Mount Ida National Park

Kaz Dağları rise steeply behind the Edremit gulf to around seventeen hundred metres, and the range is one of the more biologically rich in western Turkey - Kazdağı fir grows here and nowhere else, along with a long list of endemic plants, and the mixed forest of pine, beech and chestnut runs from the olive groves at the bottom to the bare ridges. The much-repeated claim that the air here has the highest oxygen content in the world after the Alps has no scientific basis and is repeated anyway; what is true is that the forest is dense and the air is clean, and the thermal springs at Güre and the mineral water have drawn people for a long time. Walking is the main activity: the Sutüven falls and the Hasanboğuldu pool, the Şahindere canyon, marked forest trails and, higher up, routes toward the summit that need a guide and in places a permit. The mountain is Homer's Ida, from which the gods watched Troy.

What you actually see

• The fir forest - the endemic Kazdağı fir on the upper slopes.
• Sutüven falls - the waterfall and Hasanboğuldu pool below it.
• Şahindere canyon - the gorge walk on the northern side.
• The gulf view - Edremit and the Aegean from the ridges.

When to go

April to June for water in the falls and wildflowers, September to October for colour and cool walking. Upper routes can be closed in winter and in fire season.

Honest expectations

Upper trails need a guide and sometimes a permit - the park restricts access to protect the endemic flora. A car is needed for the trailheads. Fire risk closes areas in high summer.

Nearby

Adatepe is on the northern slope; Ayvalık and the Edremit gulf beaches are below.