Anbil Lake Hiking Route

Ambil Lake Hiking Route

Ambil lake is one of the beautiful mountain lakes of Azerbaijan. It is located 935 meters above the sea level. The lake is near the Zayva village of Shabran region. It takes about 2-2.5 hours to get to the Zayva village from Baku. From the village to the nearest village resort it is about 30-40 minutes by offroad cars. We take a QAZ 66 car in trunk which more than 20 people can travel on foot or by sitting on floor.

Indeed this 40 minutes drive by old soviet offroad transport is an important and fun part of the tour. It gives a feeling of extreme as we pass by trees and branches crash onto us in several parts. It is no doubt that people mostly enjoy this trip on the trunk of this car. As we arrive the village resort we get of the car.

 Here in summer months people service tea and food to people travelling by car. The area is surrounded by forests and springs are available to store water. We start our hiking from this place. The trail taking soon ends in a river and then continues up the trail through the forest. The trail is mainly easy to walk on except one steep part a few steep parts that may challenge.

It may be slippery in rainy days and in snow. But we can assure you that you will enjoy your hike through this forest regardless of the weather.

The trail is not so long and it takes around 1.5-2 hours to get to the lake. Approaching the top the trail becomes straighter and leads to the lakeside.

There we see a beautiful view of the lake through the trees.

Here we set of and rest before we make activities. Then we make a fire here to prepare tea. It is almost a must here around Anbil lake, drinking a cup of tea by the lake view.

  We also spend some time here to walk around the lake to discover some other points of view and get some nice shots.

It is not recommended to swim in the lake though some people have tried so. In winter the lake becomes frozen that even we can stand on it. After a relaxing time we walk down the forest to our starting point. Again we have some fun and challenging time walking down the steep parts and then we reach the river. After passing it we reach our car that is waiting for us.

Near the resort there is another trail taking to small waterfall. For those wanting to try some extreme down climbing there is special iron ladders installed here to descend to the bottom of it.

This part is optional and no need to do if you do not feel like trying. It is not to unsafe but still a little challenging to go down the ladder as it is almost attached to the wall.

Spending some time in the waterfall we climb back and arrive in our place with the car waiting.

At times when we have time, we also play some outdoor games here in this resort place as they have volleyball nets. When it is time to leave we load our backpacks in the trunk, jump on it and head back to Zeyva village.