Sights of the Mountainous Crimea: the Silverfall

The grandiose array of Ai-Petri, towering over the Southern coast, gave the Crimean peninsula a lot of interesting natural objects. There are numerous caves, powerful springs, picturesque peaks, relict forests, and rivers with clear ice water.

There are waterfalls on Ai-Petri. Everyone knows the handsome Wuchang-Su, breaking off from almost a hundred-meter ledge on the southern slope of the mountain. Still, it's the highest waterfall in Crimea. True, in all its glory it can be seen quite rarely - after strong and prolonged downpours, and even in the spring, when the snow melts on the plateau. In the summer, as a rule, there is very little water in the Wuchang-Su river. During this period, another waterfall is much more attractive, decorating the slopes of Ai-Petri. It is located in the north of the massif, near the village of Sokolinoye, and is called very romantic - Silver jets (or just Silver).

About 20 years ago, only local historians and pedestrian tourists knew about this facility. It was a quiet corner of almost untouched mountain nature. But with the development of excursion tourism and outdoor activities, when the mountain Crimea became especially popular among the re-entertainments , the Silver Waterfall turned into one of the sights of the peninsula.

The places here are very picturesque: the slope of the mountain covered with beech-hornbeam forest, along which are scattered gray limestone rocks framed by dark green of mosses and ferns. On this slope runs a mountain river Sary-Uzen, carrying its waters to the valley of the river Kokkozki. The water stream leaps wildly along the rocky bed, then diving underground and forming a streamline current, then returning to the surface, overcoming the sills and breaking off from the rocky ledges by picturesque cascades. One of these cascades is the Silver Waterfall. Its height is only 6 meters, but not the height and not the power of the stream it attracts tourists. Silver waterfall can not be called majestic or grandiose, it is more suitable for the title of the most romantic.

Streams of water drain from the stone peak, covered with shaggy moss. Under the visor black cavity of a small grotto, against which the streams, illuminated by the sun, seem really silver. In winter, a bizarre curtain of icy stalactites grows here, thanks to which the waterfall was given the second name - Khrustalny.

The river Sary-Uzen has mainly underground food. Its source is an ice stream flowing from the source cave. Even in the summer heat, when most of the Crimean rivers freeze, this brook invariably murmurs, fueled by cave condensate. Therefore, the melodious rustle of the jets never ceases, and the cloud of the smallest drops that surrounds the Silverfall falls. This is one of the reasons for the popularity of this tourist site. In addition, there is a waterfall just a kilometer from the road connecting Yalta and Bakhchisarai, and the path to it is simple, smooth and picturesque. In the vicinity there are a lot of famous and not very interesting sights: the cave-source Yellow and the Yusupov lake, the rocks of Sedam-Kaya and Syuryu-Kaya with beautiful panoramic grounds, the Tea house. Only a couple of kilometers are divided by the waterfall Silver streams and the river Auzun-Uzen, flowing from the Grand Canyon.

Summer in these places is very crowded. To experience the charm of nature, it is better to come here in the off-season, when the silence of the forest is broken only by the melodious murmur of streams, which, despite the time and weather, invariably drops the Silverfall.