McDonalds Playland - Turkish Style

Cappadocia is a region of central Turkey that is covered in bizzare rock formations, some of which are visually similar to Bryce Canyon in Utah. Millions of years ago, a bunch of soft tufa was covered by some hard lava. Once the lava cracked up, the tufa wore away much faster and the result are cones or cylinders of tufa protected by caps or mushrooms of lava.

Atleast that's what the geologists will have you believe, but the locals have another theory. They want to believe.
What makes this area even more interesting is that the Hittites living here a few thousand years ago used all this soft stuff to carve themselves some homes and hiding places so the area is blanketed in three major types of sites: cool shaped rocks, rocks with homes or Christian churches carved into them, and underground cities carved into hills.To the modern tourist, it is a playground for hiking the valleys, climbing higher than you should to see frescoes in the churches, wandering through the remains of ancient apartment complexes and getting lost and dusty in dark winding caves. We stayed here 7 days in a town called Goreme and balanced a few big hiking and scootering days with some naptime. The first big hike day, we did some good off trail climbing through a couple canyons, up through vineyards and pumpkin patches on the plateaus and down through a valley of absolutely phenomenal fun.