Kazakhstan's outdoor landscape covers the steppe, desert, canyon, and high mountain registers of central Asia in a country that is the world's ninth largest. The Charyn Canyon in the southeast — a 150-metre deep erosion canyon of red sandstone in the Valley of Castles section — is a two-hour drive from Almaty and a landscape that repeatedly surprises visitors expecting featurelessness. The Kolsai Lakes in the Tian Shan foothills carry three glacial lakes connected by trail through spruce forest, accessible on day or overnight hikes. The Altyn-Emel National Park protects the Singing Dune, a crescent barchan that emits an organ-like resonance in the right wind conditions, alongside wild Przewalski's horse herds. The Aral Sea, catastrophically reduced by Soviet irrigation, is now a surreal landscape of ship graveyards on former lake bed above water that is slowly, partially returning. Tours by locals often reveal the rhythm of the place in a more natural way. The hidden gems usually do the rest.