or two are watched by a man with a torch and a kettle who takes a donation.

How people get in

Four or five kilometres of linked paths run through both valleys, which is two or three hours at a walk. Quad bikes, horses and jeeps use the same tracks. Almost every operator finishes the afternoon on the terrace above Red Valley.

A small cash toll is taken on the road up to that terrace. On foot over the ridge, nobody asks.

Practical

• The way back. Staying for sunset means walking out in the dark. Bring a head torch rather than a phone.
• Waymarks. Paths fork constantly and the paint marks contradict each other. People lose the trail here every week.
• Dust. Quad convoys pass all afternoon and the tuff dust hangs in the air behind them.
• Winter. Wet tuff turns greasy, and the steep sections become the part that hurts people.
• Cash. Toll, tea and church keepers are all lira. Nothing out here takes a card.