Maralnik bloom
 2021

You can see these colors on the mountain slopes only in a very short period of time. You will find yourself in a real beautiful spring fairy tale, where flowering shrubs and still frozen waterfalls will coexist!

Are you ready for the most amazing journey? Let's go!

Meeting at the airport of Gorno-Altaysk. We will have breakfast and immediately set off along the Chuisky tract.
To understand why the Chuisky tract is one of the ten most beautiful roads in the world, it is enough to make an independent journey along the legendary road. The Chuisky tract will show the tourist the iconic places of Altai, but he himself, first of all, is the main attraction of the mountainous country.

On the way we overcome the Seminsky and Chike-Taman passes. In 1956, a memorial obelisk was erected at the top of the Seminsky Pass in honor of the 200th anniversary of the annexation of Altai to Russia. Seminsky pass is a state natural monument. The pass is valuable, first of all, as a natural complex - the border of the Northern and Central Altai, in addition, here we can see clean, "park" cedar forests with high forbs and an abundance of bright flowers.
The Chike-Taman pass is one of the most "serpentine" and picturesque passes of the Altai Mountains. The road passes through a narrow granite massif, forms a serpentine road with numerous sharp turns and steep slopes.

Then, descending from the pass, we will see simply fantastic landscapes:

Scientifically, this shrub of the heather family is called "Ledebour's Rhododendron", but in common people it is called "maralnik", and is rightfully considered a symbol of the Altai spring. Its flowering, as a rule, occurs in late April - early May, earlier than other plants, covering the mountain slopes and underbrush with a delightful lilac-pink veil. By tradition, the holiday in honor of the maralnik bloom opens the summer tourist season, and has recently been celebrated not only by local residents, but is also an event for numerous guests of Gorny Altai. A folk omen of the end of winter is associated with this plant: if the maralnik has bloomed, it means that spring has definitely come in Altai, even if the flowering has come ahead of schedule and there is snow in some places.

Stop for the night in the agritourism complex "Inegen". (Cozy comfortable houses, a bathhouse, a cafe, national Altai dwellings, gazebos on the river bank). Dinner at the cafe of the complex. At the base, located in a quiet and secluded place, you can relax and have a good rest after your flight and car trip.

We will have breakfast and set off further along the Chuysky tract towards Mongolia.
We visit the Kalbak-Tash tract, inspection of rock paintings - petroglyphs. On a flattened rocky hill, located across the valley of the Chuya River, more than 500 compositions have been applied, numbering more than 3 thousand drawings. All of them were knocked out with stone or metal tools, mainly by point equipment. The oldest drawings date back to the 8th millennium BC.

We move on to the village of Aktash and visit the famous Geyser Lake. Recently, this lake has been very popular, so we will hardly be able to visit it alone.

We will have lunch at a cafe and continue our way.
We will stop in to the observation deck, from where a panorama of the Severo-Chuisky ridge and the Kuraiskaya steppe opens.

After enjoying the views, we move to Altai Mars, the place that received this name because it consists of multi-colored clay. The mountains here seem to be painted with stripes in different shades of red, yellow and green. These fantastic colors were formed many millions of years ago, when there were shallow bays of the ancient ocean. Each layer was formed in a certain period and the conditions of that period depended on what color the clay would acquire. On the multi-colored mountains you can see how the wind and melt water worked. The weathered slopes are almost vertical walls with columns and everywhere in the mountains melt water cut through grooves and ravines, creating a bizarre relief. It's worth wandering around here and of course taking photos!

Today we are moving to the Chulyshman river valley. A very beautiful road with two mountain passes and many lakes. On the way, we will visit the Pazyryk burial mounds, which are the graves of clan or tribal leaders, built mainly in the 5-4 centuries. BC e. Despite the fact that the mounds were robbed in antiquity, thanks to the permafrost layer formed under the mounds, researchers managed to find many household items of the Pazyryk people, preserved for centuries in such a natural "refrigerator". A priceless exhibit was also found here, a real treasure - the world's oldest pile carpet, hand-knotted.

Then we have to overcome the Katu-Yaryk pass (from the Altai - "steep hillock"). The serpentine road, cut right on the side of the mountain, descends into the Chulyshman valley. On the one hand - a slope, on the other - a cliff hundreds of meters high. The length of the descent is 3.5 km.

Breakfast and transfer to Uznezu. Today we have a big crossing, after breakfast we overcome Katu-Yaryk and move towards the Chuisky tract.

A few kilometers from the Aktash village along the Aktash-Ust-Ulagan highway, the road, crossing the Chibitka river by a bridge, passes between high rocks with a pronounced reddish tint. This place is called “Krasnye Vorota” and is one of the natural monuments of the Altai Republic. A passage in the rocks was made during the construction of the road. Mercury compounds (cinnabar) give the rock a pink-red hue.

If time and weather permits, we will visit the Ular waterfalls (may still be frozen)