Taganay in translation from the Bashkir language means "support of the moon". At night, the moon, as it were, stands on the support that Mount Taganay serves. Its length is more than 20 km and it consists of large, medium and small ridges.

The history of the creation of the park "Taganay"

The natural national park is located near the town of Zlatoust, which is located in the Chelyabinsk region. Intensive deforestation in the Urals has been carried out since the end of the sixties of the last century. A barbaric felling technique was used, when lumberjacks on powerful machinery completely fell down the entire forest over a large area. After such work, only thistle grew in this area for more than 10 years. The country needed building material and few people thought about the consequences that might arise after the destruction of the forest. And only in 1985, articles on environmental topics began to appear in the press, in which the question of thoughtless deforestation was raised.

In 1988, the Chelyabinsk industrial logging association planned to allocate 20 thousand cubic meters of Taganai forest land for felling. At this time (January 1988), representatives of the local community wrote an open letter to the Zlatoust newspaper about the barbaric destruction of forests, containing about 30 signatures of employees of various enterprises in the city. January is considered the month of the creation of the public committee for the protection of the forest. Under pressure from the public, the city administration decides to create a national park on the territory of the Zlatoust forestry plant. And at the beginning of March 1991, the Taganay State Natural National Park was formed.

general information

Taganai is a huge stone chain with a length of more than 20 kilometers and consisting of ridges called the Bolshoi, Malaya and Srednyaya Taganai mountains.

The height of one of the ridges is represented by: Responsive Ridge, Two-headed Sopka, Dalniy Taganai and Kruglitsa. The other is the Sabbat and Mont Blanc. The middle ridge is only 960 meters high. The closest to the city of Zlatoust is the Small Ridge with a length of about 8 kilometers.

There are many delightful places in the park that attract visitors from different parts of the country. There are unusual stone statues, large mountain ranges, stone rivers, ancient mines, mountain tundra, kurumniki, relict forests, many mountain rivers, huge mountain ranges. At the entrance to the park, you can see the peaks of the Sheep Foreheads and the Feathers of the two-headed hill, which are more than a kilometer high.

At the foot of the hill there is a spring called the White Key. Surprisingly clear and soft in taste, the water stays cool even on the hottest day. Its temperature does not exceed 4 degrees. White quartzite covers the bottom of the source and emits a pleasant light, which is why this place is considered sacred.

The next attraction of the park is the peak called Otkliknoy Ridge, which is over 1000 meters high. With loud sounds, a polyphonic deafening echo is heard next to him. If you look at it from a certain angle, it looks like an ancient foot and mouth disease, an elongated crest or a sea wave taking off.

Several stone rocks, about 40 meters high, which are located at a short distance from each other, are called Three Brothers. This stone statue is located between Kruglitsa and Dalniy Taganai. If you look at them from a distance, you get the feeling that these mighty brothers are coming down together from the top.

Along the trail covered with quartz sand, from the Otklikny Ridge through the Valley of Fairy Tales, you can reach Mount Kruglitsa. The Valley of Fairy Tales is a small area where a low-growing subalpine forest grows, surrounded by intricate quartzite sculptures. Each stone looks like wondrous animals or characters from fairy tales.

Dalny Taganay

This mountain is the most severe. The winds are constantly blowing here, there is nowhere to hide from the scorching rays of the scorching sun, but nevertheless the area looks quite hospitable. In the early morning, when a thick fog descends into the valleys, it is sunny on this hill, golden rays brown the already bright lingonberries and golden the tops of rocky mountains. The thirty-degree heat at the foot of Mount Taganay can change abruptly when you rise upward with freezing cold. Strong gusts of wind sometimes exceed 40 meters per second.

During the ascent and descent from the mountain in June or August, four seasons can be seen at once within an hour. The nature on Taganay is very beautiful during the August winter. Trees, grass and rocks are adorned with snow frost lace. Thick wires are covered with ice and sag almost touching the ground. A strong wind tears off pieces of ice from them and scatters them over the snow-white tundra. Going down half a kilometer down, you can find beautiful colors of autumn. The leaves of the trees are yellowish-green in color, and the bright clusters of mountain ash are covered with small whitish lumps of snow. A little lower, in the valley, the rays of the hot summer sun sparkle.

A meteorological station was opened in Dalniy Taganai in 1932, which existed until the beginning of 2005. Meteorologists not only predicted the weather, but also always provided assistance to tourists in trouble.

Big Taganay

Mount Taganay is located eight kilometers from Zlatoust. Bolshoi Taganai is located here, consisting of three peaks: the Two-headed Sopka, the Responsive Ridge and Kruglitsa.

Middle Taganay

Sredny Taganay is located eight kilometers from the border of the Taganaysky Park between Small and Bolshoi. Its length is approximately two and a half kilometers, it has three weakly distinguished hills and consists of quartzite minerals. Outliers with different shapes are located on the tops. The slopes of the Taganai mountain heights are covered with placers of burgers, junipers, larch trees, low spruces, birches, and firs.

Small Taganay

The Taganai mountain range on the eastern side is called Maly Taganai. It is located just three kilometers from the Taganay Park cordon and stretches for as many as eleven kilometers from the southwest to the northeast. Rocky ridges are located on the northern and southern parts of the ridge, the western slopes are covered with kurumniks. In the central part there is an alpine plateau with spruce and birch trees. The upper third of the ridge is occupied by mountain meadows covered with dense vegetation. The entire Taganai mountain range is visible from the peaks of Maly Taganai.

Mount Kruglitsa

This is the highest point of Taganay, which rises at a level of 1 km 178 m. The name of the mountain is associated with its inherent rounded shape, although part of the peak on the north side has a flawless flat surface. On a cloudless day, when the sun is shining brightly, watching Kruglitsa, you can see how it sways - it seems that the mountain seems to be ready to break away from the foot. This effect is due to the rounded shape of the stones, as well as closely located groundwater (the foot of the mountain is in a swamp). The stones, heated by the sun's rays, lose moisture, which is stored in the crevices, the air becomes mobile and the illusion described above is created. Mount Kruglitsa in Taganay, like a huge powerful magnet, attracts people who are interested in mysterious and paranormal phenomena. There is also a belief that all wishes made on a hill will certainly come true.

Unusual Taganay rivers

Stone rivers are an amazing natural formation, which is a heap of elongated rocky debris of enormous size, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. The inhabitants of those places call them placers.

One of the legends of the formation of these rivers says that the cause was a glacier that descended from the Taganai Mountains and contributed to the destruction of rocks. Large blocks under the influence of gravity as a result of the collapse of the top of the mountain gradually shifted along the slopes of the ridges, forming rivers of stone. The largest of them is located between the Sredny and Bolshoy Taganai ridges. Bolshaya Kamennaya River has a span of about six kilometers, and its width in some places ranges from 20 to 700 m. Lumps of stone of a round shape and weighing about 10 tons are located along the entire length. These blocks lie about five meters deep, and there are about 300 pieces on 100 square meters. The vegetation in this place contains lichen and rare spruces, which are several hundred years old. In the composition of blocks of aventurine, this is one of the varieties of quartzite.

Placers of stone blocks of colored aventurine, which are located near Itsyl and Dalniy Taganai, are called Kurumnaya River. Bizarre pines growing near the placers are beautifully framed by multi-colored stones.

Mountain Pencil

In the southern Urals of the Kusinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region, on the territory of the Arshinsky reserve, there is one of the most ancient mountains of our planet called Pencil, which means "black stone". Its age is estimated at 4.2 billion years. Over time, under the influence of wind, air and water, the height of the mountain decreased to 600 meters.

The breed of black stone that makes up the Pencil is called izrandite. This is one of the rarest and very ancient stones on our planet. Its composition is similar to that of the earth's mantle and does not contain organic matter. Many residents of the Urals do not even suspect that they live next to an amazing natural monument, although data about it have been published by scientists in the press for a long time.

Mount Mont Blanc

The Middle and Small Mount Taganay in the Urals is connected by a watershed isthmus, on which the Mont Blanc peak is located. It is fifteen kilometers from the city of Zlatoust. The height of the mountain is 1025 meters. It got its name in honor of the highest mountain clusters in Western Europe, located in the Western Alps. A wonderful view opens up to the Taganay Mountains from the top of Mont Blanc, from here the main peaks of Taganay are accessible from here.

Deep in history

This area has an ancient history and many interesting facts. For example,

1. Information about the oldest ridges in the world varies, but many official sources confirm that these are the Ural Mountains.
2. Since the 11th century, the Ural mountains in Russia have been called the Earth Belt or Big Stone. In the Middle Ages, they began to be called the Urals on the maps.
3. The modern lands of the Southern Urals were initially called, in a word, the Urals.
4. Among the Old Believers, the Taganai forests were very popular in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Elder Zosim, who was known as a saint, also lived there. Popular rumor says that the prayer read at his grave, located on Taganay, works unprecedented miracles and heals from ailments.
5. The schismatics performed their secret rituals in the area of ​​stone outliers called the Three Brothers. This was one of the favorite places of the Old Believers.
6. The Urals began to "sink" about five hundred million years ago. As a result, there was a decrease in the level of hills.
7. Mount Taganay was finally formed twenty-five million years ago.

• It turns out that there are mountain peaks in Canada that are roughly the same age as the Pencil Mountain.
• The water on the top of Mount Kruglitsy boils at a temperature of 96 degrees, since the atmospheric pressure on it is 100 mm lower than above sea level.
• The softness of water from the White Spring is higher than that of melted snow.
• Some local residents and numerous tourists who visited Taganay saw a UFO landing and found footprints of Bigfoot. Others even came into contact with them and ended up at other times. True or fiction, everyone decides for himself. But, undoubtedly, Taganay is shrouded in mysticism.

Tourist routes

The Ural Mountains Taganai attract a huge number of tourists and are part of the anomalous Ural zone. Within the territory of national park there are several roads:

• from the southwest: Zlatoust - Magnitka - Aleksandrovka;
• from the south - Zlatoust - Miass.

Hiking trails are laid in intermountain valleys and mountains by the travelers themselves. One of the most famous runs along the eastern slope of Bolshoi Taganai. It is in these places that valuable natural complexes not yet touched by man:

• Three stone rocks, called the Three Brothers.
• Nikolae-Maximilian mine.
• Responsive comb.
• Remains of the Devil's Gate on the top of Mount Yurma.
• the river Bolshaya Tiesma and Bolshoi Kialim.
• Akhmatovsky mine.
• Sopka Three sisters, Slyudyanaya gorka and several unnamed outliers, located near the Dvukhlava volcano, together forming the so-called Mitka rocks.

Snow cover in the South Urals lasts from 160 to 190 days. The maximum air temperature is +38 degrees, and the minimum is -50.

The Taganai mountain range is one of the unique corners of nature located in the South Urals.

Mount Taganay

I have been fond of tourism for a long time - water, hiking, cycling ... And once I went hiking in the mountains, to the Konzhakovsky stone. Then it became clear that mountain travel is very much to my liking. After all, good physical activity is good for the body, and the impressions of mountain landscapes, fresh air and clean water are simply unforgettable. The views from the peaks are breathtaking, only there you realize how large the mountain expanses are, you can admire them endlessly. Of course, after this hike, I wanted to visit other peaks of the Urals. The Taganai ridge in the Chelyabinsk region interested me for a long time, many friends told me about it. So I began to collect information and prepare for a meeting with Taganai.

The Taganai ridge consists of three separate parts - Bolshoi Taganai, Sredniy Taganai and Maly Taganai. They are parallel chains mountain peaks and rocks, interspersed with long tongues of kurumnik - the so-called stone rivers. The height of the mountains is up to 1178 meters (Mount Kruglitsa). The Taganay ridge gave its name to the national park of the same name. On the territory of the park with an area of ​​more than 500 square kilometers, small rivers and streams flow, springs flow. The vegetation is very diverse - there are pine, spruce, and deciduous forest areas, mountain meadows and tundra, and mountain woodlands. In general, plants in Taganai are found characteristic of the northern and southern Urals, the European part of Russia, the Volga region, Bashkiria, and Kazakhstan. This amazing picturesque mountainous country is called Russian Switzerland.

We recommend that everyone must visit this fabulous place, even if you do not have special physical training, since a trip to Taganai is within the power of the most ordinary person. The entire park is riddled with well-trodden marked trails, which indicate not only the direction, but the distance to interesting objects, so it is impossible to get lost. On the route there are several tourist camps, "shelters", where it is possible not only to put up a tent, but also to settle in a house with conveniences, having booked it in advance on the park's website. There are springs with the purest water near the shelters. For setting up a tent and firewood, a purely conditional fee is charged, absolutely not burdensome, especially considering the impressions you will get from visiting Taganay.

Journey to the Taganay ridge

We left for Taganai on May 28 at 1 am by train "Nizhniy Tagil - Adler". It's good that they decided to buy tickets a couple of days earlier, we bought the two penultimate, upper bins in the neighboring compartments. Arrival to Zlatoust was planned at 9 am on May 29. Alexander rode to the station by metro (there the last train leaves Uralmash at 00.05), and I, in a bourgeois way, took a taxi. The train was already parked at the platform, we calmly reached our carriage, loaded up, laid down sleeping bags. After the train started, we looked a little at the lights flickering outside the windows, and fell asleep.

In Zlatoust, only we got off the train - no one else. This surprised us a little, we thought that a lot of tourists from everywhere go to Taganay. We went into the station building - by the way, quite nice and modern, to buy return tickets. Although there were only three people besides us, we were stuck for a long time, it's good that we were in no hurry. There, one aunt handed over tickets, ordered others and could not decide which ones to return, which ones to order ... We already examined the entire station, learned that it was built in 1986 and is designed for five hundred passengers by the time she finished. The cashier at first scared us that there were only seats on the day train, but then it turned out that there are just two seats in the second-class compartment on the night Anapa-Yekaterinburg - the upper and lower bins in the middle of the car. Landing at 22.13 Moscow, arrival at 7.24. We were delighted and bought tickets. We went out to the station square.

Directly across the street from the station there was a monument to the metallurgist and geologist Pavel Petrovich Anosov, and the street also bore his name. The fact is that he lived in Zlatoust for about 30 years and managed to restore the secret of making damask steel for the famous Zlatoust blades. We walked along this Anosov street until a sharp turn to the left, trying to find a store where to buy bread and mineral water on the way, but the "Magnet" supermarket opened as early as 10 am, and small shops were somehow suspicious. We saw the Zlatoust tram, an old one, like in Nizhny Tagil, its doors open like in a train compartment. It seemed like they saw a store - at the entrance to the basement it was written "Products", and again I decided to try my luck. She went down, opened the door ... and took off at a gallop back. I smelled of such a fume that it hurts my eyes. I managed to make out long tables in the semi-darkness, and behind them local sorcerers sit with beer early in the morning. Apparently the food is immediately drunk.

Further on, Anosov Street turned into some kind of bypass road along the edge of the city. We passed a correctional institution - a colony or a pre-trial detention center - I don't know, only everything is in barbed wire. Further, the path went uphill, and several high-rise buildings loomed in the distance. On the right was the Zlatoust Electric Networks building or something like that. We approached a minibus stop, there were two booths, one with the inscription "Khlebushek". I poked my head in there, but it was just that he was not there. Canned food, beer, sneakers - please, but no bread. Local residents advised to go to a store in a high-rise building. We went in - and there we bought both bread and water. And at the same time we decided to have breakfast next to this house, there was a comfortable wide concrete curb, and we settled on it.

Alexander, while I was cutting sandwiches, asked the locals how we should go to the entrance to the park. They explained to us that we had to get to the end of the Pushkinskiy village, to the sign "Magnitka", and at the final stop of minibuses, near the store "Bely Klyuch", turn right along the dirt road. We ate, packed up and moved on. The road turned left here, turning into the village street of Tsiolkovsky with houses on both sides. We were surprised by the material from which many houses were built - these are railway sleepers, moreover, used, impregnated with creosote. Apparently, people do not realize that it is a carcinogen and poison. That's just how they take out the smell from it, especially in the heat. As soon as we walked along this street, we immediately saw the Bolshoi Taganai ridge - Two-headed hill, a piece of the Otklikny ridge and part of Kruglitsa, in my opinion. They were terribly amazed at how close they were to the city. Then it turned out that the impression was true only in relation to the Dvukhlava Hill, it is really only about 5 kilometers to it.

The street went very uphill, it was hot, it was hard to walk with backpacks. But, fortunately, the turn to Mount Taganay was not far away. Here the street was already called Bazhova. There was even a large iron shield, where there must have been an inscription before, but now it was possible to read on the rusty surface only "... it is ...". We assumed that the content was as follows: "Taganay. Natural monument. Protected by the state." Since the final stop of minibuses is nearby, from the station you don't have to stomp on foot, but get here.

So, we went to the entrance to the Taganay National Park, the name of which, by the way, is translated from Bashkir as "Moon Stand". The park is 25 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide. On the sides of the road there were already completed and still under construction cottages of varying degrees of wealth of the owners. I was especially struck by the one on the right - it looked more like a sanatorium than a residential building, with a huge territory, overlooking the reservoir, with huge windows, with a wrought-iron fence. To the left of the road appeared a large wooden cross with the inscription "Lord, save and save", and to the right, opposite it, is the entrance to the main estate of the national park, which we decided to take a closer look at on the way back.

First steps on Taganay

A large information board was unfolded right in front of the tourist, where the rules of conduct on the territory of the park were written, a map-diagram of mountains, parking lots and shelters, signs like "Parking is prohibited", "Making fires is prohibited" and other information about the natural zones, flora and fauna of Taganay. We took a few pictures and entered the park through the barrier. (Now the entrance is paid).

At first, it looked like a park - a wide and even alley led into the depths of a not dense deciduous forest. Immediately breathed greenery, freshness, floral aromas. At half past ten we walked about a kilometer along the path deep into the park, it was still easy to walk, the path really resembled a park path. There were almost no mosquitoes, only Sasha was tapped a couple of times by the legs, so we smeared him with "Mosquito". Magic aromas of pine needles, resin, flowering plants roamed around. Here, the wild rose is already blooming with might and main, fat bumblebees are buzzing ... On the side of the road, there are yellow swimsuits. The forest is mostly deciduous, although there are also narrow pointed spruces. We stopped to rest at a tiny river with a tiny bridge, drank cold water. A man rode past us on a simple bicycle without gears, he didn't even have a backpack, and he was shod in rubber boots, from which one could conclude that he was a park employee. The local Zlatoust tourists also passed by in a small group, apparently for one day, because with tiny backpacks.

After the rivulet, through a kilometer of a forest road, we arrived at the bank of a more impressive river, it was called Tiesma. She ran merrily along the light stones, spreading 15 meters wide. In places in it, the leaves of the water lilies fluttered downstream. An unusual bird, like a kulichny, wandered over the stones with a strange gait. Only her legs were short, she hunched over a little and periodically squatted. The whole bird was plump, chocolate-colored, and on the breast was a big white "bib". We watched her for a bit, and suddenly she did one trick, after which it was already impossible not to recognize her. The bird took off, dived to the water, dived about 20 centimeters and also flew abruptly, and a little further sat on a pebble. Like a penguin, honestly. It's a dipper! She is like this, diving, catching fish and all kinds of water insects. And there were a couple of such birds. A little further along the river there was a wooden bridge on metal supports, on the map it was listed as "Kialim". Along the banks of the bridge, there were several good campsites with campfires, chunks, and logs.

The Tesma River flows at an elevation of 3.5 kilometers, but between 4 and 5 kilometers the trail begins to climb steeply uphill, and even a lot of stones of different sizes and tree roots appear on it, so that you had to jump, trying not to break your legs. Further on, there was a smoother earthen path.

And so we walked along it, walked, and saw a strange tree on the left. A birch tree, and at the height of human growth, there is a huge growth on it, as if the trunk was tied in a knot, a meter and a half in diameter. We, of course, began to photograph this miracle. And then Alexander says: "The dog is running! No, it's a cat! The wild one will probably bite us now." I looked, and there was a medium-sized fluffy and slightly pregnant kitty of smoky gray color, approaching us with a rather decisive step. She came up and started rubbing against our legs, then she jumped up to me (I was squatting) and purrs and rubs! And she's all dusty! And everyone looks at their backpacks - where is the sausage? Well, she didn't look hungry and skinny, there were a lot of mouse holes around, so we didn't get food, but just scratched her ear.

While photographing the tree, we noticed that the roofs of houses were already visible in the neighboring bushes - it was the White Key shelter. There are several such shelters on Taganay. We went there. Everything seemed to have died out, no one. Several houses, all of them are open, on the tables here and there dishes and even food are left. So, apart from a large chain dog, we did not find living creatures. Behind the parking lot, a stream flows, formed by a key that beats through a small pipe. And directly opposite the key begins a metal staircase to the first peak of Taganai - the Two-headed hill, and its end is hidden somewhere on a slope in the forest. We met several people at this staircase, they were going to go further along the path towards the next shelter. They had no things with them at all, but was in the company, by the way, a pregnant woman, about six or seven months old. So, we understood that the inhabitants of Zlatoust just come to the Taganay Park for a walk. And also a family with two children came down the stairs - apparently, they were climbing to admire the view. We began the ascent, and with our backpacks - there was no one to leave them on.

The first peak of Taganai - Two-headed hill

We wanted to count the steps, we are looking, but they have already been signed by numbers. It turned out that there are 201 steps in the staircase. When we were climbing, we looked back - and behind us a stunning view of the valley and the Middle Taganay ridge opens up. We went up to the end of the stairs, there was a platform with a very large stone painted with paints, a parking lot and two paths diverging upward - to the right and to the left. After resting for a minute, we began to climb the left path. Very soon she began to go up so steeply (about 50 degrees, probably) that she had to crawl almost vertically over stones and roots. The heat had intensified by this time, the backpacks seemed to be stuffed with bricks. In addition, ants swarmed everywhere on the path, and in order not to crush them, you had to slow down and carefully look at your feet. We consoled ourselves with the thought that this was our slimming tour.

Somewhere in the middle of the slope, our legs simply refused to bully further, and we sat down to rest on a large stone, throwing off the load. Not far away, a bird's cry was heard, similar to cuckling, only in a different rhythm and dull, not "cuckoo", but "doo-doo-doo-doo-doo." A deaf cuckoo came to mind, but it seems to live in central Russia. Alexander looked at me and said - you have something with your face, it seems to have become larger. I took out a mirror, looked - for some reason, my cheeks were intensely pink for some reason, swollen, and I became like a hamster. Apparently, from the fact that she was walking in the heat in an inclined position and was puffing heavily. We laughed and crawled on.

The ascent took us about half an hour. On the site (not yet the top!) We tumbled almost unconscious. There were still 200 meters in vertical direction and 500 meters in distance to the left top of the mountain. In a narrow clearing, we threw off our backpacks, put on our jackets, and fell on them exhausted. We caught our breath a little. I got up and quietly walked to the rocks that were right in front of us. I got to the middle - from there I could already see a wide area up to Sredniy Taganai, the second rocky summit of the Two-Headed Volcano, a sea of ​​forests below, tall sharp rocks, a barrow ... I returned to Alexander and said that good pictures could be taken there. But first I had to refresh myself, and I began to collect lunch - pies, sausage, tea.

For some reason, I could not eat anything except one pie - apparently because of the heat and fatigue. We ate, Alexander went to the rocks with a camera, and I lay down and immediately fell asleep. I dozed for a long time. I open my eyes - Sasha is still not there. I shouted "Where are you?" He answered from the very top of the rocks, called me to him. I got up, went in that direction, but felt that my head was spinning, and did not climb up, although Sasha assured me that the view from there was amazing.

We began to discuss where to go next. We looked carefully around, and saw that the marked trail continues to climb to the first peak, first descending into a small hollow, and then climbing the rocks. Something like a metal ladder could be seen at some height.

We put on our backpacks again and walked on. Again the climb was steep, sand was rolling underfoot. We met a light man who was descending from the top. He asked why we didn't leave our backpacks at the shelter. I was surprised when I heard that no one was there - probably the inspector had gone somewhere for a while, he said. He wished us a successful climb, encouraged us by the fact that it was already very close. A few minutes after meeting the man, we were already at the top of Taganai - the Two-headed hill, all that remained was to climb the small rocks. As we later learned, we climbed to the southern summit of the hill, "Peria", and the northern summit is called "Sheep's foreheads".

We left our backpacks and went up light, jumping like mountain goats. From the top of the Dvukhlava volcano with a height of 1134 meters, we had a beautiful view of Zlatoust in the distance, the Middle Taganai ridge, a stone river and a valley in front of it, many high rocks, the second summit of the Dvukhlava volcano, Otklavy ridge and even a small piece of Mount Kruglitsa behind it. And in all directions, just like on the Konzhakovsky stone, stretched a mountainous country, only not northern, wild, but more southern and friendly.

Several reservoirs could be seen - ponds in Zlatoust, Lake Turgoyak at the very horizon, some unidentified lake far, far away. And for some reason the forest between the ridges was striped - light and dark stripes, apparently, once the coniferous forest was partially cut down, and a deciduous one grew in its place. And besides all this, we clearly saw thunderclouds, which quickly approached us, and it was already noticeable that it was raining there. Then we lowered our gaze below, and noticed a small green meadow at the top, where we could put up a tent. So we decided to do it - spend the night here, right at the top. We had some water and tea, and we could wash ourselves even in the morning on the White Key.

We went down to get our backpacks, made our way to a clearing and began to pitch a tent. By the way, at the edge of the clearing behind the bushes lay a metal structure, which we took from below for a staircase. It was part of the tower, bent and broken, and the second lay even further - probably, once fell from the wind.

As soon as we set up our tent and climbed into it, it began to rain, at first a little, and then more and more. We lay in the tent, feeling not quite clean, all the same heat and dust ... And then Alexander had a great idea - to wash in the rain. And so, undressing, we jumped out under the cold streams, jumped, shouted, welcoming thunder and lightning, got wet properly (I just put a plastic bag on my hair). And at the end there was also a hailstorm for a couple of minutes! We climbed back into the tent, dried ourselves with a towel and felt much better. We covered ourselves with sleeping bags and lay blissfully listening to the storm. In the mountains, it sounds different from below. Thunder as if at the very top of your head, thunders loudly, as if on an iron basin, rolling for a long time along the peaks of Taganay. The wind blew, it became cool and good in the tent, we dozed off on the sly.

We slept for a long time, Alexander woke up from the fact that he dreamed that he was invited to dinner. He asked - where is dinner? I didn't really want to get out of the warm sleeping bag, but I had to - I had to pack Sasha better and cut the salad. They began to have supper in the tent - it was still raining outside, and it was wet, but not cold. After eating, we fell asleep again. They didn't even drink tea in the evening - they slept. We also wanted to admire in the dark how the lights of Chrysostom light up below, but because of the rain and fatigue it did not work out. That's how they got tired, climbing the mountains.

At night it periodically rained and there were gusts of strong wind, but the air was warm, so we did not freeze. The night seemed very long to me, as I often woke up from the noise of the wind, tossed and turned on a hard, unaccustomed surface. At dawn I looked at what time it was - it was only 7.15, and I had already slept. But it was wet outside, so I left the tent only at 9. I had to look around. How surprised I was to see that around our ten-meter meadow, and nothing else is visible - white fog and that's it. Complete silence. As if on an island. Alexander asked to look for dry branches for the fire, but it was a stupid idea - everything was absolutely wet. So I climbed into the tent again, and we dozed for another couple of hours.

In the end, the sun began to break through, I leaned out - the sky was already blue above us and very quickly scraps of clouds were rushing right over our heads. The ghost of the Responsive Crest became visible in the fog. Gradually the clouds cleared away. The sun quickly dried the grass and stones. We hung sleeping bags and clothes on the rocks to dry, nevertheless we made a fire, thanks to a log that got wet only from above, newspapers and dry fuel. We boiled water for three cups of tea, and had breakfast. While collecting things, admiring the wonderful views, sunbathing under the hot sun, and hoping that the paths on the slopes would already dry up and not be slippery.

Contrary to our fears, going down was much easier and faster than going up. And there were no problems with maintaining balance, and the paths were no longer slippery. We sat down to rest only once, and that was because of the heat. On the way, Alexander saved a large black beetle from ants - they already wanted to drag him into the anthill. In short, at three o'clock we were again at the White Key, where we planned to wash, brush our teeth, wash the dishes. There was only one person there, the huntsman Maxim, very young, no more than 30 years old, probably. We asked if there would be water further. He replied that yes, of course, near the "Rattlesnake" shelter, but just in case I got a bottle.

While we washed and washed the dishes, a guy came from the side of the Responsive Crest, took off his shirt and lay down to sunbathe on a bench in the camp. In addition, as soon as we threw off our backpacks, a gang of two cats and one cat, blue-eyed and absolutely oblique, steered towards us with a confident step. In short, a cat of the most bullish and stern look. For the sake of order, the cats rubbed themselves against our legs, but quickly switched to communicating with backpacks, knowing from experience that the sausage was most likely there. Alexander filmed these colorful aborigines.

In the stream from which we washed, the water was very cold, Sasha even complained that his fingers were frozen. And I'm fine. We rested a little more, sunbathed, and went to the next Taganay shelter - "Rattlesnake", thinking that we still have time today, leaving our backpacks there, to go to the Response Comb. When they were about to leave, a guy and a girl came to the clearing, obviously not for the first time. The guy said that the cross-eyed cat is a descendant of the Siamese cat Semyon, who lived here for many years. Then he saw the huntsman, and yelling joyfully, he rushed to him. And he said to the girl that once he had met a friend, they would spend the night here.

We had to walk two and a half kilometers to the Rattlesnake. On the road, rocky and steep in places, we walked in the heat. We saw many good parking lots around. In one place, a river crosses the road, and to the left of it there is a large, beautiful meadow, all in flowers. The second peak of the Two-headed Volcano rises above the meadow, giving an unforgettable charm to this place. We sat on a large white stone, rested, drank some water. Soon we got to the sign, where it was stated that the rattlesnake shelter was 0.5 km, to the Otklikny Ridge, 3 km, and 7.5 km. to Mount Kruglitsa. About 300 meters later, a hut appeared on the left, which we first took for a shelter, then it turned out that it was just a bathhouse. And the shelter itself was 200 meters further - from afar appeared colored tents on a large green meadow, the flag of Russia, the "Chair of Desires", a two-story huntsman's house.

The clearing was separated from the road by lovely little birches. On one of them hung a sign with signs in different directions - "Responsive Comb" to the right, and "Mitka rocks" to the left. The top of the Dvukhlavaya Sopka rose above the glade. At the edge of the clearing there was a cozy place with a fire pit and chumps for sitting, Alexander immediately took a fancy to him, and they decided to put the tent next to him. Moreover, from here it was closest to the stream, as the huntsman Yuri told us. He also said that now there are no tourists here except us, and yesterday 15 people left, very noisy and drunk - so we were lucky. It turned out that backpacks can be left with him for free, and a tent - 30 rubles per day per person. We asked how to get to Mitka Rocks - they were closer than the Comb, only 1.5 km. Yuri showed the path marked with yellow marks. We quickly walked along it lightly to the place. On the way, we saw an anthill with the top blown off by someone, moose droppings and something that looked like the footprint of a small bear paw, the size of my palm. Then Yuri suggested that it was more likely a lynx left behind, bears are practically not seen here.

Taganay - shelter rattlesnake and Mitkiny rocks

We went out to a kurumnik made of huge boulders, which rose to the height of a nine or twelve-story building, and there stuck out the Mitka rocks - a picturesque ridge of sheer cliffs. We had to find the way along the stone placer ourselves - we somehow lost the path. I was scared to climb, I moved more and more on four limbs, in contrast to Alexander, who easily jumped from stone to stone. Almost at the very top there was a path. And there was also a tick walking on my jacket - we quickly took it off and threw it away.

The ridge turned out to be very narrow - it was not even possible to sit down in every place. Although the view from it was, of course, gorgeous, in all directions of the mountainous country of Taganay. From our side, by the way, it was quiet, and as soon as we leaned out over the ridge, a strong and cold wind began to blow. I found a place where you can sit without fear of falling, and Alexander climbed the entire ridge of rocks with a camera. Moreover, in order to shoot a circular panorama, he asked me to hide behind the stones, so for several minutes I froze in the wind, sacrificing myself for the sake of art. Then I chewed nuts and candied fruits while Sasha waited for the right lighting for the pictures. And then we went back, now along the marked path, which was much easier. It was getting dark, already hungry. So we made haste.

We returned, a little afraid that someone would show up and take a good tent spot that we had looked after. But nobody came up. We took our backpacks and went to camp. Having packed our things in the tent, we went to dinner. I went to fetch water, and Sasha made a fire. For dinner they made mashed potatoes and salad, got bacon. The beauty. We ate, and went to look at the map of Taganay - it hung on the huntsman's house. We looked around from all sides the awnings with tables and couches for those tourists who do not have a tent. For some reason, there was hay in another tent, although only seven cats live in the shelter itself (during our entire stay there we saw only two of them). On the second floor of the house there is a suite with gas, three double beds, but no electricity. The exterior of this suite is finished with light colored siding and the entire house is wooden. The shelter also has a generator for special occasions, so you can charge your cell phone, for example.

Rangers are on duty for a week, they live on the first floor. Yuri told us this when he came with a receipt for payment. I also bought a magnet with a view of Taganai from him (the quality, of course, is not good, but I need it as a keepsake). Yuri warned that you only need to go to the toilet in specially built "M" and "F", and showed where they are. Well, Sasha went there with an inspection. He returned with clear signs of shock on his face. I asked what had happened - is it really that great. Alexander replied that if I came up with an idea to go to "Zh", I would immediately abandon it, since the smell of this place knocked me off my feet, like in a gas chamber.

Then we boiled tea in the morning and hiked to the next peaks - Mount Kruglitsa and Otkliknoy Comb. We went to the tent and listened for a long time to the birds, of which there are many. Gradually it got dark, Middle Taganai was the last to plunge into darkness. We talked quietly, sharing our impressions of Taganai, we were glad that we arrived on weekdays. There are a lot of people here on weekends, so it would hardly be good to have a rest. Yuri said that there were forty (!) Tents here for the May holidays, and he collected 8,000 rubles. And since many bring vodka and other swill with them, one can imagine what is happening here. The mountains, apparently, were simply covered with people.

The night passed quite normally, only at first it was chilly - some kind of damp fog hung, or something. And by the morning it got warmer, so we slept until nine o'clock like babies. I was already preparing to go to wash, when a caring Yuri came up to the tent to wake us up so that they would not be late for Kruglitsa. Alexander shared his impressions of the cocoon sleeping bag. There, when you pull on the lace of the hood, a small hole remains for the face, and if you spin a lot in a dream, like Sasha, then this hole slides into your ear, or the back of your head, and you can't breathe. So that's funny. In a dream, he had to try to turn the sleeping bag on himself - just a circus balancing act.

I washed up, began to prepare breakfast and pack my backpack for the trip - water, food. Sasha folded up the tent (Yuri advised not to leave it in the clearing - homeless people from Zlatoust may welcome, but it is small, light, they will carry it away), folded things that we would not need in the mountains. We even did a little exercise. By the way, in the morning for some reason mosquitoes and midges appeared, which somewhat distracted us from business. We had breakfast, took our things to Yuri, and went to Kruglitsa, the highest peak of the Taganai ridge. We were given a map with us just in case, although the entire path is marked.

Taganay - Mount Kruglitsa and Otkliknoy Ridge

We decided to pass by the Responsive Ridge, without climbing it, first ascend Kruglitsa, and on the way back to the Ridge. The fact is that the path is not marked on it, people climb wherever it is convenient, and then return to the marked road. Our path led up a hill, first through an ordinary mixed forest, which gradually turned into a dense spruce forest. We started from the 8.5 km mark. at the shelter "Rattlesnake". On the way, we saw footprints similar to those of a moose. Further, after a kilometer and a half, a very interesting mountain forest went - with almost no undergrowth, just with a bed of blueberries, consisting of undersized curly birches, small Christmas trees, pines. It was visible through and through far away. We walked past a large clearing, from which the Responsive Ridge was already visible, hanging over the forest, if you shouted, you could hear a double echo. For some time we walked under the shade of this colossus, and finally came to an even larger clearing at its foot.

The Responsive Crest rose like a giant wall, almost vertical on this side. It had the shape of a stegosaurus bone crest, all of peaks, turrets, pillars, and left an indelible impression. Only I immediately realized that I didn't want to climb on him, he looked too formidable and unfriendly. On one of the peaks the Russian flag was erected. In a huge clearing there were picturesquely scattered groups of small trees, and in the middle there was a perfect classic Christmas tree, decorated for the New Year with sweets and blue foil bows - apparently, tourists celebrated the holiday right here. This glade is used for days, no campfires are visible - everywhere it is written that you cannot make fires and put up tents here. There were a lot of anthills along the way, and besides, large ones. There are crowds of ants everywhere. There are many more white butterflies, some of them are already dying, and the ants are dragging them away. From the same glade, Mount Kruglitsa was already visible - the highest object on Taganay (1178 meters). The trail went abruptly to the right and began to descend, and then went straight. In one place there was a pass overlooking two valleys between the mountains.

The ascent began again, we approached the "Valley of Fairy Tales". The path looked like a park path - sprinkled with fine white sand, it looped between small trees and bright flowers. In some places, figured rocks, reminiscent of fairy-tale characters, rose. Many Christmas trees have shaggy lichen beards. The sun was shining brightly. At the 12th kilometer to the right, the trail went to the "Taganai" shelter, and our path lay straight through the Valley of Fairy Tales. We walked along a rocky path in the thin shade of trees, and suddenly an unusual clearing opened up to the right, all lined with pyramids of various shapes made of stones. They were small and large, simple and intricate, and presented an amazing sight. On a tree in the depths of the glade there was a sign "To the blessed memory of Andrei Tarasov". We thought that this man had died somewhere here, and tourists put these figures in his honor. But it turned out that this tradition began long before the death of Tarasov. According to legend, if you fold such a pyramid and make a wish, then it will come true.

A hundred meters after this glade, the path went up and led us to the rocks at the edge of the Valley of Fairy Tales. The bottom of this valley was also sprinkled with fine white sand, and figured rocks protruded from the thickets of fir trees and birches. To the right was a path leading to Kruglitsa, apparently from the Taganai shelter. We climbed the rocks, Alexander views of the Responsive Ridge, Kruglitsa, Middle Taganai. Having admired and rested a little, we continued on our way. It was clear that the ascent to the mountain would not be too difficult - after all, it was not for nothing called Kruglitsa - its slopes, covered with burgundy, are very gentle and quite even. We are already accustomed to jumping from stone to stone, large backpacks did not interfere with us. In one place Sasha saw an animal flashing under the boulders - some kind of rodent, probably a pika or something like that.

At 13:24 we reached the very top of Mount Kruglitsa without even getting tired. Only I was very hungry. There were many inscriptions on the stones of the summit, among them such as "Zaitsev N. 1903 God". That is, tourists have been walking up the mountain for more than a century. There were also plaques about the death of some people and a wooden cross. The view was beautiful in all directions - the surrounding valleys, the village of Magnitka, Zlatoust, Lake Turgoyak, Mount Three Brothers, some settlements on the horizon, more mountains ... And the gaze stopped on the plateau of Kruglitsa itself, located below the top. It stretched for half a kilometer, completely flat. But most importantly, different names were laid out on it with white and pink stones, the largest was "Jeanne" and a heart twenty meters in diameter. Lazy people came here!

Alexander wanted to descend by all means to this plateau and reach the opposite edge of the mountain. At first I hesitated whether to go there, but then decided to take the risk. Although the kurumnik there consisted of larger stones, and I really wanted to eat. Well, after 20 minutes we were already on the plateau, looking for a place for lunch. As soon as they sat in the shade under the bushes, some flies flew out of the grass, terribly annoying, although not biting. They got into the eyes, into the mouth, into the nose, into the ears ... We changed our location, sat down on the name of Jeanne laid out with stones, but it did not help. I had to put on a windbreaker, tighten the hood and so it is. And Alexander just ran in circles with food so that the midges would not catch up. In addition to midges, the same white butterflies flew in a multitude, low mountain flowers bloomed all around, moss turned green, some kind of variegated lichens. A lark was flying and singing over it all.

After lunch, we went to the edge of the mountain. Nothing special was revealed from it, so we turned around and took another road around the summit to the marked path. On the way, Sasha found and put in my palm a small light ball of unknown origin. He asked in an admiring voice, what is it? I knew that, and I made a statement about it - it's dried hare turd! Alexander was surprised what hares were doing here on the mountain? Well, the answer was obvious, here it is, in my hand. We didn’t make our way along the kurumnik too quickly - some stones swayed, we had to move carefully. I was very happy about the trail, just like an old friend. We quickly went down it and at 15.30 we were back in the Valley of Fairy Tales. The road to the Responsive Crest awaited us.

We went down the already familiar path, but did not reach the clearing itself, but turned right earlier along one of the many paths that led to the beginning of the Responsive Ridge - it seemed to us that it would be easier to climb there. But as soon as we reached the foot and began to figure out how best to start the ascent, two tourists appeared - we recognized them as a guy and a girl whom we had already met on the "White Key". They asked if we had seen holes with a spring. And we really came across a pit on the way, only the water in it was stagnant and littered with fallen leaves, insects and even bottle labels. The guy was sad, they needed water. Regarding the ascent, he said that it was possible to ascend from the edge, they climbed there even in winter, but it would not be possible to get to the peaks along the ridge - they are separated from each other by large crevices. Therefore, you need to climb in the middle of the Ridge, and it seems that even a girl (that is, me) will be able to climb. Well, we went to the center, there began a barely noticeable path upward.

When we began to climb, two more tourists came up to the clearing below, pulled up an awning, set up a tent. At first, the path was quite normal - a kurumnik, smaller pebbles ... True, these pebbles sometimes drove underfoot. But then the path became vertical earthen, where you had to cling to some bumps and bunches of grass. And approximately in the middle of the ascent, I realized that even if I was lucky and I could climb up, then I would not be able to get down. We'll have to call a helicopter. And I told Sasha that I was staying here, on the playground, to wait for him. He tried to persuade me again, but I resisted. Then Alexander continued on his way alone.

And so I stuck on this patch for an hour and a half, contemplating the surroundings and thinking how I would go back down. Once I heard from the top of the Responsive Sasha's cry, and at the first moment I thought that he had fallen. But then I realized that it was him with delight. I continued admiring the white flowers and butterflies, sang all the familiar songs so that it would not be boring. The sun went down the mountain, it became cool. Then the midges flew in. I put on the hood of the windbreaker, and they began to beat against it, and the sound was very similar to the sound of raindrops, I was even scared - there was just not enough rain here - we will never go down at all. At the bottom, the tourists turned on the receiver, and I listened to a thematic selection of songs "Just wait for me" by Gazmanov, "I am standing at the plane ladder, I miss the height" Antonov and others, also in the subject.

And then, finally, Sasha's voice was heard, he called me by name to determine my location. I answered him, and in a few minutes he joined me. Alexander shone like a polished samovar, was disgracedly pleased. Do you want, he says, I'll show you the face of a happy man? And in the camera he shows a picture - he snapped himself at the top - such a joyful one! It turned out that he did not get to the top right away. Tropinochka came up against an impenetrable rock. He went down a little and went a little further along the slope. He climbed up again, and again ran into an insurmountable obstacle. And so several times, and it was clear that other people also walk and look for ways to rise. He even wanted to retreat, but decided that this was an unbearable shame for him, and continued to look for a way. Finally, with grief in half, along the steep cliffs, he crawled to the top of the Responsive Ridge.

Alexander enjoyed the views, crawling along the Ridge for a long time. But, in the end, he remembered about the unfortunate girl waiting for him on a patch between heaven and earth, and began to descend. True, I had already forgotten the way down, that's why I shouted "Lena!" After all the enthusiasm, we decided to go down. Fortunately, I mastered the descent pretty well, and it was not difficult for Sasha at all. In the clearing, we sat down on a stone to have a snack and drink some water, and behind us we saw tourists under an awning. Alexander became interested in its design and approached them. It turned out that the awning was homemade, about 3 by 4 meters, stitched-glued. They told us in detail how to sew it, how to make fasteners ... They said that awnings made of polyethylene matting are lighter and last longer. We said goodbye to the tourists and went back, now the road went downhill, so we got there very quickly.

We went into the huntsman’s house, took our things, and went to pitch a tent. When it was installed, Yuri came specifically to tell us that we installed it in record time - 6 minutes. Sasha replied that we were not in a hurry yet, but if it were going to rain, a minute would have been enough. Then Yuri asked what my phone number was - I repeated it again, and he said, why did I incorrectly tell him the last digit? Apparently, he did not hear it that way. It turns out that he lost us, and began to call my phone, and since he dialed incorrectly, they answered him that there was no Lena there. We were surprised - after all, we hadn't been there for so long - we left at 10.00, and returned at 20.00. And Yuri decided that we were lost. I asked - where can you get lost here? There are so many beautiful landmarks around. And he replied that quite often this happens to tourists (apparently, to a drunken head).

We gave the huntsman money for the night, had supper, and fell into the tent - we relaxed, rested, nevertheless we crawled over the mountains. Then we got out to have some tea, and finally went to bed. For tomorrow, they planned to sunbathe in the meadow for the first half of the day, and then go to the stone river, and maybe to Sredny Taganai. We didn’t sleep perfectly at night - firstly, it was still cool, and then wild dogs came, stood up near the tent, and let’s bark. It lasted a long time - probably two hours. They will be silent for a couple of minutes - and again. I thought that they were barking at some animal in the tree (Yuri in the morning confirmed my assumption, a pack of stray dogs often frightens Taganai tourists). In addition, a night bird moaned periodically. Then, when the dogs calmed down, the choral singing of night birds began, so loud that it interfered with sleep. In short, the night was restless.

On June 1, we woke up at nine o'clock. My calves ached from yesterday's hike and my thighs from the unusual lying on solid ground. But the weather was wonderful, just like summer, like in July. I went to wash - and braked in admiration at the tent - our meadow seemed like a heavenly place - blue sky, bright green grass, flowers, butterflies, sun rays. Yuri had a window open in the house, there was a flower in a pot on it, music was heard from the radio. After water procedures on the Rattlesnake, I took Alexander out of the sleeping bag (the sleeping bag was twisted, so the poor fellow could not open the zipper on his own). I let him lie around for a bit, and then resolutely did some manipulations to get the tourist out of the tent.

Yuri periodically walked by us - now mowing the grass, then on some other business. Finally, Alexander began to show signs of life and went out into the clearing. While I went to fetch water, I made a fire, boiled tea. After exercise we had breakfast (Sasha ate sandwiches, and I had Bystrov porridge). And then we began to sunbathe - we spread rugs on the grass, lay around ... Only Alexander was bothered by insects - now a mosquito, now a fly. Then I sent him for a camera to take a picture of me in a new swimsuit - since he still can't lie.

We had a photo session, then Sasha suggested a fun action - he poured ice water from a spring into two bottles, put the camera on the self-timer - and I started pouring water over it in the frame. Well, our faces came out in the photo! Sasha's eyes crawled out of their sockets, and mine is a pug, extremely malevolent. By the way, a peasant has already passed by us twice, obviously from the locals, who, apparently, collects acid here (alpine mountaineer, or Zlatoust acid wood) - this is such a Taganai herb, from the young shoots of which people make jam, prepare salads, salt them, pickle and etc. They say that all this is very tasty and healthy, and nowhere else does this oxalis grow.

We had lunch with salad, homemade lard, mashed potatoes. Then they packed up their things, folded the tent and again handed everything over to Yuri for safekeeping. He asked where we want to go. When he found out that he was on a stone river, he advised him to go further, to the Middle Taganai ridge. I expressed doubts that there was something interesting there, but Yuri said that from there the best view of Bolshoi Taganai, that we would not regret it. Well, well, we decided, we will reach the river, to the foot of the ridge, and there we'll see if we have the desire to climb there.

Stone River and Middle Taganay

We took dinner with us and left at 13.30. By the way, since it was Friday, tourists began to flock to the clearing of the shelter. We warned the first boy and girl that we would not take our place - we will return. They proceeded to the other side of the clearing. I had a premonition that this evening would not be as quiet and calm as the previous ones. Down the path we moved 0.5 km to the red arrow-pointer "Mount Kruglitsa", "Responsive Comb", etc. There, to the left, a path marked with yellow marks turned to Sredny Taganai. She led through a rather damp forest. It was immediately noticeable that there were very few people walking there, but the trail was being watched. We crossed several streams, small and larger. I was glad that we were walking in the shade, because the sun was burning again with all its might.

And so we got to the stone river, its main channel. The spectacle was impressive - 70 meters, or even more in width, it was littered with blocks the size of a sofa, completely randomly. And in length, these rubble were lost in the distance (in total, the river stretches for 6 kilometers). And when you look between the stones - there, under them - not the earth, but stones again. Then there was a narrow strip of forest, and again a stone river. We crossed all this quite easily - we already have experience jumping over stones. On the way, she threw a squirrel eaten by a lump at us.

About an hour later we reached the Starokialim tract. This is the road that leads from the entrance to Taganay Park to Mount Kialim. This is where our marked trail seems to end. We parted with Sasha in different directions - to look for continuation. There was a narrow path opposite the exit to the road, but without yellow markings, so we first decided to make sure there were no other paths. When I was walking, I scared off two birds the size of a partridge by the road, which suddenly began to roll and roll under the trees. I looked closely - and they pretend that their wing is broken and lead me away from the nest.

Not finding anything that looked like a trail, I returned. Sasha also did not find the path, and we went further along the existing one. After a few tens of meters, the yellow marking resumed. We made our way through the same damp spruce forest, climbing over fallen trees, jumping over the cobblestones. Gradually the trail began to climb up. In the gaps of the trees, one could already see the slopes of the Sredny Taganai ridge - the shortest ridge, only 2.5 km. After about ten minutes the slope of the path became almost vertical - I had to climb the roots, like steps. Several times they fell to rest on stumps and stones. It was very hot even in the shade of the trees, it was hard to breathe. We reached the fragments of the kurumnik, climbed them, turned left, then a little to the right - and went to the rocks at the top. Here I scared a female capercaillie, so plump, gray.

We looked around - it turned out that there are several peaks, and to the highest one must go even further to the left. But we decided not to rush, and first relax on a very comfortable flat area, from where a magnificent view of the entire Bolshoi Taganai opened up - Two-headed Sopka, Mitkiny rocks, Otkliknoy ridge, Kruglitsa, Three brothers lined up in front of us in a row. Also, among the trees was seen the shelter "Rattlesnake", where we spent the night. As in the palm of your hand, there was a stone river along its entire length. We photographed all this, and then lay and sunbathed, admiring the views. White butterflies were hovering above us, and ants were crawling along the rock. The feeling of peace and detachment from the world was complete. The silence was broken only by the noise of foliage and bird chirping.

We rested for an hour and a half. Then it was decided to go to other peaks. At first they left the things, but then they had to pick them up, since the summit was far away. There were several such rocky peaks, one of them stood completely separate from the rest of the massif, like a piece of halva placed vertically, a meter wide, and a seven-story building high. We did not go to the highest peak, because it was necessary to go down deeply and climb along another path. They looked around the surroundings from the previous one - from here the mountains of Bolshoy Taganai and Malyi Taganai, Zlatoust, valleys between the mountains opened up ... And over Zlatoust clouds were swirling, and it was clear that it was already raining. And all this is moving in our direction. Then we realized that we had to do our feet if we didn’t want to slide down the wet steep slope on the bottom. We decided to have supper later.

The descent was better for us than the ascent - we almost ran over the slope. We quickly got over the stone rivers, where a capercaillie was playing very close to us. And then it started to rain. I covered Sasha with my windbreaker to prevent the camera from getting wet. And she herself did not even get really wet - the forest covered us.

We came to the camp, and there were a bunch of children. They brought a whole class, or two, it's good that they stopped at the clearing farthest from us. We failed to have dinner at our parking lot - it started raining again. Then we quickly put up a tent, hid all our things there, and then we went under the shed near the huntsman's house. It was dirty there, but we were standing normally chewing pies with tea, looking at the tent. We returned to our house, and lay there until the end of the bad weather. Then again, like yesterday, they burned a fire, drank tea, looked at the sky and the mountains ... Children, of course, squeaked and ran around, but not too intrusively. Mostly they had fun hiking to the stream, but some climbed all the tents of the shelter. The adults accompanying them sang different songs.

I was drying my trousers on my hands by the fire - the whole bottom of their trousers was wet. Simultaneously with this useful work, I admired the sunset and flames. Sasha noticed a butterfly hanging on a branch on the tree - so she apparently settled down to sleep for the night. Finally, the pants were dry, and I crawled into the tent. At this time, another four or five tourists approached, and began to decide where to park. It seems they went to a stream in a distant clearing. The children no longer screamed, they all fell asleep. Well, and it was time for us to sleep. And as soon as we fell asleep, about five more people arrived in the clearing, and at about one in the morning, seeing that there were tents around, and people were obviously sleeping in them, they began to talk loudly, laugh, shout and make a lot of other noise. The upbringing is gorgeous! Hello parents. I wanted to get out of the tent and stab the assholes. But it was too lazy to get out, and after a while they still calmed down. The rest of the night passed quietly, only a bird creaked all the time, like an unlubricated swing.

On the way back

On the last day of our stay in Taganay, the plans were somewhat interrupted by the rain that had been going on all morning with short interruptions. So we had to have breakfast in a tent, and until 12 o'clock we lay in it. All this influenced Alexander so much that he began to shake me, imitating a trip in a train carriage, and saying "You are, you are, you are ...", "Tu-tu-u-u!", "Will you take the bed?" We have even begun to consider a plan in case the rain continues and further - to collect things under a canopy, and go back right in the rain. But fortunately, the sky began to clear, and soon the sun came out. And then it shone so much that instantly dried both the grass and the earth ... We had lunch with mashed potatoes and salad, so we had very little food left. Unless Alexander will bring a can of canned food back home, and a loaf of black bread as a souvenir from Zlatoust. We packed our things, said goodbye to the huntsman, to the beautiful meadow of the shelter, and set off on our way back.

We walked unhurriedly, because there was enough time - the train was only at 12 at night. On the way, we crossed several barrows - I had already forgotten that they are there. All the time we came across groups of tourists - adults, children. There were also 20 people ... Saturday. We were glad that we spent most of the time here on weekdays in complete desertion. Alexander greeted some schoolchildren with the words "Hello, comrades, pioneers!" It turned out very nice. Two more children asked us, "If you see a group of people with small children and huge backpacks, warn us that we are not lost yet." We, of course, complied with their request.

We got to the "White Key" shelter, stopped there in a clearing to sit and rest. But it didn't work out for a long time. In one of the houses of the orphanage, I noticed some kind of fuss - it was, either two drunk guys were fighting, or were fighting. Their movements resembled underwater ones. Alcohol defeated both. Soon a drunken youth with traces of a strong addiction to alcohol on his face also taxied up to us from their company. He stuck a little snake in my face, said that it was a viper, and he was playing with it. Do I want to play with the snake too? He clearly counted on me screaming, fainting, or running. But I love snakes, besides, I know how to distinguish a viper from a snake. So she showed polite interest on her face, but refused to play. It became clear that it was necessary to get out of here, the peace and quiet were broken by drunken voices. So we continued on our way, meeting a variety of tourists over and over again. Already tired of greeting them. All sorts of pleasant aromas were spinning our heads at last - it smelled of flowers and honey, then sweet pine resin, then jasmine (although it does not grow there).

Somehow, unexpectedly quickly, we reached the Tesma River. There, on a cozy meadow near the bridge, they decided to sit until the evening - it was not in the city to wait for the train. Alexander lay down on the rug, I covered him with clothes so that mosquitoes would not disturb him, and she sat on a pebble on the shore, and looked at the running water, dangling my legs in it. Dipper birds flew back and forth again, wagtails galloped over the pebbles. And then from the side of Taganai a company of three people appeared, apparently from those who got drunk in the orphanage. They swore at each other as they walked, approaching the bridge with unsteady steps. We have not yet been seen behind the bushes. They sat down by the bridge, finally quarreled, and one of them came out to our clearing. He sat down on a log and began to swear further, looking at us. His "comrade" poked him up, and they began to quarrel again. I listened, listened, I feel - no strength, my ears wither. I asked them not to use foul language, but in response one of them began to be rude, saying that they came to the forest to swear on purpose. I say - the forest is big, go to another clearing, and swear there ... He replies, no, we will not leave. Then, I say, we will leave. And I pretended to pack my backpack. As soon as they saw it, they immediately dumped. Apparently, they just wanted to do some rest in front of someone. Everyone was waiting for Sasha to say something.

After they left, we moved to the stones in the middle of the river - there were no mosquitoes. Alexander found in the water some creatures disguised as pine needles. Like needles, but crawling, moving their mustache. The larvae are probably someone else's. People crossed the bridge - some to Taganai, some back. Then Sasha climbed into the water, rinsed himself, and we went to dinner. After dinner, Alexander got carried away with ants - he gave them a candied coconut, then he freed beautiful golden beetles from the anthill. While we were getting ready, tourists came, whom we met at the Responsive Ridge - a man and a woman, who told us how to sew an awning. So, it seemed to Sasha that the woman was blind. Her companion led her by the hand, they crossed the bridge with a "train" - she held on to his belt. Alexander was amazed by this fact, and me too - I thought, how does she cross the barrow?

Well, finally we moved towards Zlatoust, it was not difficult to walk, only in places on the road we came across wet and slippery places. Remained three and a half kilometers to the Taganai forestry. Met a local employee on a bike (we've seen him before). The sounds of cars from the road to Magnitka, as well as distant rumbles of thunder, began to be heard. Along the sides of the trees, here and there were visible signs of some kind of game like "Zarnitsa" with pointers - it was not in vain that two teenagers in paramilitary clothes ran out into a clearing by the river, clearly in a hurry and looking for a way. We went to the main estate of the Taganai park, entered it, but it turned out that there was absolutely nothing to do there. Several fragile buildings, where the registration and household services are located, a small camping for cars, some gazebos. Teens play badminton, adults hang out with beer ...

We got to the final stop of the minibuses "Settlement Pushkinsky", we decided to wait there - whether there will be a thunderstorm or not. We bought ice cream and a chocolate bar and ate it sitting on a bench. Finally we admired the peaks of Taganay - the Two-Headed Hill and the Responsive Ridge - they could be clearly seen from here. Along the way, we contemplated the local residents, who somewhat spoiled the pictures of nature with their alcoholized faces. Happy parents came out of the store with two friends, loaded three large bottles of beer into a basket under the stroller, and the fourth, which did not come in, shoved under the baby's blanket. And they went to drink as a drunken company. We sat for a while and went to the train station, taking pictures of the interesting illumination of houses by the sun on the way against the background of black thunderclouds. We even saw a rainbow.

We got to the small park of the locomotive depot, very cute, with mothers and children in strollers, but littered with husks from seeds, which these same mothers actively produced. The last cleaning here was about five years ago, I guess. After a short rest, we reached the station and went up to the second floor to the waiting room - we had just over an hour left before the locomotive. Besides us, there were two more passengers and a couple of guards under the palm trees. And if you count the policemen, there were three times more of them than the passengers. Through large glazed windows one could see the mountains on one side, and on the other - a piece of Chrysostom with trimmed trees, a tram, a monument to the master of blades and rare passers-by. And where the mountains are, black thunderclouds roam again. While we were sitting, thunder began to rumble, lightning flashed, and a downpour poured in. We were worried about how we would get out to the train. But by the time we landed, the rain had stopped, so we didn't get wet. On the train we immediately went to bed and arrived wonderfully to Yekaterinburg.

The result of our trip to Taganay

National park We liked Taganay very much. The reasons for this are simple - this wonderful place is accessible - from the train on foot in an hour, you already find yourself in the park. The park is monitored - you will not see heaps of garbage (and just garbage) there. Apparently, people have been warned that they cannot litter, and the park employees are doing the work in good faith. Taganai has wonderful air - fresh, fragrant. The nature of Taganay is very diverse and rich.

There are many attractions in Taganay, and absolutely different ones, designed for different categories of tourists. These are peaks, rocks, and stone rivers. Shelters provide a choice of recreation - in tents by the fire or comfortably, in rented rooms. The only advice for those who love silence is to go up the mountain on weekdays, on weekends there is a huge influx of people.

Well, and we deliberately did not visit all the peaks of Taganay, so that there was a reason to definitely return to this magnificent national park - to discover the Kialim mountains, Dalny Taganay, where there used to be a meteorological station, and now a tourist shelter, to look at the geological miracle - the Three Brothers rock , the lowest of the peaks of Taganai, Mount Yurma, which means in Bashkirian "Do not go", get acquainted with the rocks "Devil's Gate", in general, spend a few more magnificent days on Taganay.

Nothing distracts you from a long working week like a trip to nature. As for me, the farther from the usual places, the better. In general, one of my days off I decided to try my hand, bought a plane ticket and ended up in the glorious Chelyabinsk region. “The choice is unusual,” you might think. But it is here, not far from the capital of the Southern Urals, that the famous Taganay ridges are located. Not only residents of our vast Motherland rush here, but also foreigners. For some, the trip is a journey into a fairy tale, for others it is a search for anomalous phenomena and even Bigfoot.

I will note that the ridges began to disturb the mind of a person back in 1770, then the first scientific expeditions took place in these places.

It is not easy for Muscovites to get to this magnificent creation of nature. First you need to choose a mode of transport, then get into, then break your head and somehow get to Zlatoust (the nearest city to the base of the rocks), and from Zlatoust it is already a stone's throw to the ridges.

But first things first.

How to get to Taganay

Before going to Taganay, any traveler must make a difficult journey! The mountains themselves are located near the city of Zlatoust, which is located in the Chelyabinsk region. You can get from Moscow directly only by train (details can be found below) - this is the only way without transfers. It is more difficult to get from St. Petersburg, even a train journey includes a change. So it is most convenient to get to Moscow, and then go to Zlatoust.

So, the rest of the trip will inevitably lead you to two cities: and Chelyabinsk. And from there we get directly to Zlatoust. These cities were not chosen by chance. It is here that numerous airlines fly, flying with which will save time, effort and your energy.

By plane

Covering 1,750 km from Moscow to Chelyabinsk by car turned out to be an overwhelming task for me, so I decided to use air transport. It is cheaper to get from Domodedovo airport, a ticket will cost about 2,000-2,500 rubles one way if you buy it a month. The closer the departure date, the more expensive the tickets. Such companies offer their services as:

• Red wings(the most budgetary, but also on the oldest planes), I will arrange a little anti-advertising and say that the airline staff is completely unfriendly and rude. My experience has shown that I will no longer use the services of this airline;
• Low-cost airline "Victory" the cheapest company, but lunch during the flight is not at all guaranteed to you, because it is not included in the list of services provided, they will also ask you to pay for your luggage, and the choice of a chair is also not free, and if you are already flying with a company, you will have to fly away from each other friend, because the "armchairs nearby" are practically never free;
• S7 company also operates flights to Chelyabinsk: 2 flights per day;
• Ural Airlines- 2 flights a day;
• NordAvia- only 1 flight per day;
• Norswind airlines- 1 flight.
• The airline departing from Sheremetyevo airport - « Aeroflot " much more expensive - the ticket price is from 4,500 rubles, but here there is a sandwich, smiling stewardesses, fresh press, a blanket. In general, we choose either a financial issue or a service.

The number of flights per day is 11–12 (depends on the day of the week). Of these, 6 are provided by AFL, so if you are suddenly late, there will be an opportunity to re-register (I’m telling you this as a flight attendant).

The flight time is 1 hour. 50 minutes

You can also choose a flight to Ufa, the ticket price will be similar to Chelyabinsk, the travel time is reduced by 15–20 minutes. But the journey from Ufa to Zlatoust takes much longer, because the distance between these cities is 286 km, which is about 4 hours. 30 minutes by car, and 6 hours. 30 minutes by train. Agree that it is more comfortable to sit for 20 minutes in an airliner chair, where they will pour tea and treat you with juice.

But remember: buying an air ticket, you will not immediately find yourself at the foot of the mountains. From Balandino airport () you need to get to the city. All communications with the outside world are established here: there is a taxi, a bus station, and a railway station.

How to get from the airport to the city

To save time near the airport, it is better to take a taxi. Cost - from 400-500 rubles (if ordered through online services: taxi "Leader", "Minimum", "Maxim"). We call or write in the order slip the place where it is more convenient for you to meet the driver. From the "airport" we indicate the time (plus 15 minutes from landing) and do not forget to write where you want to go. In this case, we write: the Yunost sports palace (this is the bus station), and wait for us "at the exit from domestic airlines."

After landing, we are waiting for an SMS from the operator that the car is waiting at the exit. Local entrepreneurs watch for customers already in the arrival hall, right at the luggage belt. The price tag for transportation is 1500 rubles. Therefore, with a stone face, we overcome the obstacle and run to our driver, who is already at a low start. Often, luggage is included in the cost of transportation, but it also happens that you need to pay for the baggage additionally (plus 50 rubles), if you have a huge bag.

P.S. The cheapest carrier is taxi "Minimum" - 355 rubles, but all the cars in the fleet are class "Economy" ("Five", "Six", etc., "Renault" - if you are very lucky).

Go to the bus station from Balandino 30-40 minutes.

By train

There is another way to get to the ridges. The time-tested method is the train. He will help out and help us in two cases.

Moscow - Zlatoust

Throw right up to Zlatoust. Every day two trains leave from Kazansky railway station long distance... Travel time is about 30 hours. The cost of a reserved seat starts from 1,500 rubles (it depends on the day of the week and the workload of the train, the price can be increased to 3,000 rubles), a compartment-carriage - from 4,000 rubles. But remember that in addition to the ticket, you will need to purchase all sorts of necessities for the trip. What additional costs will follow. And you need to keep yourself busy for more than 24 hours. Although, the option of a cheerful and friendly company is possible, or, on the contrary, a snoring neighbor! So stock up on a good thick book and earplugs.

Chelyabinsk - Zlatoust

Railway tracks will help out if you arrived in, because there is still 150 km to Zlatoust. ... You can buy a ticket from the railway capital of the South Urals to the station. Do not forget that in this case you will also need a taxi, only we will indicate the end point as a railway station. He is alone in Chelyabinsk, so it's hard to get lost. The price will be slightly higher than the trip to the bus station. Now we are buying a ticket for a long-distance train: travel time - from 2 hours 40 minutes. (depends on the type of train). The price of the issue is from 450 rubles. for a reserved seat ticket. Arriving at the Zlatoust railway station, you can reach Taganay Park on foot. The distance of three kilometers is covered in an hour. If time is of paramount importance to you, then you should not waste it, we catch a "minibus" with the words "Pushkin settlement" or "White Key".

Bus route

Let me remind you that in order to be in place, you need to overcome another distance of 150 km.

Suburban buses run constantly from Chelyabinsk to Zlatoust. They run almost every hour from 7 am, the last route leaves at 21:00. I advise you to leave at about 8 in the morning in order to get some sleep and have time to see the beauty of Taganay. The way from the Zlatoust bus station to the park takes 30 minutes. Can be reached by anyone by public transport to the City Square and then by bus # 6 or by minibus. In Zlatoust itself, buses run to the village of Pushkinskoye, bus no. 15, no. 6.

You can use the route taxi number 44, 43, 21, 40.

In general, the taxi and bus routes are not much different.

Weekend tour

In Chelyabinsk, I decided to take the cheapest and easiest way: I took a weekend tour from one of the travel companies. After all, they will comfortably take you right to the foot of the mountain, tell a lot of interesting stories, and getting to know the guys who share your hobbies is great. Moreover, a one-day walk with a guide and transport in both directions cost me only 700 rubles. Which is much cheaper than any of the travel methods I have described from Chelyabinsk to Zlatoust, but this is provided that you are going there for one day. Of course, the travel company will not help if you decide to go to Taganay for three or more days.

By car

If you are not flying alone, and even the company has gathered enough, then you can rent a car. You can find good options, for example,. The car will be brought to that place. which you indicate in the order. Cost varies by class. For example, the economy option will cost 1,656 rubles per day (Skoda Rapid), while Daewoo Nexia will cost a little more - 1,941 rubles. Capacity - 4-5 people. But if the company is large, then you need to take the appropriate car. The Volkswagen Caravelle is perfect. Its rent costs 4750 rubles. It seats 8 people and has a large luggage compartment. The price of a car includes unlimited mileage, accident insurance and insurance against theft.

You need to go to the village of Pushkinsky (this is part of the city of Zlatoust) along the M5 highway. It is difficult to pass it. Everywhere there are signs and steles with the names of cities and the year of their foundation. Turning right into the city, we go along the main road (you will not confuse it with anything). We get to the crossroads, where you will notice the inscription "Magnitka", here you go to the right, while the main road goes to the left. On the way we will meet: the railway station and the final stop of the city's motor transport. The first sights of Taganay and shops with the same name - "White Key" will already begin to appear here. Further you will see many garages, after them we turn right and go straight on the highway to Magnitka. If you come across a cross along the way, then you are moving in the right direction. Then we follow the sign "Two-headed hill", and after a while you are on the spot. You can leave your car in the parking lot near the entrance to the park. The price is low - 60 rubles per day for a passenger car, for a truck - 250 rubles.

Be sure to check out the visitor registration house. This procedure is required for all guests of the park. Leave your autograph there and go! Conquer the peaks! By the way, you can study the route on the map, which is located near the house.

Navigation

Taganay is beautiful and good in any season. Before starting your ascent to the peaks, I advise you to familiarize yourself with some of the features of the park. In particular, flip through the updated guide that appeared in April 2017. For beginners, by the way, it will be very useful. The book includes 190 pages. Here you will celebrate interesting moments in the history of the mountains from the moment of their formation to the present day. You will learn about how the national park appeared, you will find brief references(about minerals, shelters, trails) about its sights.

I was lucky enough to visit the top of Taganay in December. In the Urals in winter, the atmosphere is generally different than in Moscow. The agency offered me several stages of the ascent:

• Eco trail "At the edge of the forest"
• "Taganay in 600 steps" (Black Rock),
• "To the big stone river"
• "To the top of the world" (Two-headed hill),
• "To the foot of the Riphean" (Kruglitsa),
• "To the eternal wind" (Weather Station),
• "To the Center of the Pomegranate Crown" (Akhmatovskaya Mine).
• The difference between these directions is the difficulty of the routes and the steepness of the climbs.

"To the top of the world"

I decided to choose something in between and set off on a 15-kilometer journey, striving "To the top of the world." To the two highest points - "Feathers" (1034 m), "Lamb foreheads".

The entire route took about 6-8 hours. My group consisted of 35 people, so I always had to wait for someone, but generally they walked amicably.

Our route can be divided into several stages. The first seemed the easiest, since it was quite easy to walk along it, there were no steep ascents and descents. The path has already been trodden by a group of tourists.

The first transshipment point is the White Key spring. White - because its bottom is as if strewn with chalk, and the point is all in the mineral quartzite. The water constantly shimmers and seems to glow from the sun and snow-white snow. It is here that all the guests of the reserve collect water (it is very soft due to the lack of salt) and enjoy its taste.

By the way, tourists who come here for more than one day can spend the night at the shelter of the same name. Here you can rent a house, a room and a bed. You can find out the cost of stay in the sections below. You can set up your tent and enjoy the beauty of the wild.

I would like to note that another local attraction is the Stone River. Exactly! A river of stones, in it you will not find a single gram of water, it simply does not exist. And it was called a river because, according to the assurances of scientists, the soil moves, overcoming a distance of 5-6 centimeters annually. The young man accompanying us said that the lumps are aventurine (a kind of quaracite). In summer, when there is plus outside, everything blooms and turns green, and the sun warms up, the river changes its color. It depends on which rasskras prevails in the lichens that form on the surface.

From that moment our second stage started. It began with the conquest of 200 steps. This is not an easy business. You need to climb more carefully, the steps are slippery, it is not surprising to stumble and fall inadvertently. You need to climb at your own pace, without haste, otherwise you run the risk of quickly fizzling out and not getting to the target point. The ascent goes along the route with an incline of 20 degrees over stones (in summer, also on loose sand). If you have problems with the cardiovascular system, then the ascent will be difficult for you: you will suffocate and constantly rest.

You also need to be vigilant because the spreading branches of trees constantly strive to get into your eye, and the stones you have to climb over are very mobile and sometimes completely unstable. Here it is, real adrenaline!

In my opinion, winter nature is simply wonderful and indescribable, its globality and power are amazing. The look is mesmerized by giant green-brown pines and fir, covered with snow, it feels like you are in the fairy tale "Frost". A real snowy kingdom, where the sky gets a little closer to you, where there is a unity with nature and the animal world. For their beauty, these places in the Urals are called "Russian Switzerland" or "Ural Tyrol".

The air here is unusually fresh and clean. It seems that it permeates everything inside, passes through us and cleanses the body. The skin even looks younger.

The two-headed Sopka offers views of the Otkliknaya Ridge and the Small and Sredny Taganai ridges. Consider already several excursions in one.

But the temperature needs to be adjusted correctly. Indeed, at -30 ° C it will be impossible to go up. Excellent weather is −15 ° С. And do not forget that you are going to the mountains! Warm up! And get plenty of hot tea and sandwiches. They helped me a lot. My friend and I have stocked up on two backpacks of food! After all, forces and energy, rising to the top, are spent immeasurably. Therefore, a snack was arranged quite often and took 15–20 minutes.

The coolest, in my opinion, were the "pokatushki" from the very top of the "Two-headed Sopka", we raced on cardboard boxes for about 2.5 km. We remembered our childhood, how, when we were just kids, we sat on the boards and rolled with the breeze along some mountain. The bruises were a bit, of course, stuffed: skills from childhood were lost! But they quickly remembered the old craft! It was not possible to get to the bus, all the fault was the same ate that did not give us a descent all the way.

"Taganay in 600 steps"

This is a trail for people with limited mobility. If the path I described above seems difficult for you, then you can choose the simplest one, such as “Taganay in 600 steps”.

Half a kilometer road is the way to amazing features Black rock. Its summit is at an altitude of 853 meters, and it consists entirely of white quartzite. Higher and higher, a rocky ridge stretches towards the sky, the length of which exceeds 200 meters from south to north. Here you can walk and take a car ride. All this pleasure lasts 2 hours, during which time you need to overcome 1.5 km. One condition is that transport is not provided by the park staff, the customer must take care of the car. The start of the eco-trail was laid after overcoming 8 km of a dirt road.

The ecological trail "All Taganai in 600 steps" has a special feature: it is accessible even for people with limited mobility, for example, such as "wheelchair users" and those who do not have special physical training. The route is equipped with an embankment trail and a two-level observation deck, where you can see the surrounding sights (this is the Dvuklavaya volcano, Itsyl, Mont Blanc, Otliknoy ridge, Dalny Tanganay, Kruglitsa town, visible Sredny and Small Taganai ridges, Aleksandrovskaya volcano, Bolshaya Kamennaya River, Valley of Fairy Tales, remnants of Three Brothers, invisible peaks of Yurma, Kialimskaya pad 'tract). In summer, you will have the opportunity not only to enjoy the outside world, but also to plunge into fairy tales, epics and legends about the flora and fauna of Taganay. The guides will be happy to help you with this.

"To the big stone river"

The main emerald of the trail is the stone river, which is truly amazing and unique. This is the largest stone placer in the world. It is located between the Bolshoi and Sredny Taganai ridges. The river flows as much as 6 km, reaching as much as 500 meters in width, and its blocks weigh at least 9 tons. The spirit is mesmerizing because at a depth of about 5 meters you can hear the sound of real mountain streams. They carry their waters under the "bed" of ancient stone streams.

"To the foot of the Riphean"

When choosing this route, be careful: you will not be able to cope with it in one day. You will have to spend about 2-3 days, because its length is 55 km.

The main highlight of this path is the town of Kruglitsa (the highest point of the ridge), its height is 1178 meters above sea level, the total climb is 750 meters.

Kruglitsa, as you might guess, got its name because of its rounded shape.

The path to it begins immediately from the Central Estate, passes along the Lower Path, crosses the Bolshaya Tesma River on the bridge and rushes to the Bolshoy Taganai Pass.

Remember, if you suddenly go to the mountains in the rain in the summer - be sure to bring rubber boots. You cannot do without them, sometimes overcoming swampy terrain.

During the route, each tourist will enjoy the view of an unusual stone river, see the Two-headed Sopka, go to the watershed "Mirror" or "Glass". After overcoming 14 km, the first wooden huts appear, these are the houses of the "Taganai" shelter. Here you can take a break, gain strength, drink hot tea, warm up by the stove, or by the fire, and the next day you can continue your ascent to the city of Kruglitsa.

Note that the path will not be easy in winter. The summit is difficult to access, because its foot is swept away by snow, and climbing the accumulation of acute-angled boulders is a dangerous occupation. But everyone who is at the very top received a long-awaited prize - an unforgettable view of the mountainous country called "Taganay".

On the way back, the traveler will see the Responsive Ridge, numerous streams, and kurumniks.

"To the eternal wind"

This name was given to the path leading to the weather station. Perhaps this is the longest route on Mount Taganay. It takes 3-4 days, during which time you need to cover a distance of 65 km. The height is 1108 meters above sea level.

The route starts from the Central Estate of the park, runs along the Stone River, which it captures twice. When there is 9 km behind you, you will have the opportunity to relax at the "Painted Stone" parking lot. Then the trail leads the traveler to the Kialim cordon, this place was called the village of coal burners in the 19th century.

On this route you can climb Mount Itsyl. Translated from the Bashkir language, it means "eternal wind". Then climb the Dalniy Taganay ridge. The Urals say that this is where the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises are. This is exactly where we will find a mysterious weather station, where you can take a break and start descending.

"To the center of the pomegranate crown"

Perhaps the last route that Central Manor can offer you. In five hours, travelers cover 32 km. The speed lies in the fact that we not only walk, but also ride. This is an automobile-walking route. You will have to go only 2 km.

This excursion is impossible without a park guide, as well as without your own car.

During the transfer to the Akhmatovskaya mineral mine (which, by the way, will take about 15 minutes), you will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the history of its discovery. You will also receive information about all the minerals that are available here. It's great that anyone can even go down to the mine and inspect the rocks.

But I want to note that you can move around on your own! Think over the route in advance, or go wherever you want - the main thing is to grab a map in order to assess all the risks, weather and your well-being.

Rates

The entrance to the park costs 100 rubles.

If you realized that your vacation will not be enough for one day, and you want to stay longer to explore Taganai, then the next option is for you. There are several bases on the territory of the park, here they are called shelters.

The guests of the "White Key" have the opportunity to please themselves and take a steam bath.

Rooms are rented there for 1600 rubles (capacity - 4 people). Firewood is no longer needed, central heating is installed. But to prepare dinner, you still have to go outside and make a fire.

There are two houses nearby (up to 6 people). The oven is laid down. And where without a tent. Its cost is still the same - 150 rubles per day. There is a bathhouse.

• Shelter "Taganay"... Small houses, tent and sauna.

• Kialim cordon... Large houses were built here for sharing. The issue price is 200 rubles per person per day. But keep in mind that for comfort you need to ask for a house with a bed, not a flooring. Although, sleeping on boards is sometimes beneficial for the spine.

• Meteorological station. In my opinion, the most unusual and interesting choice of bed. You seem to find yourself on the shooting of a film about forgotten excursion groups. As if a couple of people survived all over the world and they must survive at any cost and withstand the battle with nature itself. The weather station is one small house located on a mountain plateau. Moving is allowed only on trodden paths (in order to preserve the uniqueness northern world and mountain ecosystems). The house is completely covered with snow, and finding the entrance to it is already a great success. Naturally, bonfires are prohibited, so it is equipped with a kitchen with a stove and a gas stove. Central heating is provided. The cost is small - only 400 rubles per day. There is a washbasin, but the toilet, as elsewhere, is located on the street.

The bathhouse is designed for no more than 15 people - from 500–1000 rubles per hour. In addition to the houses, you can safely take a tent and go to Taganay for at least a week, the main thing is not to forget to take more food with you. The mountain air and the forest atmosphere are conducive to the appetite.
For a long rest, it is not allowed to set up a tent everywhere, but only in designated places. They are:

• Bright glade;
• Iron bridge on the river B. Braid;
• Oleniy bridge on the river. B. Braid;
• Black rock, White Key glade;
• Cheerful key;
• Polyana "Rattle Key";
• Painted stone;
• Mont Blanc;
• Hare meadow;
• Polyana 12th control ("Taganay" shelter);
• Parking them. Garber;
• Small Kialim;
• Three brothers;
• Arrow;
• Seven brothers;
• Itsyl spruce forest;
• Pauline;
• Yurma;
• Central entrance to Taganayskoye uchastkovoye lesnichestvo, etc.
• Check the locations in the Central Homestead.

Parking price - 30 rubles (in this case, you can use the fireplace, washbasins).

It is imperative to book places in the houses, otherwise you risk being left on the street. You need to pay for your reservation no later than 3 days before arrival.

Major attractions

Undoubtedly, everyone who goes to Taganay wants to see firsthand Magic world untouched nature, its fabulousness and originality. But besides this, on the territory of the park, you can look into the Museum of Nature. Self-examination will cost 20 rubles, with a guide - 60 rubles. Various events are held every year. For example, every third weekend of the month of June the festival of the author's song "Black Rock" is held, and on the third weekend of February the traditional marathon "Ski Track for the Clouds" is held, the end of August is famous for the "Race for the Clouds". You can combine business with pleasure.

How is it? Could I interest and inspire you? I hope I succeeded today, so don't waste time packing your suitcase at Taganay! It doesn't matter what - train or plane, bus or car. I am sure that no matter what you choose (a traditional "one day tour", or extreme mountains and forests for a week) - after many years there will definitely be something to remember!

Security

It's worth the weather to beware. Especially if you are going to visit the park for more than one day. Remember about blizzards and snowfalls, because in a short time snow can pile up over human growth. Zakhar Shadrin from Chrysostom was able to catch the very moment when the elements are inexorable and terrible.

As I described above, there are many boulder stones in the park, especially on the tops. You need to remain vigilant and before you stand on a stone, make sure that it does not stagger and you do not stumble. That is why the park administration encourages all tourists to register their groups with the Ministry of Emergencies!

But a one-day tour also requires preparation. So, first, don't forget food and a thermos of hot and sweet tea! Shoes should be warm, comfortable and preferably with a protector. Change of clothes so as not to get sick. Lantern. Penka (in common people "podpopnik").

According to the workers of the park, only people with special training and professional equipment can climb the ridge.

Souvenirs. What to bring as a gift

After your mini-vacation for memory, I advise you to visit the souvenir shop in the central estate. The prices are there for every pocket. Souvenirs are also for every taste, from magnet to knives of the famous Zlatoust factory. Although, I admit that buying the latter is much cheaper in the city.

Taganay - rest with children

The National Park offers its young guests a special trail "At the edge of the forest".

This route is only suitable for young visitors. A walk through the forest takes place in a theatrical form, it even resembles a kind of performance, the action of which takes place right in the forest, in the mountains. To do this, you need to notify the park staff about your idea in advance. With little visitors, go to the Central Estate and check in. Here the kids will have an entertaining excursion around the Museum of Nature. Then the guys move smoothly to fresh air. There, the Bunny will tell them stories about birds, animals and minerals, and the main heroine of the Ural legends, the Kialim grandmother, tells about plants.

Anything to add?

It is a favorite vacation spot for residents of Zlatoust and tourists of the Chelyabinsk region.

Geographic coordinates of the territory: 55 ° 08 "- 55 ° 33" N, 59 ° 34 "- 60 ° 02" E.

Mount Taganay, and the entire stone knot has a history of over one and a half billion years. Initially, the ridge stretched 15 kilometers upward.

500 million years ago, the Urals began to "sink". Constant processes in the earth's firmament have led to a significant decrease in the level of "skyscrapers". Finally, Mount Taganay was formed 25 million years ago. Moreover, the old Ural mountains active today. The last earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 was recorded in the Zlatoust-Taganay triangle 7 years ago.

Mount Taganay is a stone chain composed of three ridges: Big (west), Small (east) and Sredniy Taganay. All of them together make up a ridge with a length of over 20 kilometers.

The first ridge is marked with the following heights: Two-headed Sopka (1,041 meters), Otkliknoy Ridge (1,155 meters), Kruglitsa (1,178 meters - the highest point) and Dalny Taganay (1,112 meters). The second ridge is marked by the "skyscrapers" Mont Blanc and the Sabbat. The middle ridge is not high - 960 meters. The named points are within walking distance. The nearest (from Zlatoust) is the eastern Small: 6-8 kilometers. Further - Large and Medium. Both start at a distance of 8,000 meters.

Taganai National Park occupies the territory of two districts of the Chelyabinsk region: Kusinsky and Zlatoustovsky. Total area 568 sq. km. The length from south to north is 52 km. The length from west to east is 10-15 km on average.

The nearest settlement is Zlatoust. It is on him that those who wish to go on a hike to Taganay should be guided.

National Park "Taganay" is:

Mountain landscapes of Bolshoy Taganai, Yurma, Itsyl, unique in beauty;

Impenetrable taiga and mountain tundra, stone rivers and crystal springs;

The rarest climate, when four seasons of the year can change in one day;

Diverse flora and fauna - about 700 species of higher vascular plants, of which 45 are relict; almost 200 species of animals - from a tiny lizard to a giant elk;

Ancient mines and mineral mines, in which more than 80 varieties of minerals and rocks have been discovered.

The territory of the park is surrounded by four municipalities, the administrative centers of which are the cities of Zlatoust in the southwest, Kusa in the west, Miass in the southeast and Karabash in the northwest.

Two roads pass through the territory: one on the southern side (with hard surface) with the Zlatoust-Miass connection, the second with the south-west (with a dirt surface) with the Zlatoust-Magnitka-Aleksandrovka route. The density of the road and path network in the park is not high. Basically, these are traditional tourist trails laid in the mountains and intermountain valleys by many generations of travelers. The most popular of them runs along the eastern slope of the Bolshoi Taganai ridge. The forestry road network inherited from loggers, in most cases passing only in dry seasons and in winter.

The territory of the park is divided into 4 forestries: 1. Yurminskoe; 2. Shumginskoe; 3. Taganayskoe; 4. Chernorechenskoe. The territory of the park is divided into 5 functional zones: 1) Protected area; 2) Zone of regulated regulated visits; 3) Cognitive tourism zone; 4) Active recreation and service area; 5) Economic zone.

Legends have long enveloped the Taganay National Park and all its environs. The place name was given by the tribes of the ancient Bashkirs. The local population called the rock mass "a support for the moon" (from "ai" - the moon, "tag" - to put, to hold). The toponymist G. Ye. Kornilov believes that the word “Taganai” goes back to the Bashkir tyugan ai tau - “mountain of the rising moon”, “mountain of the young month”.

Today Mount Taganay is included in the so-called "anomalous Ural zone". They say the ridge caves are inhabited by amazing creatures. Here traces of "Bigfoot" were found, here they come into contact with the Higher Intelligence and see ghosts, here the course of time changes and aliens land ... Mount Kruglitsa is considered a point of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, - this is how Roerich described it. The Zlatoust-Taganay link often becomes the end point of the exploration expeditions of the UFO Society.

Park "Taganay" is extremely often visited by fireballs. On the Itsyl ridge, any equipment refuses to work at all: the film is light up, people see who knows what ... In the valley of the Bolshoy Kialim river, travelers often see the Taganai Babka: an old woman without teeth, barefoot and with a hump.

The uniqueness of the national park as a natural object also lies in the fact that animals and plants that are characteristic of different geographic zones live on its relatively small territory.

All year round, tourists from different countries come to the mysterious and ancient "Taganay" in an effort to lift the veil of secrets of its nature and enjoy the beauty of the panoramic views from the mountains. Nature has really generously endowed the national park with its creations. Stone rivers flow in the relic forest among quaint mountain ranges, petrified characters of fairy tales live, and the water in the springs is famous for its revitalizing effect. The sight of all this miraculous splendor is mesmerizing.

The conqueror of local mountains can even become unprepared tourist: the steepness of the slopes of most ridges in their upper part is 25-35 °, in the middle - 15-25 °, in the lower - 10-15 °, and in the valleys - about 5 °. When going on a hike, please wear comfortable shoes and bring mosquito and tick repellent with you. In the rainy season, when the riot of river flows begins, travelers cannot do without rubber boots.

In addition, in order for a trip deep into the Ural forests to bring you a lot of interesting discoveries and leave only positive impressions, take with you a sufficient amount of food and clothing, and also notify the Ministry of Emergencies about your trip.

The Taganay Ridge is located on the border of Europe and Asia. The boundary of the watershed between the Volga-Kama and Ob-Irtysh basins runs along it. The Tesma River flows into the Caspian Sea, and the Kialim River carries its waters to the Arctic Ocean.

The Taganay ridge is one of the most picturesque corners of the Ural nature. A magical land of rocky mountains and sparkling lakes, nestled among the mysterious taiga. Here, the most valuable ecosystems, represented by spacious meadows and impenetrable mountain tundras, relict forests and moss bogs, have been preserved practically in their original form.

The rivers of the ridge can hardly be called abounding, but heavy rains can turn them into seething rushing streams in a few hours.

Serious scientific and environmental work is being carried out on the territory of the ridge.

An incredible and unique natural formation, represented by a uniform pile of giant rocky debris, resembling a river in appearance. The length of the stone river is more than six kilometers, and the width reaches two hundred meters.

The stone river runs between the Middle Taganai ridge and the Dvukhglavaya Sopka mountain. You can get to it by following the path from the park entrance to the Belyi Klyuch shelter, and then in the direction of the signs.

The origin of the Stone River has not been determined to this day. There is a version that this natural object was formed by a glacier that descended from the local mountains.

The air is humid and cool here Atlantic Ocean mixing with dry and warm air masses of South Asia, it forms a special climate, most favorable for the life of many animals, which determines the diversity of fauna natural park... The diversity of the living world of "Taganai" is explained by the special climate, which combines the influence of the humid and cool air of the Atlantic and the dry, warm air of South Asia.

Insectivores (hedgehogs, moles, shrews);

Bats (gray long-eared ears, northern leather jackets);

Rodents (flying squirrels and common squirrels, vole mice, forest lemmings);

Hare (white hares);

Artiodactyls (moose, roe deer, wild boars).

The order of predators "Taganaya" is represented by the following families:

Weasels (weasels, ermines, badgers, martens);

Canine (wolves and foxes);

Bears (the largest predators of the park are brown bears);

Feline (lynx).

If you are lucky, you may come across very rare species of birds that need to be protected. Among them are osprey, golden eagles, white-tailed eagles, black storks, peregrine falcons, thin-billed curlews and eagle owls. These birds are listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation.

In the vicinity of the park, there are very rare species of reptiles and amphibians, as well as invertebrates included in the Red Book.

Closer to the source of the Kialim River, there is a noble fish of the salmon family - brook trout.

The view of the winter "Taganai" is breathtaking: snow-white sparkling snow lies on the fluffy branches of age-old coniferous trees with a heavy ten-centimeter layer. The air is saturated with the smell of freshness, pine needles and cleanliness. It will not be difficult to climb the well-trodden path from the Tesma River to the “White Key” shelter - stones, rock ledges and tree roots are hidden under a huge layer of snow, forming a kind of steps.

At the same time, only experienced and dexterous mountain climbers can make a winter ascent to the top of Dvukhlava Sopka. The snowdrifts here are up to the waist, or even higher. In addition, in conditions of heavy snowfall (which is far from uncommon for this area), it is rather difficult to climb a rather steep mountain slope. But the view from the snow-capped mountain, believe me, is worth the journey.

The entrance to the national park is located on the northern outskirts of Zlatoust. There is a fairly wide road to the first stop, and if you follow the markings on the trees, it is almost impossible to get lost. Following the given route, in a couple of hours you can be at the “White Key” shelter. One of the famous legends of the reserve is associated with this shelter. They say that the alpine spring (previously it was called the "Holy Key", and was later renamed) has healing properties. V summer time the clearing in front of the spring is the busiest place: tourists stop for a picnic on the sunny green lawn next to the spring, and guests of the local shelter play outdoor games.

So, the acquaintance with the Taganay National Park begins from the White Key. If you do not plan to see the park from the ridge, then you can end your trip here - take a break in a clearing by the key and go back. But if you are full of energy and are ready to continue your acquaintance with the mysterious reserve, Mount Dvukhglavaya Sopka awaits you. Tourist shelters and cordons are located mainly at the foot of the mountains, so you can leave a heavy load under supervision in order to climb lightly (the Taganai shelter is located near the Kruglitsa Mountain, the White Key shelter near the Dvukhlava Sopka).

Climbing the Two-headed volcano is one of the most popular Taganai routes. The ribbed back of the Responsive Ridge is clearly distinguishable among the landscapes of the reserve. There is a strong echo at the foot of the mountain. Walking a little further, towards Mount Kruglitsy, the traveler finds himself in the Valley of Fairy Tales among the rocky outcrops, reminiscent of the heroes of fairy tales. The Valley of Fairy Tales is home to undersized conifers that are unique to the Urals. Mount Kruglitsa marks the end of most tourist routes, then “serious” trails for experienced travelers begin. The most prepared try to reach Dalniy Taganai, where the highest-mountain meteorological station in the Urals is located, which, however, is not functioning at the moment.

From the tops of the mountains, wide stone rivers are clearly visible, which tacitly bear the title of "the eighth wonder of the world." The miracle occupies a space 5-6 kilometers long between the Bolshoi and Sredny Taganai ridges. Each "drop" of the river weighs 9-10 tons.

The park is a national treasure and is home to critically endangered animals and plants. It is forbidden to bring animals to the park, cut down trees, ruin the riches of mountains and reservoirs. There are special areas for stops and rests.

Guest houses

Central manor

It is recommended to start your acquaintance with the Taganay National Park from the Central Estate. Since on the territory of the estate there are the Visit - the center of the park, the Museum of Nature, a car park, guest houses, Russian bath, as well as picnic spots with gazebos and barbecue areas. GPS: N 55g.16.643` E 59g.47.705`, absolute height 550 m.

In the Visitor Center you can register as a visitor to the Park, get the necessary advice on tourist routes, rules of visiting and behavior in the Park.

There is a souvenir shop in the premises of the Visit Center, where you can buy books, brochures and booklets dedicated to Taganay. A large selection of souvenirs with the symbols of the national park: mugs, T-shirts, magnets, badges, natural stone products.

During the trip, you can leave your car at the paid parking lot of the Central Estate.

Our guests are provided with separate gazebos with barbecue areas, where you can organize a family holiday: birthday, anniversary, corporate event or just spend time in solitude and silence.

On the central estate there is the Nature Museum of the Taganay National Park. The museum organizes educational excursions, during which our visitors get acquainted with the wealth of the Taganai forests: flora and fauna. A unique collection of minerals is also presented here.

Nearby sights: Two-headed volcano, Bolshaya Kamennaya River, Chernaya Skala.

Accommodation

House number 1- 6 seats

House number 2- two rooms for 4 persons each, a common corridor.

No. 2.1 and No. 2.2

The house has lighting.

House number 3- 6 seats

The house has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes.

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 4- two rooms for 6 persons each, a common corridor.

No. 4.1 and No. 4.2

In the room there are beds with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 5- 10 places

The house has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes.

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 6- 4 places

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes.

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 7- 6 seats

The house has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, a stove, a washbasin.

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 8- 6-8 seats

The house has two rooms + a kitchenette.

In the room there are bunk beds with mattresses, in the second room there is a sofa and a table, a stove, a washbasin.

You need sleeping bags or bedding, a blanket and a pillow; pots, individual dishes.

Near the house there is a gazebo and barbecue facilities. Toilet.

The house has lighting. Cooking outside on a campfire or in a room on a stove

Near the house there is a gazebo and barbecue facilities.

There is a sauna on the territory.

Outdoor amenities.

Shelter "White Key"

GPS: N 55g.16.643` E 59g.47.705`, absolute height 690 m.

Distance from the Central Estate is 6 km.

Nearby attractions: the town of Dvukhlavaya Sopka, Bolshaya Kamennaya River.

Accommodation

House number 1- 10 places with sharing.

The room has bunk flooring, a table, a stove.

House number 2- double decker

№ 2.1 - ground floor for 8 people.

The room has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

№ 2.2 - second floor for 6 people

The room has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 3- the second floor for 4 people.

The room has a flooring with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 4 for 6 people

The house has bunk flooring for 6 people, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Attic above garage number 5 for 4 people.

The room has flooring for 4 people, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Winter warm tent for 10 people

Inside - flooring, hanger, oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the tent. Cooking outside on a campfire.

Outdoor amenities.

Shelter "Rattlesnake"

GPS: N 55g.16.643` E 59g.47.705`, absolute height 822 m.

Distance from the Central Estate is 8.5 km

Nearby attractions: Dvukhlavaya Sopka, Mitkiny Rocks, Otkliknoy Ridge, Valley of Fairy Tales, Kruglitsa.

Accommodation

New house (administrative building)

A room in an administrative building.

4 rooms on the second floor, with capacity for 4 people.

The room has a bunk bed for 4 people, a table, benches.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

The rooms have lighting, central heating.

Cooking outside on a campfire.

Detached houses No. 7 and No. 8

House for 4-6 people

The room has bunk flooring for 4-6 people, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

The room has lighting.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Outdoor amenities (toilet).

There is a bathhouse on the territory of the shelter.

Shelter "Taganay"

GPS: N 55g. 18.115` E 059gr.51.530`, absolute height 769 m.

Distance from the Central Estate - 14 km.

Nearby attractions: Bolshaya Kamennaya River, Kruglitsa, Valley of Fairy Tales, Otkliknoy Greben, Three Brothers

Accommodation

House number 1 - 6 places

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 2- 14 places with a seat

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 3- 8 seats

The room has bunk beds with mattresses, a table, benches, an oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 6- 18 places

The room has flooring with mattresses, a table, an oven.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Outdoor amenities.

There is a bathhouse on the territory of the shelter.

Kialim cordon

GPS: N 55g.20.584` E 059g.55.983`, absolute height 600 m.

Distance from the Central Entrance is 22 km.

Nearby sights: Dalny Taganai and Meteorological station "Taganai - mountain", Itsyl, rocky outcrops "Three brothers".

Accommodation

House number 1- 15 places with a seat

The room has bunk flooring with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room.

Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

House number 2- 15 places with a seat

The room has bunk flooring with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Room number 3- 6 places with a seat

In the room there are beds with a shell net with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Room No. 4- 18 places with a seat

The room has bunk flooring with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

There is no lighting in the room. Cooking outside on a fire or in a room on the stove.

Outdoor amenities.

There is a bathhouse on the territory of the shelter.

Weather station "Taganai Gora"

GPS: N55 g 22 '08.8 "E 59 g 54' 31.4 '', absolute height 1114 m.

The distance from the Central Entrance is 25 km along the Lower Path or 28 km along the Upper Path.

Nearby attractions: rocky outcrops "Three brothers", rocky ledge "Cap", rocky ridge "Camel".

Features of the visit: the shelter is located on a unique mountain plateau, the ecosystem of the mountain is very fragile and requires careful treatment. Therefore, when visiting this place, move only along the paved paths, without going beyond them and without endangering the fragile world of the tundra.

Accommodation

House Meteorological station "Taganai Gora"

The house has lighting and central heating, cooking in the communal kitchen on the stove or on the gas stove.

There is a washbasin.

Room number 1- 4 places with sharing

The room has bunk flooring with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

Room number 2- 12 places with a seat.

The room has bunk flooring with mattresses, a table, a stove.

You need sleeping bags, pots, individual dishes.

Conveniences on the street (Lenin st., 1).

Picnic points

Picnic spots are located on the territory of the Central Estate. Cozy gazebos with benches, tables and barbecue.

To book the Mangal zone, you need to call 8-912-314-34-34.

Routes

Eco trail "At the edge of the forest"

Now walks in the woods have become theatrical and resemble a small performance, the action of which takes place right in nature.

You do not need to go far, you come to the Central Estate of the Taganay National Park, where the children will first have an exciting excursion through the Museum of Nature, which smoothly passes into the forest, where the Hare tells about birds, animals and minerals, and the heroine of the Ural legends Kialim grandmother - about animals and plants.

EcoTrail "At the edge of the forest" - this is 800 meters of dense forest, birdsong and traces of wild animals.

Eco trail "Taganay in 600 steps"

The ecological trail "All Taganai in 600 steps" with a length of just over 1.5 km, passes through the picturesque places of the Black Rock tract, through the main natural complexes characteristic of the Taganai National Park. The route is equipped with an embankment trail and an observation deck, accessible for wheelchair users.

Black Rock is one of the northern peaks of the Nazminsky ridge, 853 m high, composed of snow-white quartzites. At the top there is a rocky ridge stretching for more than 200 m in the direction from south to north. The eastern slope drops off steeply and is inaccessible.

The guide of the Park will tell you about the geological history of Taganai, one and a half billion, will introduce you to the stone material, which is generously presented in the rocky outcrops along the trail. Depending on the phenological phase of the growing season, the guide will introduce you to the flora of Taganay, tell stories, legends and were about herbs and minerals.

From the top of the Black Rock, equipped with a two-level observation deck, amazing landscapes open up. The guide will acquaint you with the peaks of Taganai, presented in the perspective of an opening panorama: Two-headed volcano, Otkliknoy ridge, Kruglitsa, visible ridges of Sredny and Small Taganai, Aleksandrovskaya volcano, as well as natural attractions hidden behind the Big Taganai ridge: Valley of Skazok, Dalniy Taganai, Tribrat outliers , the invisible peaks of Yurma, Itsyl, Mont Blanc, the Kialimskaya pad and Bolshaya Kamennaya river.

Seasonality of use of the route - all year round.

Route "To the big stone river"

Length: 10 km

Duration: 5 hours

The purpose of the hike: to see the Big Stone River - the largest stone placer in the world.

The Bolshaya Kamennaya River is located between the Bolshoi and Sredniy Taganai ridges. The pile of boulders weighing 9-10 tons stretched 6 km in length, reaching 200 meters in width, and at times "spilling" up to 500 meters. Under the "channel" of ancient stone streams at a depth of 4-6 meters, you can hear the sound of real mountain streams.

The Bolshaya Kamennaya River begins its course from the slopes of the mountains, at first in the form of small stone rivulets, which gradually merge together, finally turning into a solid stone stream. The "river" is composed mainly of aventurine of various colors, the local name of which is taganaite or gold spark.

There is no vegetation, except for lichens, on the stone river. The only exceptions are freestanding pines over a hundred years old.

In order to admire this unearthly landscape, you need to walk 5 km from the Central Estate of the Taganai National Park along the Lower Path to the Vesely Klyuch parking lot, located on the bank of the Bolshaya Kamennaya River, from where a magnificent view of the Two-headed Sopka opens.

The trail has a natural soil surface, in places it is swampy. Halfway across the river, the Bolshaya Tiesma River crosses, which can be crossed either by the bridge or by wading. And right after the bridge it leaves to the right. All along the path, the trail passes under the canopy of the forest, sometimes going out into open meadows.

The participants of the hike will enjoy the unique view of the Two-headed Sopka on the “bank” of the Bolshaya Kamennaya River, walk along the aventurine waves and will forever remember this majestic creation of nature.

The route has no age restrictions.

Route "To the top of the world"

Length: 15 km

Duration: 8 hours

One-day hiking route with a length of 15 km and a duration of 6-8 hours, the highest point of the route is 1034 meters above sea level, the total climb is 500 meters. The purpose of the trek is to climb the Dvuklavaya Sopka, the southern summit of the Bolshoi Taganai ridge.

The route starts at the Central Estate of the Taganai National Park and runs 3.5 km along a forest dirt path to the Bolshaya Tesma River. After the crossing, a long ascent immediately begins, called local residents"Pykhtun". But after 2.5 km, the forest trail leads to the White Key - a spring known for its transparent, tasty and always cool water. It is convenient to make a stop near Bely Klyuch, having rest before the two-kilometer ascent to the top of the Dvuglavaya Sopka.

The ascent to the "Top of the World" begins along a metal ladder of 200 steps and continues along a mountain path leading to the top. As you climb through the tops of the trees, rocks appear, resembling in their outlines the feathers of birds that escaped from the mountain. Hence the name of the southern summit of the hill - "Peria". From the rocky outcrops on the top of the mountain, a fascinating and captivating view of the Taganai mountainous country opens up before the eyes of the traveler. In clear weather, the visibility of the prospects is 100 kilometers or more.

In the central part of the Taganay National Park, there is the highest point of the Taganai mountain knot - the city of Kruglitsa, so named because of its shape. The path to it starts from the Central Estate of the Park, goes along the Lower Path, crosses the Bolshaya Tesma River on the bridge and rushes to the Bolshoy Taganai Pass. The trail is swampy in places, so rubber boots are indispensable during the rains. At 4 km of the path, the trail goes along the world's largest Bolshaya Kamennaya River - an accumulation of huge boulders weighing 9-10 tons, 6 km long and up to 200 meters wide. A unique panorama of the Dvukhlava Sopka opens from the bank of the "river".

Twice crossing the tributaries of the stone river, the trail takes the traveler to the watershed "Mirror" or "Glass". And so, when the first 14 km of the path were left behind, the wooden huts of the Taganai shelter appeared. Here you can stay for the night, and in the morning climb Mount Kruglitsa, which is a heap of huge quartzite blocks with glimpses of juniper thickets. In winter, the summit is difficult to access, because at the foot the trail is swept over with snow, and the ascent along the kurumniks is a dangerous occupation. But having climbed to the top, the traveler will be rewarded with an unforgettable view of the mountainous country called "Taganay".
The descent from Kruglitsa to the Valley of Fairy Tales winds along the talus of the southern slope of the mountain, then the trail leads to the kingdom of almost untouched nature.

After 2 km the traveler will be met by the Responsive Ridge. Climbing the rocks of Otklikny is possible only with climbing equipment.
And finally, the shelter " Rattling Key”, Where you can stay for the night or have a rest, continue your way to the Central Estate of the Park, to which you go for another 8 km along the Upper Path, crossing streams, kurumniki, but without ascents. But if you have 1-2 hours of time, go to Mitka Rocks. Opening views of the Sredny Taganay ridge will make you take up your camera.
The participants of the hike will see the Big Stone River, climb to the top of Kruglitsa, unravel the mystery of the Valley of Fairy Tales, and walk along the 150-meter stone wall of the Responsive Ridge.

A visit to Dalniy Taganai will be the highlight of your journey through the pristine nature of the Taganai National Park. The route starts from the Central Estate of the Park and goes along the Lower Path - one of the main tourist paths of the Park. Then it goes along the Big Stone River, crossing it twice. 9 km from the beginning of the path on the trail there is a tourist camp "Pisany Kamen" with a spring drinking water, where you can rest before continuing the journey, and make a solid rest at the “Taganay” shelter, built before the creation of the Park. For almost the entire length of the route, the trail runs along the Old Kialim road with the remains of old gates through wetlands and natural rocky surfaces. After passing another 8 km from the wooden huts of the Taganai shelter, the trail leads the traveler to the Kialim cordon - former settlement coal burners.

Having settled on a cordon on the bank of the Bolshoi Kialim River, you can climb Mount Itsyl, whose name from the Bashkir language means "eternal wind". The path going to the east immediately gains steepness, in the upper part it winds along the curtains, and then it is completely lost. And the next day you have the opportunity to see with your own eyes the unique and enchanting beauty of the mountain tundra. The ascent to the top of the Dalniy Taganai mountain is not difficult, but long - 5 km. Here, as the pine and birch trees rise, they become lower and lower, alternating with juniper and gradually disappearing altogether. And also, due to the lack of forest cover, you can watch stunning sunsets and sunrises at Dalniy. At the very top is the building of the former meteorological station "Taganai Gora", which still gives shelter to tired travelers.

Route "In the center of the pomegranate crown"

Length: 32 km

Duration: 3 hours

Automobile and pedestrian route with a total length of 32 km and a duration of 3 hours. The walking part of the route is 2 km. Route scheme: Central estate - observation deck on the Black Rock - Akhmatovskaya mine - Central estate.

The excursion is carried out only with the accompaniment of a guide of the national park on the customer's transport. The route starts from the Central Estate of the Taganay National Park, where the group is met by the guide of the Park. Moving to Black Rock will take 15 minutes, and there during walking tour along the eco-trail (1.6 km), the guide will tell you about the history of the Park and its natural features, and from the observation deck at the top of the Black Rock you will see a panorama of the Bolshoi Taganai ridge and all its peaks from an unusual angle.

After moving to the Akhmatovskaya mineral mine (15 minutes) during the excursion you will have the opportunity to get acquainted with the history of its discovery and the rich composition of minerals. You can independently, with caution, go down to the mine and inspect the minerals and rocks.

You can visit the Souvenir Shop on the territory of the park, and also get to the events that take place annually on the territory of the park - this is the festival of the author's song Black Rock (the third weekend of June), the "Ski Track for the Clouds" marathon (the third weekend of February) and the "Race for the Clouds" marathon ( end of August).

Lakes and rivers of the Chelyabinsk region (more than 100 in the table)
From Port Arthur to Berlin and Paris