Borjomi-Kharagauli National Park

Long before its formal inauguration in 2001 with backing from the World Wildlife Fund, this expanse served as the private 19th-century hunting estate of Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich Romanov, brother to Tsar Alexander II. Centuries prior, medieval feudal lords utilized the rugged terrain as a natural defense system, leaving behind stone sentries like the nearby 9th-century Atskuri Fortress commanding the Mtkvari River corridor. Today, the park preserves over 85,000 hectares of the Lesser Caucasus, where dense canopies of dark-needled Nordmann fir and Oriental spruce cloak sheer ravines before yielding to vast subalpine meadows carpeted in golden yellow azaleas. Hikers traversing the historic Nikolai Romanov Trail trade the mineral-tinged air of Borjomi’s valley springs for the sharp chill of alpine winds along serrated limestone ridges. Reaching the wind-whipped summit of Mount Lomis at 2,198 meters, travelers encounter a panoramic sweep across Georgia’s spine, with the distant snowbound crests of the Greater Caucasus slicing the northern horizon on cloudless mornings. Along the steep descent into the Kvabiskhevi Gorge, the trail winds past weather-beaten wooden shelters and moss-covered boulder fields, echoing with the rush of glacial meltwater and the piercing calls of golden eagles soaring above old-growth habitats that still shelter the elusive Caucasian lynx and brown bear.