GeorgiaOfficial tourism
Vashlovani State Reserve

Georgia's clay canyons, wild and strange

Vashlovani State Reserve

Why go

Vashlovani is the country's most unexpected landscape—a 35,000-hectare reserve where the lush Caucasus gives way to something closer to Utah. Here, wind-sculpted badlands of ochre and terracotta rise above pistachio woodlands that have grown wild since Soviet times, when the area was a restricted military zone. The clay formations known locally as 'Dedeckhoda' (Grandfather's Heads) create a maze of hoodoos and ravines that shift color through the day. It is worth the journey because nowhere else in Georgia—or the wider Caucasus—offers this collision of ecosystems: semi-desert, riparian forest along the Alazani, and those surreal eroded cliffs that reward patient hikers with silence broken only by chukar partridge calls.

On the ground See

  • Takhti-Tepha mud volcanoes, where cold grey mud bubbles up through cracked earth in a slow-motion eruption
  • The Pistachio Woodlands Natural Monument, with centuries-old wild pistachio (Pistacia mutica) trees that turn gold in autumn
  • Dedeckhoda Canyon viewpoints at sunset, when the clay badlands ignite in bands of rust, amber, and violet

Practical Know before you go

Best visited April–June or September–October; 4WD required and permits must be arranged in advance through the Agency of Protected Areas office in Tbilisi or Lagodekhi.

Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · reviewed quarterly