Kazbegi on Film: Gergeti Trinity at Dawn and Truso Valley

Field notes from a life in transit ● currently: Kazbegi, Georgia

Kazbegi

7 frames · 13 to 20 September 2026

Kazbegi, a church under a mountain

Kazbegi is about three hours north of Tbilisi on the Georgian Military Road, and the last hour climbs into a different scale of landscape. I walked up to Gergeti Trinity Church at dawn, the small stone church on its ridge, with Mount Kazbek behind it catching the first pink. The only sounds were my breathing and a dog that adopted me halfway.

I walked to the Gveleti waterfall and into the Truso Valley, where mineral springs stain the ground orange and white. In the guesthouse kitchen I was taught to fold khinkali, badly. Evenings were the peaks turning red, dinner by a wood stove, and then the stars, which up here are not polite about how many there are.

Field notes · Kazbegi

Hike to Gergeti Trinity Church before sunrise, roughly 90 minutes up from Stepantsminda, for first light on Mount Kazbek behind it.
Shared minibuses leave Tbilisi's Didube station for Stepantsminda in about three hours; the road can close after heavy winter snow.
Reach Truso Valley by 4x4 to the trailhead, then walk; it runs close to the South Ossetia line, so check current access before going.
Stay two or three nights in a family guesthouse, where dinner is often included, and pack warm layers even in summer.

kazbegi waterfall hike: Woman walking a mountain trail in Kazbegi, Georgia, wildflowers and grazing horses around her, high p

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Elsewhere in Georgia

Sofia Costa

Kazbegi

Gveleti Waterfall Walk: A Quiet Morning in Kazbegi, Georgia

Truso Valley, Kazbegi: Walking Into Georgia's Mineral

Kazbegi Guesthouse Kitchen: Learning Khinkali the Slow Way

Sunset Over Kazbegi: Alpenglow on the Caucasus Peaks

Gergeti Trinity Church at Dawn: Hiking Kazbegi, Georgia

Dinner in Kazbegi: Khinkali by the Wood Stove in

Stargazing in Kazbegi: Night Sky Over the Caucasus Mountains