Ili Off-the-Beaten-Path Wild Self-Drive Loop｜3 Days 2 Nights of Ultimate Autumn Colors

Self-driving in Ili for 3 days in mid-September, avoiding crowded tourist spots, fully planning the scenery you want to see, with smooth routes, outstanding views, and constant surprises!
Starting from Xinyuan County on a small loop (also fully applicable from Yining City, Zhaosu County, or Tekes County!)

Itinerary Overview 🗺️
Day 1: Xinyuan County (Nalati Town) → Yining City → Yizhao Highway → Stay 🏠 Zhaosu County 383km
Day 2: Zhaosu County → County Road 758 → Zhaosu Yuhu Lake → Township Road 249 → Stay 🏠 Tekes County 186km
Day 3: Tekes County → Wild Crocodile Bay → County Road 765 (Chapuqihai) → Xinyuan County (Nalati Town) 260km

Itinerary Highlights ⭐
1️⃣ Nalati to Yining Expressway: Overall scenery is nice, with the most diverse views along the highway section, (p2) wind turbines, green trees, cornfields, barren mountains... all great for photos. A good start makes the journey more enjoyable!

2️⃣ Yizhao Highway: The core scenery is especially the Baishifeng Viewing Platform section. Autumn is naturally not as beautiful as summer (p4), but the first half with grass-cutting prairie herders (p3) combined with the sunset glow buff (p5) is still impressive! Rushed and only decided to depart from Yining at 7:00 PM, and the gamble paid off!

3️⃣ “Zhaosu Roll”: On the way from Zhaosu County town to Yuhu Lake, near the big "Military Horse Farm" sign, the golden stacked hay is very eye-catching and great for photos on sunny days (p6); there’s also an autumn leaf forest nearby, making the road trip very fun!

4️⃣ Zhaosu Yuhu Lake: The only paid attraction on this trip, 100 RMB per car for self-driving vehicles, 30 RMB per person; after entering the scenic area, navigate to ⚠️ Zhaosu Muzi Tao Wild Luxury Resort Hotel, park at the nearest lot (vehicles not staying at the hotel are not allowed in), walk the wooden boardwalk past the hotel front desk and continue climbing to reach the best viewing platform, bar none! (p1, p7) We visited all accessible viewing platforms, and none surpass this one next to the hotel!

5️⃣ Deep exploration of Zhaosu Yuhu Lake Scenic Area: Drive deeper along the lake, the autumn scenery is beautiful (p8); there are also wild rock paintings and Buddhist stone carvings (p9); you can see a few snow-capped mountains and vast desolation (p10); drive to the end and turn back, spending nearly 4 hours, the self-driving experience is very rich, take your time if you have enough time!

6️⃣ Township Road 249: From Yuhu Lake to Tekes, although a township road, the road condition is very good and traffic is light. Passing by Tekes River (p11) is very beautiful, horse farms have herders training horses (p12 top), and the river viewing platform (p12 bottom) is vast, the scenery is very surprising! p12 camera position marked ⚠️ Karagai Cloud Grassland Viewing Platform parking lot, can be directly navigated to.

7️⃣ Wild Crocodile Bay: Followed the guide but got lost many times, didn’t find Crocodile Bay but saw sunflower fields at different life stages (p13). On the third attempt, finally found it (will write about the tough journey next time), took a lot of time but worth it after seeing it (p14, p15). After all, the water and the two crocodiles were very happy 😁

8️⃣ Chapuqihai: The biggest highlight on the return trip! For a long stretch on the road, you can see blue water, many birds flying in circles by the water (p16), a lonely tree is also beautiful (p18), viewing the lake and mountains through autumn sunflowers and cornfields (p17). If only I had known, who needs Baisha Lake!