Summer Trip to Russia 2018 - a week in Krasnoyarsk

Spencer left for Astana on Sunday, June 17th but the kids and I stayed in Krasnoyarsk for another week. Most of the week was busy with doing some remodeling in my mom's apartment (she needed our help to change wallpaper in the hallway), and the kids all took turns helping with the project (because of the limited space we couldn't put them to work at the same time).  But I also made sure we got out every day  and had some fun. Here are some of the things we did.

We went on walks along the river.

We went to visit my old school and we ate ice cream almost every day!

Here are the girls helping to scrape the old wall paper down.

This is how the hallway looked after we were almost done wallpapering it.

We went to the river to wade and skip rocks... because you could never do enough rock skipping!

The girls climbed trees.

Try to find Lina up in that tree. A hint: she scared me because of how high she got up there.

More tree climbers.

We did our everyday things like shopping in the extreme conditions! Extreme because of all that cottonwood tree fluff  that was flying around like huge snowflakes and making everyone sneeze.

The sun went down really late in Krasnoyarsk. This picture is taken almost at midnight.

We walked to the other bank of the river so we could get to the island to do some biking.

While passing some bank on our walk, the bank reps gave us the balloons!

And finally biking on the island which is almost as big as Payson, UT

The ground squirrels on the island were very friendly and were in abundance! Probably because everyone thought they were so cute and were feeding them. 

We had some lunch at Big Yorker which is kind of like a Russian Burger King.

We went to the local zoo but I for some reason do not have pictures of the animals.

I did have a picture of this cute goat in the little petting zoo. 

At the zoo we met my old friend, Ivan. 

Here is all of the fluff from the cottonwood trees. 

More tree climbing

 On Saturday, June 24th which was our last full day in Krasnoyarsk we decided to hike up to the National Park "Stolbi". We do this every time we come to Krasnoyarsk, and we love it even though it takes a long time to hike to the "fun part". This time Spencer missed it.

Taking an Eco trail during one part of the hiking.

Chipmunks here were just as friendly as the ground squirrels at the island.

Here is one coming to Lexa.

We finally got to the first rock "Slonik" (means "baby elephant"), and the kids did more ... climbing!

Here we got on the rock that is called "Grandma"

This one is called "Grandfather", the views from it once you get up there are amazing!

Here we are on "Grandpa" rock.

And here is the view of the taiga and the city in the far distance.

 

Sophie

On top of another rock called "Lion's Gate"

And the view from there.

Lina

This is my favorite rock of all called "Feathers".

Sunday evening we went to the train station (and we took my mom with us who is going to dog sit for us in Astana when we go to America in a couple of days), boarded an overnight train to Novosibirsk where we spent a few hours. Then we flew to Astana from there.

Taking a bus to the train station. It was +30C outside and the bus had a heater on ... thus the facial expressions on our kids!

This was the best open car train that we have taken. It was almost brand new and very comfortable!

We found some mall in Novosibirsk, and the kids went for McDonalds.

The three amigos walking the streets of Novosibirsk. 

We got home to Astana and were very happy to be reunited with Spencer again who apparently missed us also. We've been here for almost two weeks and in a couple of days are flying out to America to see our family there. Summer is crazy!

Stolbi (Pillars) National Park in Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk is a beautiful city that is right next to the Taiga on the East side.  The River cuts through the valley and very close by is a group of rock outcroppings called Stolbi (or pillars).  This is an area that has been made into a national park, and which is an international destination for rock climbers.

On our way up to the Stolbi.  This portion is a nature trail with interesting information about the forest.

It is one of our favorite places to go, and when we were there this year, we made a trip.  Normally we have gone with friends from the city, but this time, we went on our own with the girls.  Babushka hurt her knee early in the summer, so she also didn't come with us.

The last long portion before the base of the Stolbi and the long staircase up to the pillars.

At the base there is a park that is geared toward climbers.  Our kids "resting" at the park.

More "resting."

We caught a bus right outside of the apartment and it is a bout a twenty-five minute ride to the entrance of the park.  The air had a lot of smoke and pollution in it over the city, but the higher we hiked up the road, the better the air got.  You need to walk up a road for about three miles to get to the base of where the Stolbi start.  Then there is a long staircase up to the first set of pillars and then paths around to the different rock formations.  We got to the base by about 11:00 am, had a quick lunch and then spent the next few hours hiking to, climbing on, and enjoying the views.

Hiking past the first of the rock outcroppings.

Adventure!

Climbing on the stolbi themselves.

Adventurers!

The Taiga, looking toward the city.  The air was bad.

The Feathers, our last pillar of the day.

We had a great time spending the day together with the girls.  We had quite a workout[1] but the girls didn't complain at all. We love hiking together and this is one of the favorite places for all of us to enjoy that activity together.

Hiking back down after a long day of climbing.

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[1] My fitbit clocked about 13 miles for the day and over 225 flights of stairs, or more than 2,000 vertical feet of elevation climbed.