The Taganay National Park near the city of Zlatoust attracts thousands of tourists from all over the country. People come here to enjoy the unique beauty of the mountain peaks, to feel the harsh virgin nature with bewitching landscapes, to get acquainted with the diversity of flora and fauna, as well as to touch the most interesting history and unsolved mysteries. The very word "taganay" is translated from Bashkir as "stand for the moon".

There are many songs and legends about these places. And in the last 15 years, the properties of the anomalous zone have been attributed to the Taganay ridge massif. The press repeatedly mentioned the adventures of the Bigfoot in this area, frequent UFO flights and even their landings, contacts with the Higher Mind, local chronomirages, the appearance of ghosts, changes in the physical course of time, and much more unusual. The participants of the Monitoring Station of the Ural Anomalistics "URAN" became interested in the strangeness of nature described in the publications and began to organize expeditions to Taganay. The author of these lines, being the head of the mentioned public organization, repeatedly walked through the mountains for reconnaissance purposes, visited the museums and libraries of Zlatoust, communicated with numerous tourists of the park and its employees. I got new information for reflection, generalized and analyzed the already available data. In the Taganay forestry, built at the foot of the mountain, an employee of the environmental department V.N. Efimova confirmed the presence of rumors about the anomaly of these places. It turned out that ball lightning often appears in the mountains, especially on the Urenga ridge, which is located near Taganay. And in the village of Veselovka, plasma balls are by no means a rarity. Moreover, they behave “somehow strangely”: they hit the same places, intelligently wind around when moving, and live relatively long. There are classic “lightning nests”, where the resistance of the soil is reduced. This indicates either metal deposits or underground water sources.

A more mysterious place is considered to be the Great Moss Swamp, located between the northern tip of the Small Taganay ridge and the southern foothills of the Itsyl ridge.

At the very beginning of climbing the mountain, I was lucky enough to witness a real sound mirage. When I stopped for a moment and froze to listen to the sounds of the forest, several times I could clearly hear the approach of a person - the rustling of feet on the grass, the rubbing of trousers when walking, close steps. Even though no one was around...

Tourists most often choose Otkliknaya Ridge as a place for traditional camps.

On December 30, 1947, a transport plane crashed into the rocky wall of the ridge on a flight from Chelyabinsk to Moscow and crashed on the southeastern slope.

From the top of the Otkliknoy ridge, a very beautiful view of the panorama of the western side opens up. Kruglitsa is well visible. Late in the evening on cloudless days from here you can observe numerous satellites, side lights of flying aircraft, shooting stars, as well as the pale red Moon rising on the horizon in the form of a smoky dome. The impressions are doubly enhanced by distant flashes of lightning and the luminous blueness of the sky, which the solid darkness with a grid of stars has not yet had time to cover. Night is the most favorable time for mysterious phenomena. Mysterious only at first glance. Once, my comrades and I were lucky to be at the right moment under the Response Crest, when soundless flashes of lightning began to illuminate the completely clear night sky. Subsequently, having reinforced my knowledge base with the study of geophysical processes, I found an explanation for these bright and pale flashes. They were the result of lithospheric-atmospheric interaction. During the deformation and destruction of almost all rocks, be it granite, basalt or limestone, enormous electric field strengths can form in the atmosphere, generating electrical phenomena comparable to thunderstorms. Moreover, these phenomena do not always unambiguously precede an earthquake. They are observed most often only when the source of the earthquake is located shallow. It happens that the deformations that have arisen “dissolve” even without seismic shocks.

Despite the fact that the entire Taganay district consists of the old Ural mountains, it is still seismically active. In August 2002 there was an earthquake of 3.5 points - Zlatoust jumped so that cabinets fell in some areas, dishes broke. Even in neighboring cities, seismologists registered a jolt.
The highest point of the entire Taganay mountain range is Kruglitsa (1178 meters above sea level). Previously, the people called it the "Bashkir hat" because of the resemblance to the Turkic cone-shaped headdress. Although the clouds were gradually enveloping Taganay, the day remained hot and sunny, there was a strong soar in the air. That is why I was lucky to observe an interesting effect of the rocking of the mountain, created by the streamlined shape of the top and the close position of pressure groundwater. The sun, heating the stones, draws moisture from the cracks with its heat, the ascending air currents become transparent, easily mobile, and then it seems that the mountain is about ready to break away from its foot.

The path to Kruglitsa runs through the "Valley of Fairy Tales" - Sand Hills. This is a site of unique beauty, a saddle of a low-growing coniferous forest with clearings and numerous bizarre remnants. The valley is located in the zone of past intense tectonic movements. Among lonely rocks, a “walking” fog often appears, which also “sings” when it gets stuck in stone cracks and rubs against grains of various strengths. At every step there are fir trees without tops, affected by winter and autumn windfalls, or even completely dry trunks. Numerous trees branch dichotomously as they grow. Such features are found to some extent on almost all peaks and slopes of Taganay.

By the way, the former lifeguard of the national park (now retired) was an eyewitness of how several small luminous balls flew right out from under his feet when he was walking along the Sand Hills at dusk. It is possible that the plasma triggering effect described above took place here as well. Moreover, quartz crystals, which make up stones and sand, have special piezoelectric properties. Very attractive is the northern part of Kruglitsa, which is an almost perfect flat area approximately 0.2 x 0.4 kilometers in size.

The next stage of my journey was Dalniy Taganay - the northernmost and most extensive peak of all Taganay. The path there passes through the tourist base "Shelter-service", whose employees also heard a lot about the strange things happening in the area. We should say a big thank you to the employees of the forest supervision - they monitor not only the state of the Taganay forest, but also, if possible, protect the tourists themselves. In June 1996, two duty watchmen of the Taganay shelter witnessed how a white luminous pillar 3-4 meters high and 30 cm in diameter "grew" in the center of the volleyball court of this shelter. “The pillar was material, shiny and cold,” they recall. “And without waiting for his disappearance, we went to bed, and in the morning the column of light was gone.” Interestingly, when the author of these lines spent the night a few meters from this place, a wristwatch with batteries fell behind by 5-6 minutes in nine hours of sleep. Although before that they went very accurately and subsequently also did not stray from the rhythm. Most likely, the tent stood in the zone of overlap and intersection of various radiation fields that influenced the course of the arrows. Or, less likely, physical time itself has changed. Similar clock anomalies are possible at many local points scattered throughout Taganay. For example, according to the rangers, it is known that they were seen on the White Key, a water source on the southeastern slope of the Dvukhlavaya Sopka.

A luminous translucent column and other light phenomena on Taganay (fireballs, ghostly flashes in the atmosphere, etc.) are explained by the presence of external and internal geofaults, from which powerful energy flows erupt. Background deviations are due to the intense generation of electric and electromagnetic fields in space, and in some cases even radiation. Strong air ionization at high humidity can promote the formation of plasma bunches. Such emissions of energy from the interior occur spontaneously. It is they, together with fluctuations in geophysical fields, that can affect any devices that tourists carry with them.

The only weather station of the Chelyabinsk region "Taganai-gora" is located on Far Taganay, where there are 2 houses, towers, weather vanes. Helicopters have not been flying here for 15 years, the equipment of the 70s has long been outdated, they are on duty here almost on bare enthusiasm, but the spirit of socialism still hovers on this heel. The beauty of the area where the station is located is simply mesmerizing. The alpine tundra is cut through by stones that go down steeply in the form of rocks. A free view of the horizon and the foothills of the forest makes the picture grandiose and majestic, as if you are not on the top of the mountain, but on the peak of the World.

Away from the Far Taganay, in the valley of the Small Kialim, the Three Brothers rise - igneous sculptures 20-50 meters high. The giants owe their bizarre shape to the forces of physical and chemical weathering. Somewhere in this area there used to be a cemetery of wanderers-schismatics, where the Zlatoust Old Believers went to worship mass graves. On one of the remnants, at a height of about 5 meters, there is a recess carved right into the rock. From its shape, it is easy to guess that a candle and the image of a holy martyr were placed there for the Old Believer rituals.

Birds do not fly near the Three Brothers, their singing is heard only from afar. Yes, and other living creatures are not noticed here. The dowsing pendulum behaves restlessly: in one place it spins clockwise, in another - against it, and very actively. And it happens that it just hangs in its tracks. The tract is covered with legends. Sometimes travelers here are seized by an unreasonable chilling horror. The researcher of the Taganay mysteries Marina Sereda also experienced wild fear when she went here alone. Then I realized that such visions arise due to inert gases - helium and radon, coming out as a result of tectonic disturbances through deep faults and surface cracks. Due to the exchange of soil air with atmospheric gases, they are carried over long distances. Radon within reasonable limits has a therapeutic effect, however, exceeding the permissible concentration causes dizziness, weakness, and hallucinations. Moreover, when radioactive radon comes into contact with the ground air, a local perturbation of the earth's electromagnetic field occurs, due to which various glows can be observed.

The formation of energy anomalies can be associated not only with the zones of cracking of sedimentary layers. The powerful forces of the earth are also concentrated in places above the hills. Itsyl, Kruglitsa and rocky remains just serve as capacitors of underground (telluric) energy flows.

For decades, among tourists, stories and legends have been circulating about meetings with the "Taganai grandmother". Every now and then, athletes returning from a hike say that they dreamed of a certain hunched old woman in the mountains, with a knapsack behind her back, barefoot and toothless. In the valley of the Great Kialim River, it is often found by a lost traveler. There were times when people, noticing her in the distance, followed her and got out of the wilderness. But usually, when "Fenya Kialimskaya" comes very close, people can't stand the growing fear and give up. Even seasoned hunters get scared.

The former director of the weather station, in the past - a climber, in the late 70s descended with his comrades along the path from the Three Brothers to the Magnitskaya brink. It was in October when the first snow fell. Suddenly he stumbled upon the footprints of bare feet. Raising his eyes, he saw in front of him a small crooked old woman with gray tufts of hair. She looked at people and smiled. The guys got scared in earnest and ran headlong through the windbreak. What was it? A materialized ghost or a real person? It's hard to say. However, in 1994, the geologist and local historian Marina Sereda in the same area came across the prints of bare feet, about 35 sizes. And there are dozens of such testimonies ...

A strong impact on the environment and on the condition of people is exerted by the so-called. geopathogenic zones present in many places of the Taganay National Park. Signs of GPZ are obvious: ubiquitous fractures of the earth's crust, which were mentioned above, channels of underground water flows, accumulations of minerals, large anthills, dry tops of coniferous trees, dichotomous mutagenesis, unnatural curvature of trunks and disturbances in their development (which is not associated with the action of landslide structures) , cancerous growths on the bark, inert gas contamination in the lowlands and on the slopes (the indicator is ferns and other gas-loving plants) ... In such pathogenic areas, physiological and biochemical parameters change quite noticeably, unpleasant sensations arise, and the likelihood of exacerbation of various chronic diseases increases. However, thousands of people do not complain about their health, they come here again and again, share their pleasant impressions after outdoor recreation. The explanation is simple: zones affect very selectively not all people, but only those whose body is weakened, or those who are too susceptible to new environmental conditions. Mostly healthy people with strong organisms walk in the mountains. In order to feel some kind of ailment, you need to either get to an active tectonic site with the greatest fluctuations of physical fields, or live without getting out in an energetically unstable zone for at least one day. And such unfavorable places in public parking lots are rare, and if they exist, they are very weakly expressed. Before getting up for the night, it is recommended to conduct dowsing to identify possible negative energy.

In the early 1990s, there was a peak in UFO visits to the anomalous zones of the Southern Urals. And Taganay was no exception. Residents of Zlatoust and its suburbs witnessed the flights of unidentified objects both over the mountain range itself and over the city and its environs. The expeditions of the Chelyabinsk biologist Nikolai Avdeev were especially lucky, who, in hot pursuit, tried to search for the "Bigfoot" in the Taganay forests. But instead of Yetties, the researchers saw numerous UFOs, as well as landing prints in the ground of the one that landed. Pieces of an incomprehensible material similar to molten glass were found. Geologists, according to Avdeev, could not determine whether these stones belong to any rocks.

“The first, legendary “fights for faith” with a miracle are described in the “Kolyada Book”. Dyy / Div did not fall in the heart of his brother Svarog (the god of the spiritual sky). And then the heavenly army, led by Svarog, fought with the army of Dy - "divine people" and a miracle. Svarog won the victory by imprisoning the "divine people" under the Ural Mountains. Dyy himself was turned into the Great Poloz, the lord of the gold of the Ural Mountains. Since then, the kingdom of Dyya, along with all the palaces and temples, has gone underground. And only sometimes you can hear their bells ringing underground. This captivity has been going on for 27 thousand years.”

In B. Samoilov’s story “The Fourth Peak of Tagannaya” we read: “The ancient Aryan priests of the legendary fossil city of Arkaim went to conduct special ceremonies and offer prayers to a certain place of Taganay, where supposedly there are some sacred Gates that open the entrance to parallel worlds once every three millennia.”

Taganay (Chelyabinsk region, Russia) - exact location, interesting places, inhabitants, routes.

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They say that those who did not visit the local celebrity Taganay during a trip to the Urals did not see the Urals. Taganay seemed to hang between Europe and Asia, separated by two vast river basins - the Volga-Kama and Ob-Irtysh. Mountain tundra, relict forests and moss swamps have been preserved here, untouched by human hands. The name of this mountain range, translated from the ancient Turkic, means "the support of God", the Kets called it the Stone of Light, and the Etruscans called it "The Newly Born Light". From the Bashkir word "Taganai" is translated as "stand for the moon."

What to see

Exploring the area on your own is quite a risky business: until now, the old-timers are confident in the mystical power of these places where people disappear. But the especially brave still rush into the impenetrable thickets to see the grave of the elder Zosima, which the Old Believers honored as a shrine. Do not be surprised if you meet Buddhist monks on the trails of Taganay, who believe that the Buddha also made stops in the Urals.

• Fishing enthusiasts come to the upper reaches of the Big Kialim River to catch brook trout.
• In the vicinity of Lake Turgoyak, just a few kilometers from Taganay, ancient megalithic structures were found - dolmens dating back to the 3rd millennium BC.
• The peak of the ridge, Mount Kruglitsa, resembles the top of a human head, on which the heavens seem to have thrown a snow-white headdress.
• It is worth visiting the Valley of Fairy Tales between the Otklikny Ridge and Kruglitsa. Nature carved stone figures of giants from stone and placed them on green fields and forest edges.
• In the area of ​​​​Akhmatova mine, which is called the Garnet Crown, you can still find these minerals of red, emerald, black shades.

All these riches are enclosed within the borders of the Taganay National Park, in the center of which is Zlatoust.

2 things to do in Taganay:

1. Devote a few days of meditation at the foot of the Response Ridge.
2. Take a picture against the backdrop of a grandiose landscape - stone rivers (kurums) 6 km long in the area between Dvuglavaya Sopka and Sredny Taganay.

How to get there

The Taganay National Park is located at the foot of Mount Kruglitsa on the territory of the former power line Zlatoust - Karabash. From Zlatoust by minibus or bus you need to get to the stop "Railway clinic" and cross the Pushkin village.

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

The history of the creation of the Taganay park

The natural national park is located near the city of Zlatoust, which is located in the Chelyabinsk region. Intensified deforestation in the Urals has been carried out since the late sixties of the last century. A barbaric felling technique was used, when lumberjacks on powerful equipment completely felled the entire forest over a large area. After such work, only thistles grew in this area for more than 10 years. The country needed building material and few people thought about the consequences that could 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 20,000 cubic meters of Taganay 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 workers from 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 leadership decides to create a national park on the territory of the Zlatoust timber processing plant. And in early March 1991, the Taganay State Natural National Park was formed.

general information

Taganay is a huge stone chain with a length of more than 20 kilometers and consisting of ridges called the Big, Small and Middle Taganay Mountains.

The height of one of the ridges is represented by: Responsive Ridge, Dvuglavaya Sopka, Far Taganay and Kruglitsa. The other is the Sabbat and Mont Blanc. The average ridge is only 960 meters high. The closest to the city of Zlatoust is the Small Range, about 8 kilometers long.

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

At the foot of the hill there is a spring called the White Key. Surprisingly clear and soft-tasting water remains 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 holy.

The next attraction of the park is the peak with the name Otkliknoy ridge, the height of which is more than 1000 meters. With loud sounds, a many-voiced deafening echo is heard next to him. If you look at it from a certain side, it looks like an ancient foot-and-mouth disease, an elongated crest or a rising sea wave.

Several stone cliffs, about 40 meters high, located at a short distance from each other, are called the Three Brothers. This stone statue is located between Kruglitsa and Far Taganay. If you look at them from a distance, you get the feeling that these mighty brothers are descending together from the top.

Along the trail covered with quartz sand, from the Otkliknoy ridge through the Valley of Fairy Tales, you can get to Mount Kruglitsa. The Valley of Fairy Tales is a small area where a stunted undergrowth forest grows, surrounded by intricate quartzite sculptures. Each stone looks like wondrous animals or characters from fairy tales.

Far 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 thick fog descends into the valleys, it is sunny on this hill, golden rays brown the already bright lingonberries and gild the tops of the rocky mountains. Thirty-degree heat at the foot of Mount Taganay can abruptly change when climbing up with freezing cold. Strong gusts of wind sometimes exceed the speed of 40 meters per second.

When you go up and down the mountain in June or August, you can see four seasons at once for an hour. The nature on Taganay during the August winter is very beautiful. Trees, grass and rocks are adorned with frosted lace. Thick wires are covered with a crust of ice and sag, almost touching the ground. A strong wind tears off pieces of ice from them and scatters them across the snow-white tundra. Going down half a kilometer, you can see the 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 on Dalniy Taganai in 1932, which lasted 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 eight kilometers from Zlatoust. Here is located Big Taganay, consisting of three peaks: Dvuhklavaya Sopka, Otkliknogo Ridge and Kruglitsa.

Middle Taganay

Eight kilometers from the border of the Taganay Park between the Small and the Big is the Middle Taganay. Its length is approximately two and a half kilometers, it has three slightly prominent hills and consists of quartzite minerals. On the tops there are remnants having different shapes. The slopes of the hills of Mount Taganay are covered with placers of kurumnik, juniper, larch, low spruce, birch, and fir.

Small Taganay

The Taganay mountain range on the eastern side is called Small Taganay. It is located just three kilometers from the cordon of the Taganay Park and stretches for as much 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 ridges. In the central part there is an alpine plateau, on which spruces and birches grow. The upper third of the ridge is occupied by mountain meadows covered with dense vegetation. The entire mountainous Taganay massif is visible from the peaks of the Small Taganay.

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 northern side has an immaculate flat surface. On a cloudless day, when the sun shines 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 explained by the rounded shape of the stones, as well as closely spaced underground waters (the foot of the mountain is located in a swamp). The stones, heated by the sun's rays, lose moisture, which is stored in crevasses, 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 surely come true.

Unusual Taganay rivers

Stone rivers are an amazing natural formation, which is a heap of elongated rocky fragments of enormous size, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. Placers are called by the inhabitants of those places.

One of the legends of the formation of these rivers says that the cause was a glacier that came down from the Taganay mountains and contributed to the destruction of rocks. Large blocks under the influence of gravity due to the collapse of the mountain top gradually shifted along the slopes of the ridges, forming rivers of stone. Between the ridges of the Sredny and Bolshoi Taganay is the largest of them. The Bolshaya Kamennaya River is about six kilometers wide, and in some places its width ranges from 20 to 700 m. Blocks of stone, round in shape and weighing about 10 tons, are located along its entire length. These blocks lie about five meters deep, and there are about 300 pieces per 100 square meters. From the vegetation in this place there is a lichen and rare spruce, whose age is several hundred years. As part of the blocks, aventurine is one of the varieties of quartzite.

Placers of stone blocks from colored aventurine, which are located under Itzil and Dalniy Taganay, are called the Kurum River. Pine trees of a bizarre shape, growing near the placers, beautifully frame multi-colored stones.

Mount Pencil

In the Southern Urals of the Kusinsky district of the Chelyabinsk region, on the territory of the Arshinsky reserve, one of the most ancient mountains of our planet called Pencil, which means "black stone", is located. 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 black rock of which the Pencil is made is called israndite. This is one of the rarest and very ancient stones of our planet. Its composition is similar to the composition of the earth's mantle and does not contain organic matter. Many residents of the Urals do not even suspect that they live near an amazing natural monument, although scientists have published data about it in the press for a long time.

Mount Mont Blanc

The middle and small mountains Taganay in the Urals are connected by a watershed isthmus, on which the top of Mont Blanc is located. From the city of Zlatoust to it fifteen kilometers. 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 of the Taganay Mountains opens from the top of Mont Blanc, it is from here that the main peaks of Taganay are available for viewing.

Deep into history

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

1. Information about the oldest ranges in the world varies, but many official sources confirm that these are the Ural Mountains.
2. Since the 11th century, the Ural Mountains in Rus' have been called the Earth Belt or the Big Stone. In the Middle Ages, they began to be called the Urals on maps.
3. The modern lands of the Southern Urals were originally called, in a word, the Urals.
4. Among the Old Believers, the Taganay forests in the eighteenth - nineteenth century were very popular. There also lived the elder Zosimus, who was known as a saint. Popular rumor says that a prayer read at his grave, located on Taganay, works unprecedented miracles and heals from ailments.
5. The schismatics performed their secret rites in the area of ​​stone remains, called the Three Brothers. It 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 elevations.
7. Mount Taganay finally took shape twenty-five million years ago.

• It turns out that in Canada there are mountain peaks that are approximately the same age as Mount Pencil.
• The water at the top of Mount Kruglitsa 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 Key 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. And others even came into contact with them and fell into another time. True or fiction, everyone decides for himself. But, of course, Taganay is shrouded in mysticism.

Tourist routes

The Ural Mountains Taganay attract a huge number of tourists and are part of the anomalous Ural zone. There are several roads in the national park:

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

Tourist trails are laid in the intermountain valleys and mountains by the travelers themselves. One of the most famous goes along the eastern slope of the Big Taganay. It is in these places that valuable natural complexes have been preserved that have not yet been touched by man:

• Three stone rocks, called the Three Brothers.
• Nicholas Maximilian mine.
• Responsive comb.
• The remains of the Devil's Gate on the top of Yurma Mountain.
• river Bolshaya Tesma and Bolshoi Kialim.
• Akhmatovsky mine.
• Sopka Three Sisters, Mica Hill and several remains without a name, located near the Two-headed Sopka, together forming the so-called Mitkiny Rocks.

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

The Taganay mountain range is one of the unique corners of nature, located on the territory of the Southern Urals.

Mount Taganay

I have been fond of tourism for a long time - water, hiking, cycling ... And once I went hiking in the mountains, on the Konzhakovsky stone. Then it became clear that mountain travel is very 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 expanses of the mountains are, you can admire them endlessly. Of course, after this hike I wanted to visit other peaks of the Urals. The Taganay 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 Taganay.

The Taganay Ridge consists of three separate parts - Big Taganay, Middle Taganay and Small Taganay. They are parallel chains of 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 - here are pine, and spruce, and deciduous forests, and mountain meadows and tundra, and mountain woodlands. In general, plants on Taganay 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 everyone to definitely visit this fabulous place, even if you do not have special physical training, since traveling around Taganay is within the power of the most ordinary person. The entire park is pierced by well-trodden marked trails, which indicate not only the direction, but also 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 live in a house with amenities, having booked it in advance on the park's website. Near the shelters there are springs with the purest water. For setting up a tent and firewood, a purely conditional fee is charged, which is not burdensome at all, especially considering the impressions that you will get from visiting Taganay.

Journey to the Taganay Ridge

We left for Taganay on May 28 at one in the morning by train "Nizhny Tagil - Adler". It's good that they decided to buy tickets a couple of days earlier, they bought the two penultimate, upper shelves in the neighboring compartments. Arrival in Zlatoust was planned at 9 am on May 29. Alexander got to the station by metro (where the last train leaves Uralmash at 00.05), and I, in bourgeois style, took a taxi. The train was already standing at the platform, we calmly reached our car, loaded up, laid out our sleeping bags. After the train started, we looked a little at the lights flickering outside the windows, and fell asleep.

In Zlatoust, we were the only ones who got off the train - no one else. This surprised us a little, we thought that many 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 at the cash desk besides us, we got stuck for a long time, it’s good that we weren’t in a hurry. There, one aunt handed over tickets, ordered others, and could not decide which ones to hand over, which ones to order ... We had already examined the entire station, we found out that it was built in 1986 and was designed for five hundred passengers by the time she finished. At first, the cashier scared us that there were only seats on the daytime train, but then it turned out that there were just two seats in the sleeping compartment on the night Anapa-Yekaterinburg - the upper and lower shelves in the middle of the car. Landing at 22.13 Moscow, arrival at 7.24. We were delighted and bought tickets. We went to the station square.

Directly across the road from the station 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 Anosova street until a sharp turn to the left, trying to find a store where to buy bread and mineral water along the way, but the Magnit supermarket opened as early as 10 in the morning, and the 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 seems that they saw a store - at the entrance to the basement it was written "Products", and I again decided to try my luck. She went down, opened the door ... and flew back at a gallop. I smelled such a fumes 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 products are immediately drunk.

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

Alexander, while I was cutting sandwiches, asked the locals how it would be best for us to get to the entrance to the park. We were told that we had to get to the end of the village of Pushkinsky, to the sign "Magnitogorsk", and at the final stop of the minibuses, near the "Bely Klyuch" store, turn right along the dirt road. We ate, packed up and moved on. The road here turned left, turning into a village Tsiolkovsky street with houses on both sides. We were surprised by the material from which many houses were built - these are railway sleepers, and used ones, soaked in creosote. Apparently, people do not realize that it is a carcinogen and a poison. That's just how they endure the smell of it, especially in the heat. As soon as we walked along this street, we immediately saw the Bolshoi Taganay ridge - the Two-headed Sopka, a piece of the Otkliknoy 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 is true only in relation to the Two-headed Hill, it really is only about 5 kilometers away.

The street was 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 earlier there must have been an inscription, but now it was possible to read only "... is coming ..." on the rusty surface. We assumed that the content was as follows: "Taganay. Natural monument. Protected by the state." Since the final stop of the minibuses is nearby, from the station you can not stomp on foot, but get here.

So, we went to the entrance to the Taganay National Park, whose name, by the way, is translated from Bashkir as "Moon's Stand". The park is 25 kilometers long and 15 kilometers wide. On the sides of the road were already completed and still under construction cottages of varying degrees of prosperity of the owners. The one on the right was especially striking - 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, a large wooden cross with the inscription "Lord, save and save" appeared, and to the right, opposite it, 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 along Taganay

A large information board unfolded right in front of the tourist, where the rules of conduct in the park were written, a map of the mountains, parking lots and shelters, signs like "Parking is prohibited", "Camping is prohibited" and other information about the natural areas, 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 deep into a not at all 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 looked like a park one. There were almost no mosquitoes, only Sasha was bitten on the legs a couple of times, so we smeared him with Moskitol. All around wandered the magical aromas of needles, resin, flowering plants. Here, the wild rose is already in full bloom, plump bumblebees are buzzing around it ... Yellow bathing suits are found along the roadsides. The forest is mostly deciduous, although there are also narrow spiky spruces. We stopped to rest by a tiny stream with a tiny bridge, and drank some cold water. A man rode past us on a simple bicycle without gears, he didn’t even have a backpack, and he was wearing rubber boots, from which it could be concluded that he was a park worker. Local Zlatoust tourists also passed by in a small group, apparently for one day, because they were carrying tiny backpacks.

After the rivulet, through a kilometer of the forest road, we arrived at the bank of the more impressive river, it was called Tesma. She ran merrily over the bright pebbles, spilling 15 meters wide. In places, the leaves of water lilies fluttered in it with the flow. An unusual bird, resembling a kulichka, wandered about the stones with a strange gait. Only her legs were short, she hunched a little and periodically squatted. The whole bird was plump, chocolate-colored, and on the breast was a large white "bib". We watched her for a bit, and suddenly she did one trick, after which it was impossible not to recognize her. The bird took off, dived towards the water, dived about 20 centimeters and also flew out sharply, and a little further sat down on a pebble. Like a penguin, honestly. It's a dipper! She dives like this, getting fish and all kinds of aquatic insects. And there were a couple of these birds. A little further along the river there was a wooden bridge on metal supports, on the map it was listed as "Kialimsky". Along the banks near the bridge, one could see several good sites with fire pits, logs, and logs.

The Tesma River flows at around 3.5 kilometers, but between 4 and 5 kilometers the trail starts to take it steeply uphill, and even on it there are many stones of different sizes and tree roots, so that you had to jump, trying not to break your legs. Then again there was a more even earthen path.

And so we walked along it, walked, and saw a strange tree on the left. A birch, 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. Of course, we 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 look, and there is a medium-sized fluffy and slightly pregnant cat of a smoky gray color, approaching us with a rather decisive step. She came up, and let's rub against our legs, then she jumped up to me at all (I was squatting) and purring and rubbing! And she's all dusty! And everyone looks at the 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 behind the ear.

While photographing the tree, we noticed that the roofs of the 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 be dead, no one. Several houses, all of them are open, on the tables in some places the dishes and even food are left. So apart from the big chain dog, we did not find any living creatures. Behind the parking lot, a stream flows, formed by a key beating through a small pipe. And right opposite the key, a metal staircase begins to the first peak of Taganay - the Two-headed Hill, and its end is hidden somewhere on a slope in the forest. At this staircase, we met several people who were going to go further along the path towards the next shelter. They didn’t have any things with them at all, but there was in the company, by the way, a pregnant woman, in her sixth or seventh month. So, we understood, the inhabitants of Zlatoust just come to the Taganay Park for a walk. And a family with two children came down the stairs - apparently, they climbed to admire the view. We started the ascent, and with backpacks - there was no one to leave them for.

The first peak of Taganay - Two-headed Sopka

We wanted to count the steps, we look, and they are already signed by numbers. It turned out that the stairs had 201 steps. When we got up, we looked back - and behind us a stunning view of the valley and the Sredny Taganay ridge opens up. We climbed to the end of the stairs, there was a platform with a very large stone painted with colors, a parking lot and two paths diverging up - 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, we had to slow down and carefully look under our feet. We consoled ourselves with the thought that this was our weight loss tour.

Somewhere in the middle of the slope, our legs simply refused to climb further, and we sat down to rest on a large stone, throwing off the load. Not far away there was a cry of a bird, similar to a cuckoo, only in a different rhythm and a little muffled, not "cuckoo", but "doo-doo-doo-doo-doo". A deaf cuckoo came to my 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 sure, my intensely pink cheeks were swollen for some reason, and I looked like a hamster. Apparently, from the fact that she walked in the heat in an inclined position and puffed heavily. We laughed and crawled on.

The ascent took us about half an hour. We tumbled onto the platform (not the top yet!) almost unconscious. There were still 200 meters vertically and 500 meters in distance to the left top of the mountain. In a narrow clearing, we threw off our backpacks, laid out sweaters, and fell on them exhausted. Relaxed a little. I got up and quietly wandered to the rocks that were directly in front of us. I reached the middle - from there I could already see a wide space to the Middle Taganay, the second rocky peak of the Two-headed Hill, the sea of ​​\u200b\u200bforest below, tall sharp rocks, a barrow ... I returned to Alexander, said that you could take good pictures 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 but one pie - apparently from heat and fatigue. We ate, Alexander went to the rocks with a camera, and I lay down and immediately fell asleep. I dozed off for quite some time. I open my eyes - Sasha is still gone. I called out "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 very dizzy, 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 carefully looked around and saw that the marked path continues to climb to the first peak, first descending into a small hollow, and then climbing over the rocks. At a certain height one could see something like a metal staircase.

We put on our backpacks again and stomped on. Again the climb was steep, the sand was moving underfoot. We met a man, light, 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 ascent, encouraged us by the fact that it was already very close. A few minutes after meeting with the man, we were already on the top of Taganay - the Two-headed Hill, it only remained to climb small rocks. As we found out later, we climbed the southern peak of the hill, "Feathers", and the northern peak is called "Sheep foreheads".

We left our backpacks and climbed light, jumping like mountain goats. From the top of the Dvuglavaya Sopka, 1134 meters high, we had a beautiful view of Zlatoust in the distance, the Sredny Taganay Range, the stone river and the valley in front of it, many high rocks, the second peak of the Dvuglavaya Sopka, the Otkliknoy ridge and even a small piece of Mount Kruglitsa behind it. And in all directions, just as on the Konzhakovsky stone, a mountainous country stretched, only not the northern, wild, but more southern and friendly.

Several reservoirs could be seen - ponds in Zlatoust, Lake Turgoyak at the very horizon, some other 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 deciduous forest grew in its place. And besides all this, we clearly saw thunderclouds that were quickly approaching us, and it was already noticeable that it was raining there. Then we looked down, and noticed a small green clearing at the top, where we could put up a tent. So we decided to do it - to spend the night here, right at the top. We had some water and tea, and it was possible to wash ourselves in the morning at the White Key.

We went down for backpacks, made our way to the clearing and began to put up a tent. By the way, on the edge of the clearing behind the bushes lay a metal structure, which we took from below for a ladder. It was part of the tower, bent and broken, and the other lay even further away - probably once fell from the wind.

As soon as we put up the 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, still hot and dusty... And then a wonderful idea came to Alexander - to wash in the rain. And so, having undressed, we jumped out under the cold jets, jumped, yelled, welcoming thunder and lightning, got wet as it should (I just put a plastic bag over my hair). And at the end there was also hail 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 than down below. Thunder seems to be at the very top of your head, thundering loudly, as if on an iron basin, rolling over the tops of Taganay for a long time. The wind came up, it became cool and good in the tent, we slowly dozed off.

They 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 a warm sleeping bag, but I had to - I had to pack Sasha better and cut the salad. They began to have supper in a tent - it was still raining outside, and it was wet, but not cold. After eating, they fell asleep again. They didn’t even drink tea in the evening - they overslept. They 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 we got tired, climbing the mountains.

During the night it rained intermittently and gusts of strong winds rustled, but the air was warm, so we did not freeze. The night seemed very long to me, as I often woke up from the sound of the wind, tossed and turned on a surface that was hard and unaccustomed. At dawn, I looked at the time - 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 when I saw that around our ten-meter clearing, and nothing else was visible - white fog and that's it. Complete silence. Like on an island. Alexander asked to look for dry branches for a fire, but it was a stupid idea - everything was absolutely wet. So I climbed back into the tent and we napped for a couple more hours.

In the end, the sun began to break through, I leaned out - the sky was already turning blue above us and wisps of clouds were rushing very quickly right overhead. The ghost of the Echoing Crest became visible in the mist. Gradually the clouds dissipated. The sun quickly dried the grass and stones. We hung our sleeping bags and clothes on the rocks to dry, nevertheless made a fire, thanks to a log that got wet only on top, newspapers and dry fuel. Boiled water for three mugs of tea, had breakfast. While we were packing, we admired the wonderful views, sunbathed under the hot sun, and hoped that the paths on the slopes would 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 because of the heat. On the way, Alexander saved a large black beetle from ants - they already wanted to drag him into an anthill. In short, at three o'clock we were already at the White Key again, where we planned to wash, brush our teeth, and wash the dishes. There was only one person there, the huntsman Maxim, quite young, probably no more than 30 years old. We asked if there would be more water. He replied that yes, of course, near the Rattlesnake Shelter, but I took a bottle just in case.

While we were washing and washing dishes, a guy came from the direction of the Responsive Ridge, 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, taxied up to us with a confident step. In short, a cat of the most bullish and severe type. The cats rubbed against our legs for order, but quickly moved on to communicating with backpacks, knowing from experience that the sausage was most likely there. Alexander took pictures of these colorful natives.

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 - "Rattle Key", thinking that we would still have time today, leaving our backpacks there, to go to the Otkliknaya Ridge. 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, rushed to him. And he told the girl that since he met a friend, they would spend the night here.

We had to walk two and a half kilometers to the Rattle Key. Along the road, rocky and steep in places, we walked through the heat. We saw a lot of good parking around. In one place the road is crossed by a river, and to the left of it is a large, beautiful meadow, all in flowers. The second peak of the Two-headed Hill rises above the clearing, giving an unforgettable charm to this place. We sat on a large white stone, rested, drank some water. Soon we got to the sign, which indicated that it was 0.5 km to the Rattlesnake Key shelter, 3 km to the Otkliknoy Ridge, and 7.5 km. to Mount Kruglitsa. After about 300 meters, 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 - colored tents appeared from afar on a large green meadow, the flag of Russia, the "Armchair of Desires", the huntsman's two-story house.

The clearing was separated from the road by lovely little birch trees. On one of them hung a sign with pointers in different directions - "Responsive Comb" to the right, and "Mitkiny Rocks" to the left. The top of the two-headed hill rose above the clearing. On the edge of the clearing there was a cozy place with a fire pit and logs for sitting, Alexander immediately took a fancy to it, and they decided to put up a tent nearby. 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 free of charge, and a tent can be set up - 30 rubles per day per person. We asked how to get to the Mitkiny rocks - they were closer than the Greben, only 1.5 km. Yuri showed the trail marked with yellow marks. On it light, we quickly walked to the place. Along the way, we saw an anthill with the top demolished by someone, elk droppings and something similar to the trace of a small bear paw, the size of my palm. Then Yuri suggested that it was rather a lynx heritage, bears are practically not seen here.

Taganay - shelter Rattlesnake and Mitkiny rocks

We went out to a kurumnik of huge boulders, which rose to the height of a nine-twelve-story building, and Mitka's rocks stuck out there - a picturesque ridge of sheer cliffs. We had to find the path ourselves along the stone placer - we somehow lost the path. It was scary for me to climb, I moved more and more on four limbs, unlike Alexander, who easily jumped from stone to stone. Already almost at the very top there was a path. And there was also a tick walking on my sweater - we quickly removed it and threw it away.

The crest turned out to be very narrow - not in every place it was even possible to sit down. Although the view from it was, of course, gorgeous, in all directions of the mountainous country of Taganay. On our side, by the way, it was quiet, but 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 off, 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 some more nuts and candied fruit while Sasha waited for the right lighting for the shots. And then we went back, now along the marked path, which was much easier. It was evening, I was already hungry. So we were in a hurry.

We returned, a little afraid that someone would appear and take a good place for a tent, looked after by us. But no one came up. We took our backpacks and went to set up camp. Putting things in the tent, we started dinner. I went for water, and Sasha made a fire. For dinner, they made mashed potatoes and salad, got lard. Beauty. We ate, and went to look at Taganay's map - it hung on the huntsman's house. We looked around from all sides with sheds with tables and beds 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 the 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.

Jaegers are on duty for a week, they live on the ground floor. Yuri told us this when he came with a receipt for payment. I also bought a magnet from him with a view of Taganay (the quality, of course, sucks, but it’s necessary as a keepsake). Yury warned that one should go to the toilet only in the specially built "M" and "Zh", and showed where they were. Well, Sasha went there with an inspection. He returned with obvious signs of shock on his face. I asked what happened - is everything really so great. Alexander replied that if I had an idea to go to the "Zh" - immediately abandon it, because the smell of this place knocks me down on the spot, like in a gas chamber.

Then we boiled tea for the morning and went on a hike to the next peaks - Mount Kruglitsa and Otkliknoy Ridge. We lay down in a tent and listened to the birds for a long time, which are many here. Gradually it was getting dark, the last to plunge into darkness was Middle Taganay. We talked quietly, sharing our impressions of Taganay, we were glad that we arrived on weekdays. There are a lot of people here on weekends, so it would hardly be possible to relax well. Yuri said that for the May holidays there were forty (!) tents here, and he collected 8,000 rubles. And since many bring vodka and other drinks with them, you can imagine what is happening here. The mountains, apparently, were simply plastered with people.

The night passed quite normally, only at the beginning it was a little cold - some kind of damp fog hung, or something. And in the morning it got warmer, so we slept until nine o'clock like babies. I was already preparing to go to wash my face when caring Yuriy came up to the tent to wake us up so that we would not be late for Kruglitsa. Alexander shared his impressions about the cocoon sleeping bag. There, when you tighten the lace of the hood, a small hole remains for the face, and now if you spin a lot in a dream, like Sasha, then this hole slides down to your ear, or to 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 over on himself - just circus tightrope walking.

I washed my face, began to cook breakfast and pack a backpack for the journey - water, food. Sasha laid down the tent (Yuri advised not to leave it in the clearing - homeless people from Zlatoust might come, and it's small, light, they'll carry it away), put together things that we won't 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 things to Yuri, and went to Kruglitsa, the highest peak of the Taganay ridge. We were given a map with us just in case, although the entire trail is marked.

Taganay - Mount Kruglitsa and Otkliknoy ridge

We decided to pass by the Otkliknoe Ridge, without climbing it, first to climb Kruglitsa, and on the way back to the Ridge. The fact is that the path is not marked on it, people climb where it is convenient for anyone, and then return to the marked road. Our path led uphill, at first through the usual mixed forest, which gradually turned into a dense spruce forest. We started at the 8.5 km mark. at the shelter "Rattle Key". Along the way, we saw footprints that looked like moose. Further, after a kilometer and a half, a very interesting mountain forest went - almost without undergrowth, just with a bedding of blueberries, consisting of undersized curly birches, small fir trees, pines. He looked far and wide. They passed by a large clearing, from which the Responsive Comb was already visible, hanging over the forest, if you shouted, you could hear a double echo. For some time we walked under the canopy of this colossus, and, finally, we got to an even larger clearing at its foot.

The Responsive Ridge rose like a gigantic wall, almost sheer on this side. It had the shape of a bone crest of a stegosaurus, all of peaks, turrets, columns, and left an indelible impression. As soon as I immediately realized that I didn’t want to climb on him, he looked painfully formidable and unfriendly. On one of the peaks, a Russian flag was installed. On a huge meadow, groups of small trees were picturesquely scattered, and in the middle stood an ideal 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 day trips, bonfires are not visible - everywhere it is written that it is impossible to make fires and put up tents here. A lot of anthills came across along the way, and besides, large ones. Ants are everywhere. There are many more white butterflies, some of them are already dying, and the ants are dragging them to themselves. From the same glade, Mount Kruglitsa was already visible - the highest object on Taganay (1178 meters). The path left sharply to the right and began to descend, and then went straight. In one place there was a pass from where a view of two valleys between the mountains opened.

The ascent began again, we approached the "Valley of Fairy Tales". The path became like a park - sprinkled with fine white sand, it wound between small trees and bright flowers. In some places, figured rocks rose, reminiscent of fairy-tale characters. Shaggy beards of lichens hang on many Christmas trees. The sun was shining brightly. At the 12th kilometer, the path to the Taganay shelter went to the right, and our path lay straight through the Valley of Fairy Tales. We were walking along a rocky path in the sparse shade of trees, and suddenly an unusual clearing opened up on 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 clearing hung a sign "In the blessed memory of Andrey Tarasov." We thought that this man died somewhere here, and the tourists put these figurines 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.

About a hundred meters after this clearing, the path went up and led us to the rocks on the edge of the Valley of Fairy Tales. The bottom of this valley was also strewn with fine white sand, and figured rocks protruded from the thickets of fir and birch trees. On the right, a path leading to Kruglitsa was visible, apparently from the Taganay shelter. We climbed the rocks, Alexander views of the Responsive Ridge, Kruglitsa, Middle Taganay. After admiring and resting for a while, we continued on our way. It was clear that the ascent to the mountain would not be too difficult - after all, it was called Kruglitsa for a reason - its slopes, covered with kurumnik, are very gentle and fairly even. We are already used 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. It's just that I'm very hungry. There were many inscriptions on the stones of the summit, among them such as "Zaitsev N. 1903". That is, tourists have been going to the mountain for more than a century. There were also commemorative 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 - "Jeanne" and a heart twenty meters in diameter. Lazy people came here!

Alexander wanted to descend to this plateau without fail and reach the opposite edge of the mountain. At first I hesitated whether to go there, but then I 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 climbed into the eyes, into the mouth, into the nose, into the ears ... We changed our location, sat down on the name of Jeanne, lined with stones, but this did not help. I had to put on a windbreaker, tighten the hood, and so it is. And Alexander just ran around with food in circles so that the midges would not catch up. In addition to midges, the same white butterflies flew in multitudes, low mountain flowers bloomed all around, moss turned green, some motley lichens. Above all this the lark flew and sang.

After lunch, we went to the edge of the mountain. There was nothing much to see from it, so we turned around and took the other way around the top to the marked path. On the way, Sasha found and placed in my palm a small, light ball of unknown origin. He asked in an admiring voice, what is it? I knew this, about which I made a statement - this is a dried-up hare turd! Alexander was surprised, what are hares doing here on the mountain? Well, the answer was obvious, here it is, in the hand. We did not make our way along the kurumnik too quickly - some stones swayed, we had to move carefully. I was very happy with 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. We were on our way to the Responsive Ridge.

We went down the already familiar path, but we didn’t 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 already 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 a hole with a spring. And we really came across a hole along 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 climb from the edge, they climbed there even in winter, but they would not be able to get to the peaks along the ridge - they were separated from each other by large crevices. Therefore, it is necessary 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 upstairs.

When we began to climb, two more tourists approached the clearing below, pulled up an awning, and set up a tent. At first, the path was quite normal - kurumnik, smaller pebbles ... True, these pebbles sometimes traveled under our feet. But then the path became a vertical earthen path, where we had to cling to some hummocks and tufts of grass. And about the middle of the ascent, I realized that even if I was lucky and I could climb up, then I wouldn’t be able to get off. We'll have to call a helicopter. And I told Sasha that I was staying here, on the platform, to wait for him. He tried to persuade me, but I resisted. Then Alexander continued on his way alone.

And so I stuck out on this patch for an hour and a half, contemplating the surroundings and thinking how I would go down back. Once I heard Sasha's scream from the top of the Responsive Sasha, and at first I thought that he had fallen. But then I realized that he was delighted. I continued admiring the white flowers and butterflies, sang all the familiar songs so that it would not be boring. The sun went down behind the mountain, it became cool. Then the midges flew in. I put on the hood of a 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 would never go down at all. Downstairs, the tourists turned on the receiver, and I listened to a thematic selection of songs "Just wait for me" by Gazmanov, "I'm standing at the gangway of the plane, the height misses me" by Antonova 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 after a few minutes he joined me. Alexander beamed like a polished samovar, he was disgracefully pleased. Do you want, he says, I will show you the face of a happy person? And in the camera he shows a picture - he clicked himself on top - so joyful! It turned out that he did not get to the top right away. The path ran into an impenetrable rock. He went down a little and went a little further up the slope. He climbed up again, and again ran into an insurmountable obstacle. And so several times, and it was clear that other people were also walking and looking 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 sheer cliffs, he crawled the same to the top of the Responsive Ridge.

Enjoying the views, crawling along the Ridge, Alexander for a long time. But, in the end, he remembered 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 quite decently, and Sasha did not have any difficulties at all. In the clearing, we sat down on a stone to have a bite to eat 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 and glued. They told us in detail how to sew it, how to make fastenings ... 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 was going downhill, so we got there very quickly.

We went to the huntsman's house, took our things, and went to put up a tent. When they put it on, Yuriy came specifically to tell us that we installed it in record time - 6 minutes. Sasha answered him that we were not in a hurry yet, but if it was going to rain, a minute would be enough. Then Yuri asked what my phone number was - I repeated it again, and he said, why did I give him the last digit incorrectly? Apparently he didn't hear that. 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 were not there for so long - we left at 10.00, returned at 20.00. And Yuri decided that we were lost. I asked - where can I get lost here? There are so many great landmarks around. And he replied that quite often this happens to tourists (apparently, on a drunk head).

We gave the huntsman money for the night, had dinner, and collapsed into the tent - relaxed, rested, nevertheless crawled over the mountains. Then they got out to drink tea, and finally went to bed. For tomorrow, we planned to sunbathe in the first half of the day in a clearing, and then go to the stone river, and maybe to the Middle Taganay. We slept not perfectly at night - firstly, it was still cool, and then wild dogs came, stood not far from the tent, and let's bark. It lasted for a long time - maybe 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 confirmed my assumption in the morning, a pack of stray dogs often frightens Taganay tourists). In addition, some 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 unaccustomed lying on hard ground. But the weather was beautiful, just summer, like in July. I went to wash - and in admiration I stopped at the tent - our glade seemed like a paradise - blue sky, bright green grass, flowers, butterflies, sunbeams. Yuri had an open window in the house, there was a flower in a pot on it, music was heard from the radio. After water procedures at the Rattlesnake Spring, I took Alexander out of the sleeping bag (the sleeping bag was twisted, so the poor fellow could not unzip the zipper on his own). She let him lie around for a bit, and then resolutely did some manipulations to pull the tourist out of the tent into the light of day.

Yuri periodically walked past us - either to mow the grass, or on some other business. Finally, Alexander began to show signs of life and went out into the clearing. While I went for water, made a fire, boiled tea. After charging, we had breakfast (Sasha ate sandwiches, and I porridge Bystrov). And then we began to sunbathe - spread rugs on the grass, lay around ... Only insects interfered with everything - either a mosquito or a fly. Then I sent him for a camera so that he could take a picture of me in a new swimsuit - since he still couldn’t lie down.

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 began to pour water on him in the frame. Well, our faces came out in the photo! Sasha's eyes popped out of their sockets, and my pug is extremely malevolent. By the way, a man has already passed us twice, obviously from the locals, who, apparently, collects sour here (alpine mountaineer, or Zlatoust sour) - this is such a Taganay grass, 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 this acid does not grow anywhere else.

We had lunch with salad, homemade lard, mashed potatoes. Then we packed our things, put down the tent and handed over everything to Yuri for safekeeping. He asked where we want to go. When I found out that I was on a stone river, I advised me to go further, to the Sredny Taganay ridge. I expressed doubts that there is something interesting there, but Yuri said that from there the best view of Bolshoi Taganay, which we would not regret. Well, well, we decided, we will reach the river, to the foot of the ridge, and then we will 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 come to the clearing of the shelter. We warned the first guy and girl that we should not take our place - we will be back. They proceeded to another part of the clearing. I had a premonition that this evening would not be as quiet and calm as the previous ones. Down the trail we advanced 0.5 km, to the red arrow pointer "mountain Kruglitsa", "Responsive Ridge", etc. In the same place, a path marked with yellow marks turned to the left to Sredny Taganay. She led through the forest, rather damp. It was immediately noticeable that there were very few people walking there, but the trail was being watched. We crossed several streams, small and large. I was glad we were walking in the shade, because the sun was beating down with all its might again.

And so we got to the stone river, its main channel. The spectacle was impressive - 70 meters, or even more in width, was littered with blocks the size of a sofa, completely randomly. And in length, these blockages 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 again the stones. Then there was a narrow strip of forest, and again a stone river. We crossed all this quite easily - we already have experience of jumping over stones. On the way, she threw a squirrel at us with a squirrel.

About an hour later we reached the Starokialimsky tract. This is the road that leads from the entrance to Taganay Park to Mount Kialim. This is where our marked trail seems to have ended. Sasha and I parted ways - to look for continuation. Opposite the exit to the road was a narrow path, but without yellow marks, so we first decided to see if there were other ways. When I was walking, I scared two birds the size of a partridge near the road, which suddenly began to ride and wallow under the trees. I took a closer look - and they pretend that their wing is broken and take me away from the nest.

Finding nothing resembling 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 cobblestones. Gradually the trail began to climb up. In the gaps of the trees one could already see the slopes of the Middle Taganay 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, as if on steps. Several times they fell to rest on stumps and stones. Even in the shade of the trees it was very hot, it was difficult to breathe. We reached the fragments of the kurumnik, climbed them, turned left, then a little right - and went out 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 here, and to the highest one we must go even more to the left. But we decided not to rush, and first to rest on a very comfortable flat area, from where a magnificent view of the entire Big Taganay opened - the Two-headed Hill, the Mitkiny Rocks, the Responsive Comb, the Kruglitsa, the Three Brothers lined up in front of us in a line. Also, among the trees, the shelter "Rattle Key" was visible, where we spent the night. As in the palm of your hand, a stone river lay all over. We photographed all this, and then lay and sunbathed, admiring the views. White butterflies hovered above us, ants crawled along the rock. The feeling of peace and isolation from the world was complete. The silence was broken only by the sound of leaves and the chirping of birds.

We rested for an hour and a half. Then it was decided to go to other peaks. At first, things were left, but then they had to be taken away, since the top 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 deep down and climb another path. They looked around the surroundings from the previous one - the mountains of Big Taganay and Small Taganay, Zlatoust, the valleys between the mountains opened from here ... And clouds swirled over Zlatoust, and it was clear that it was already raining. And it's all moving in our direction. Then we realized that we need to do the legs, if we do not want to move down the wet steep slope on the priest. We decided to have dinner later.

The descent was better for us than the ascent - we almost ran over the slope. We quickly crossed the stone rivers, where the capercaillie was lekking very close to us. And then it started to rain. I covered Sasha with my windbreaker to keep the camera from getting wet. And she didn’t even get really wet - the forest covered us.

We came to the camp, and there are a lot of children. They brought a whole class, or two, it’s good that they stopped in the clearing farthest from us. We did not manage to have dinner at our parking lot - it started to rain again. Then we quickly set up a tent, hid all things there, and then went under a canopy near the huntsman's house. It was dirty there, but we munched our tea cakes while standing, looking at the tent. We returned to our house, and lay until the end of the bad weather. Then again, like yesterday, they lit a fire, drank tea, looked at the sky and mountains ... Of course, the children squeaked and ran around, but not too intrusively. Mostly they had fun hiking to the stream, but some climbed all over the tents of the shelter. 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 thing, I admired the sunset and the flames. Sasha noticed a butterfly hanging on a branch on a tree - so she apparently settled down to sleep at night. Finally, my pants were dry, and I crawled into the tent. At this time, four or five more tourists came up and began to decide where to make a parking lot for them. It seems that they went to the stream to a distant clearing. The children no longer screamed, they all fell asleep. Well, it was time for us to sleep. And as soon as we fell asleep, five more people arrived in the clearing, and at about one in the morning, seeing that there were tents around, and people were clearly sleeping in them, they began to talk loudly, neigh, shout and make a lot of other noise. Education is awesome! Hello parents. I wanted to get out of the tent and poke the morons. But it was too lazy to get out, but after a while they still calmed down. The rest of the night passed quietly, except for a bird creaking all the time, like an unoiled swing.

On the way back

On the last day of our stay at Taganay, our plans were somewhat disturbed by the rain that had been falling all morning with short breaks. So we had to have breakfast in a tent, and lie in it until 12 o'clock. Alexander was so affected by all this that he began to shake me, imitating a trip in a train car, and saying “You-breathe, you-breathe ...”, “Tu-tu-oo!”, “Will you take a bed?” We even began to consider a plan in case the rain continued 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 brightly that it instantly dried up both the grass and the earth ... We had mashed potatoes and salad for lunch, so we had very little food left. Unless Alexander brings 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 clearing of the shelter, and set off on our way back.

We walked slowly, because there was enough time - the train was only at 12 at night. On the way we crossed several kurumniks - I had already forgotten that they were there. Towards all the time came across groups of tourists - adults, children. There were 20 people walking... Saturday. We were glad that we spent most of our time here on weekdays with complete desertion. Alexander greeted some schoolchildren with the words "Hello, comrade pioneers!", And they answered "Hello, comrades ... (here they thought) uncles." It came 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 shelter "White Key", stopped there in a clearing to sit and relax. But it didn't work out for long. In one of the houses of the shelter, I noticed some kind of fuss - it was either fighting or fighting two drunken guys. Their movements resembled underwater ones. Alcohol won both. Soon, from their own company, a tipsy youngster with traces of a strong addiction to alcohol on his face also taxied to us. He shoved a small snake in my face, said that he had a viper, and he was playing with it. Wouldn't I like to play with the snake too? He clearly expected me to start screaming, faint, or run. But I love snakes, besides, I know how to distinguish a viper from a snake. So she feigned polite interest, but refused to play. It became clear that it was necessary to get out of here, the silence and peace were broken by drunken voices. So we continued on our way, meeting a variety of tourists again and again. Tired of saying hello to them. All sorts of pleasant aromas turned our heads in the end - 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, in a cozy clearing near the bridge, they decided to sit until the evening - it’s 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, and I myself 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 jumped over the pebbles. And then a company of three people appeared from the side of Taganay, apparently from those who got drunk in the shelter. They cursed at each other on the move, unsteadily approaching the bridge. 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 on a log, and began to swear further, looking at us. His "comrade" pulled over, and they began to quarrel again. I listened, listened, I feel - I have no strength, my ears wither. I asked them not to use foul language, but in response, one began to be rude, saying that they specially come to the forest to swear. I say - the forest is big, go to another clearing, and swear there ... He answers, no, we will not leave. Then I say we'll leave. And I pretended to pack my backpack. As soon as they saw it, they immediately dumped it. Apparently, they just wanted to hang out 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. It seems like needles, but they crawl, move their mustaches. The larvae are probably someone else's. People were crossing the bridge - some to Taganay, some back. Then Sasha climbed into the water, rinsed himself, and we went to dinner. After dinner, Alexander became interested in communicating with ants - he gave them a candied coconut, then rescued beautiful golden beetles from an 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 by "train" - she held on to his belt. Alexander was struck by this fact, and me too - I thought, how does she cross the barn?

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

We got to the final stop of minibuses "Pushkinsky Settlement", we decided to wait there - 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 Sopka and the Otklikny Ridge - they were clearly visible from here. Along the way, they contemplated local residents, who somewhat spoiled the pictures of nature with their alcoholized physiognomies. Happy parents with two friends came out of the store, loaded three large bottles of beer into the basket under the stroller, and put the fourth, which did not enter, under the blanket to the baby. And they went to drink with a sleeping company. We sat for a while and went to the station, along the way photographing the interesting illumination of houses by the sun against the background of black thunderclouds. We even saw a rainbow.

We got to the public garden of the locomotive depot, very nice, with mothers and children in strollers, but littered with seed husks, 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 a little more than an hour before the locomotive. In addition to us, there were two more passengers and a couple of guards under the palm trees. And if we count the policemen, then there were three times more of them than passengers. Through the 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, a downpour poured. We got worried about how we would get 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 wonderfully reached Yekaterinburg.

The result of our trip to Taganay

We really liked the Taganay National Park. 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 - there are no heaps of garbage (and just garbage). Apparently, people are warned not to litter, and the park staff do their work in good faith. Taganay has wonderful air - fresh, fragrant. The nature of Taganay is very diverse and rich.

There are many attractions on Taganay, and they are completely different, designed for different categories of tourists. These are peaks, and rocks, and stone rivers. Shelters give you the opportunity to choose your vacation - in tents by the fire or in comfort, in rented rooms. The only advice for those who love silence is to go to the mountain on weekdays, on weekends there is a huge influx of people.

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

Nothing distracts from a long week of work like a trip to nature. As for me, the farther from the usual places, the better. In general, on one of my weekends, 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 ranges are located. Not only residents of our vast Motherland flock here, but also foreigners. For some, a trip is a journey into a fairy tale, for others it is a search for anomalous phenomena and even a Bigfoot.

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

It is not easy for Muscovites to get to this majestic creation of nature. First you need to choose the type 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’s already a stone’s throw to the ridges.

But first things first.

How to get to Taganay

Before being on Taganay, any traveler must go through a difficult path! The mountains themselves are located near the city of Zlatoust, which is located in the Chelyabinsk region. Getting from Moscow directly can only be done 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 trip includes a transfer. So it is most convenient to get to Moscow, and then go to Zlatoust.

So, other types of travel will inevitably lead you to two cities: and Chelyabinsk. And from there we directly get 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

Traveling 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 in advance. The closer the departure date, the more expensive the tickets. The following companies offer their services:

• Red Wings(the most budgetary, but also on the oldest aircraft), 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 a / c;
• Low-cost airline Pobeda the cheapest company, but you are not guaranteed lunch during the flight, because it is not included in the list of services provided, they will also ask you to pay for luggage, and the choice of a seat is also not free, and if you are already flying with a company, you will have to fly far from each other a friend, because "armchairs nearby" are practically never free;
• Company S7 also operates flights to Chelyabinsk: 2 flights a day;
• Ural Airlines- 2 flights per day;
• NordAvia- only 1 flight per day;
• Norswind airlines- 1 flight.
• Airline departing from Sheremetyevo Airport - « Aeroflot much more expensive - the ticket price is from 4,500 rubles, but here there is a sandwich, and smiling flight attendants, fresh press, a blanket. In general, we choose either a financial issue or a service.

Number of flights per day 11–12 (depending on the day of the week). Of these, 6 are provided by AFL, so if you are suddenly late, there will be the possibility of re-registration (I already tell you this as a flight attendant).

The flight time is 1 hour. 50 min.

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 moving from Ufa to Zlatoust takes much longer, because the distance between these cities is 286 km, which is about 4 hours. 30 min by car, and 6 h. 30 min by train. Agree that it is more comfortable to sit for 20 minutes in an airliner's seat, where they will pour tea and treat you with juice.

But remember: having bought a 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. The cost is from 400-500 rubles (if you order through online services: taxi "Leader", "Minimum", "Maxim"). We call or write in the order ticket 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 wait for customers already in the arrivals hall, right at the baggage carousel. 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 transportation of a suitcase additionally (plus 50 rubles), this is if your bag is huge.

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

It takes 30–40 minutes to get to the bus station from Balandino.

By train

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

Moscow - Zlatoust

Will throw right up to Zlatoust. Every day, two long-distance trains depart from the Kazansky railway station. Travel time is about 30 hours. The cost of a reserved seat starts from 1,500 rubles (depending on the day of the week and the workload of the train, the price can be increased to 3,000 rubles), a compartment car - from 4,000 rubles. But remember that in addition to the ticket, you will need to purchase all sorts of travel necessities. What will be the additional cost. Yes, and more than a day you need to occupy yourself with something. Although, a variant of a cheerful and friendly company is possible, or maybe, 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 flew to, because there is another 150 km to Zlatoust. . You can buy a ticket from the railway capital of the Southern 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 the railway station. There is only one in Chelyabinsk, so it's hard to get lost. The price will be slightly higher than the trip to the bus station. Now we buy a ticket for a long-distance train: travel time - from 2 hours 40 minutes. (depending on the type of train). Issue price - from 450 rubles. for a seat ticket. Arriving at the Zlatoust railway station, you can get to Taganay Park on foot. A distance of three kilometers is overcome in an hour. If time is important for you, then you should not waste it, we catch a "minibus" with the inscription "Pushkin Settlement" or "White Key".

bus route

Let me remind you that in order to be on the spot, 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 departs at 21:00. I advise you to leave at about 8 in the morning in order to get enough sleep and have time to explore the beauty of Taganay. The journey from the Zlatoust bus station to the park takes 30 minutes. You can get to the City Square by any public transport and then by bus number 6 or by taxi. In Zlatoust itself, buses run to the village of Pushkinskoye bus No. 15, No. 6.

You can use the shuttle bus number 44, 43, 21, 40.

In general, the route of a taxi and a bus is 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 deliver you right to the foot of the mountain, tell a lot of interesting stories, and meeting 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 ways I described to travel from Chelyabinsk to Zlatoust, but this is on condition 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, then you can rent a car. You can find good options for example,. The car will be delivered to that place. which you specify in the order. The cost varies by class. For example, an economy option will cost 1656 rubles per day (Skoda Rapid), and Daewoo Nexia will cost a little more - 1941 rubles. Capacity - 4-5 people. But if the company is large, then you need to take the appropriate car. Volkswagen Caravelle is perfect. Its rent costs 4750 rubles. It is designed for 8 people and has a large luggage compartment. The price of the car includes unlimited mileage, accident insurance and theft insurance.

You need to go to the village of Pushkinsky (this is part of the city of Zlatoust) along the M5 highway. It's hard to get through. Everywhere there are signs and steles with the names of cities and the year of their foundation. Turning right into the city, we drive along the main road (you will not confuse it with anything). We get to the intersection, where you will notice the inscription "Magnitogorsk", then you turn right, while the main road goes left. On the way you will meet: the railway station and the final stop of the city's vehicles. The first sights of Taganay and shops with the same names - "White Key" will already begin to appear here. Then you will see a lot of garages, after them we turn right and go straight to the highway to Magnitogorsk. If you come across a cross along the way, then you are moving in the right direction. Then follow the sign "Double-headed hill", and after a while you are there. 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 park guests. Leave your autograph there and go! Conquer the peaks! By the way, you can explore the route on the map, which is located near the house.

Navigation

Taganay is beautiful and good in any season. Before you start climbing to the peaks, I advise you to get acquainted with some features of the park. In particular, scroll through the updated guide, which appeared in April 2017. For beginners, by the way, it will be very useful. The book includes 190 pages. Here you will note for yourself interesting moments in the history of 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 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 lifting:

• Ecotrail "On the edge of the forest",
• "Taganai 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" (Akhmatov mine).
• The difference between these directions lies in the complexity of the routes and the steepness of the climbs.

"To the Top of the World"

I decided to go somewhere in between and set out on a 15km journey aiming for "Top of the World". To the two highest points - "Feathers" (1034 m), "Lamb foreheads".

The whole route took about 6-8 hours. My group consisted of 35 people, so we always had to wait for someone, but in general we walked together.

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

The first transshipment point is the Beliy Klyuch spring. White - because its bottom seems to be strewn with chalk, and it's all about the quartzite mineral. 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 draw 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 in a shelter with the same name. Here you can rent a house, as well as a room and a bed. You can find out the cost of your stay in the sections below. You can set up your tent and enjoy the beauties of wildlife.

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

From that moment, our second stage started. It began with the conquest of 200 steps. This matter is not so easy. 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, not in a hurry, otherwise you run the risk of quickly running out of steam and not reaching the intended point. Climbing goes along the route with a slope of 20 degrees on the rocks (in the 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. This is real adrenaline!

In my opinion, winter nature is simply wonderful and indescribable, its globality and power are amazing. The view is mesmerized by giant green-brown pines and firs covered with snow, it feels like you are in a fairy tale "Morozko". A real snowy kingdom, where the sky becomes a little closer to you, where there is unity with nature and wildlife. 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 seems to be younger.

From the two-headed Sopka, views of the Otkliknaya ridge, the ridges of the Small and Middle Taganay open. Consider already several excursions in one.

But the temperature must be correct. After all, at -30 ° C it will be impossible to rise up. Excellent weather is -15°С. At what do not forget that you are going to the mountains! Get warm! And take plenty of hot tea and sandwiches. They helped me a lot. My friend and I stocked up on two backpacks of food! After all, forces and energy, rising to the top, are spent immeasurably. Therefore, the snack was often arranged and took 15-20 minutes.

The coolest, in my opinion, were the rides from the very top of the Two-Headed Hill, we raced about 2.5 km on cartons. They remembered childhood, how once, being quite kids, they sat on the boards and rolled with the breeze along some mountain. The bruises were a bit stuffed, of course: the skills from childhood were lost! But quickly remembered the old craft! It was not possible to get to the bus, the fault was all the same ate, which 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 complicated for you, then you can choose the simplest one, such as Taganay in 600 steps.

Half a kilometer road is the way to the amazing features of the Black Rock. Its peak is at an altitude of 853 meters, and it consists entirely of white quartzite. A rocky ridge stretches higher and higher towards the sky, the length of which exceeds 200 meters from south to north. Here you can walk and drive a car. All this pleasure lasts 2 hours, during this 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 “The whole Taganay in 600 steps” has a special feature: it is accessible even for people with limited mobility, such as wheelchair users, and those who do not have special physical training. The route is equipped with an artificial path and a two-level observation deck, where you can see the surrounding sights (these are the Two-headed Sopka, Itsyl, Mont Blanc, Otkliknoy ridge, Far Tanganay, Kruglitsa, the visible ridges Sredny and Maly Taganay, Aleksandrovskaya Sopka, Big Stone River, Valley of Fairy Tales, the remains of the Three Brothers, the invisible peaks of Yurma, the tracts of Kialimskaya Pad). 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. Tour 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 really amazing and unique. This is the largest stone placer in the world. It is located between the Bolshoi and Sredny Taganay ridges. The river flows as much as 6 km, reaching a width of up to 500 meters, and its blocks weigh at least 9 tons. The spirit fascinates from the fact that at a depth of about 5 meters you can hear the sound of real mountain streams. They carry their waters under the "channel" of ancient stone streams.

"To the foot of the Riphean"

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

The main highlight of this route is 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 starts immediately from the Central Estate, passes along the Lower Path, crosses the Bolshaya Tesma River over the bridge and rushes to the Bolshoy Taganay Pass.

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

During the route, each tourist will enjoy the view of an unusual stone river, see the Two-headed Hill, go to the Zerkalo or Glass watershed. After overcoming 14 km, the first wooden huts appear, these are the houses of the Taganay shelter. Here you can rest, gain strength, drink hot tea, warm yourself by the stove or by the fire, and the very next day continue climbing Kruglitsa.

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

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

"To the Eternal Wind"

This is the name given to the trail 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 Manor of the park, passes along the Stone River, which it captures twice. When 9 km is left behind, you will have the opportunity to relax at the Pisany Kamen parking lot. Then the trail leads the traveler to the Kialimsky 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 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 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 you can be offered in the Central Estate. In five hours, travelers cover 32 km. The speed lies in the fact that we not only walk, but also ride. This is a pedestrian route. You only have to walk 2 km.

This excursion is not possible without a guide of the park, as well as without your own car.

During the transfer to the Akhmatova 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 into the mine working and inspect the rocks.

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

Rates

Entrance to the park costs 100 rubles.

If you understand that your vacation will not be enough for one day, and you want to stay longer to explore Taganay, 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.

It rents rooms for 1600 rubles (capacity - 4 people). Firewood is no longer needed, central heating has been installed. But to cook dinner, you still have to go outside and make a fire.

Nearby there are two houses (up to 6 people). The oven is on. And where without a tent. Its cost is the same - 150 rubles per day. There is a bath.

• Shelter "Taganay". Cabins, tent and sauna.

• Kialim cordon. Large residential houses have been built here. The price of the issue is 200 rubles per person per day. But keep in mind that for comfort you need to ask for a house with a bed, and not with a deck. Although, sleeping on boards is sometimes good for the spine.

• Weather station. In my opinion, the most unusual and interesting choice of bed. You seem to be on the set of a film about forgotten tour groups. As if a couple of people survived all over the world and they must survive at any cost and withstand the fight with nature itself. The weather station is one small house, which is located on a mountain plateau. Movement is allowed only along the beaten paths (in order to preserve the uniqueness of the northern world and the ecosystem of the mountain). The house is completely covered with snow, and finding the entrance to it is already a great success. Naturally, it is forbidden to burn fires, so it is equipped with a kitchen with an oven and a gas stove. Central heating 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 bath 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, most importantly, do not forget to take plenty of food with you. Mountain air and forest atmosphere contribute to appetite.
For a long rest, it is not allowed to put up a tent everywhere, but only in designated places. They are:

• Light meadow;
• Iron bridge on the river. B. Braid;
• Deer bridge on the river. B. Tesma;
• Black Rock, White Key glade;
• Cheerful key;
• Glade "Rattle Key";
• Written stone;
• Mont Blanc;
• Hare meadow;
• Glade 12th control (Shelter "Taganay");
• Parking them. Garber;
• Small Kialim;
• Three brothers;
• Arrow;
• Seven brothers;
• Itsyl spruce forest;
• Pauline;
• Yurma;
• The central entrance to the Taganay district forestry, etc.
• Specify places in the Central Manor.

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

Booking places in the houses is mandatory, otherwise you risk being left on the street. Reservations must be paid no later than 3 days before arrival.

Main Attractions

Undoubtedly, everyone who travels to Taganay wants to see with his own eyes the magical world of untouched nature, its fabulousness and uniqueness. But in addition to this, in the park you can look into the Museum of Nature. Independent inspection 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.

Well, how? Could I interest and inspire you? I hope I succeeded today, so do not waste time, run to pack your suitcase for Taganay! No matter what - train or plane, bus or car. I am sure, no matter what you choose (traditional “one day tour”, or extreme in the mountains and forests for a week) - after many years there will definitely be something to remember!

Safety

Beware of the weather. Especially if you are going to visit the park for more than one day. Remember about snowstorms and snowfalls, because in a short time snow can pile up over human height. Zakhar Shadrin from Zlatoust was able to capture the very moment when the elements are inexorable and terrible.

As I described above, there are a lot of boulders in the park, especially on the peaks. 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 Emergency Situations!

But a one-day tour also requires preparation. So, first of all, don't forget food and a thermos with hot and sweet tea! Shoes should be warm, comfortable and preferably with a tread. A change of clothes so you don't get sick. Flashlight. Penka (in the common people "podpopnik").

According to park workers, only people with special training and professional equipment can climb the Otkliknaya 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. There are prices for every pocket. Souvenirs are also for every taste from a magnet to knives of the famous Zlatoust factory. Although, I confess that buying the latter is much cheaper in the city.

Taganay - holidays with children

The national park offers its little guests a special trail "On 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 must notify the park staff about your idea in advance. With young visitors, go to the Central Estate and check in. Here the children will have an entertaining tour of the Museum of Nature. Then the guys move smoothly into the fresh air. There, Zaika will tell them stories about birds, animals and minerals, and the main character of the Ural legends, the Kialim grandmother, tells about plants.

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