Private tour price depends on the number of people in the group. The price (per person) indicated below is for a group of 2 persons.
7 Days
994 km
950 km
44 km
+
Highly qualified staff
We invest over 300 hours each year in training our staff and guides to ensure top-notch service.
Charity
Our company contributes up to 1% of your service cost to support charitable causes and create a positive impact.
Guarantee
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Experience
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Itinerary:
Ust-Kamenogorsk - Zyryanovsk - Katon-Karagai - Guest House
After meeting the guide at your hotel at 09:00 and boarding a comfortable off-road vehicle, you will depart from Ust-Kamenogorsk to Zyryanovsk, located in the heart of the ore Altai. After a short excursion around Zyryanovsk you will drive to Katon-Karagai settlement with a stop for lunch (picnic) on the way. The road is very picturesque and you can make a stop in any place you like. After passing Katon-Karagai, you will drive 5 km more to the guest house, located at the foot of the Sarymsakty mountain range, where dinner and rest are waiting for you.
Total automobile mileage in this day is about 335 км
Overnight in a guest house
Katon-Karagai settlement was formed in Soviet times by merging two settlements: Katon-Karagai volost settlement, founded in 1868, and Cossack village Altai, founded in 1871. The villages were located two miles away from each other. Nowadays, these two settlements form a single whole. In contrast to the beginning of XX century, the beginning of XXI can be characterized as a period of significant decline of Katon-Karagai. In place of a large number of houses there are only grass-covered bumps now, many buildings stand in ruins and make a painful impression.
Guest House - Sarymsakty Gorge
After breakfast at the guest house, you will start horseback route to the winterhut, located in the middle part of Sarymsakty Gorge. On the way, you have to make several stops for rest and lunch. By the end of the day you will get to a large picturesque glade, where an equipped tourist campsite is located. You will set a camp there, have dinner and rest by the fire.
Length of horseback and trekking route during the day is about 11 km
Overnight in a tent camp at an altitude of 1895 m a.s.l.
Altitude gain: 720 m
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Sarymsakty is a mountain range in the southern Altai. Its length is about 60 km, the highest point is Berkutaul Mount (3373 m above sea level). In the south, the ridge is bounded by the Kurchum River and the Kurchum Mountain Massif, and in the north - by the Bukhtarma River. To the east, it borders the Tarbagatai Ridge with a beautiful view from the Kyzylkum Pass. It is noteworthy that the ridge has absolutely different structure on both sides. From the north it is steep formidable rocks and glaciers, large enough for this latitudinal belt. From the south, the ridge is more gentle and very rich in vegetation from cedar forests to alpine meadows and alpine tundra. The Sarymsakty Gorge is popular because it is located near Katon-Karagai village and has a lot of cascading waterfalls and alpine lakes, most of which do not even have names.
Sarymsakty Gorge - Piala Waterfall - Kyzylkop Gorge - Sarymsakty Gorge
After breakfast in the camp, you will start to climb up the Sarymsakty Gorge. You can go either on the horseback or on foot, as there are almost no steep slopes and difficult ascents in these places. The first attraction on the way is Piala Waterfall, where you will make a stop. Then you will continue your way higher to the foot of Kyzylkum Pass, where several mountain lakes are located at once. You will have a picnic on the shore of one of them. In the afternoon you will go back down to the camp, have dinner and rest by the fire.
Length of horseback route during the day is about 22 km
Overnight in a tent camp at an altitude of 1895 m a.s.l.
Altitude gain/drop: +705/-705 m, highest point is 2600 m a.s.l.
In addition to numerous rivers and lakes with the purest water, which are more than 400, Katon-Karagai State Natural Park is famous for its picturesque cascading waterfalls. There are so many of them that not everyone has a name. The one among the few named is Piala Waterfall, which is not very big but very nice. It is located at an altitude of 2370 meters above sea level. This waterfall got its name due to the following features: a mountain river cascades down into a round small lake, which is shaped like a bowl, and then flows out of it and after a kilometer it flows into the Sarymsak River. The thunder from the falling water stream can be heard long before approaching it. In good weather you can even take a swim there.
Sarymsakty Gorge - Katon-Karagai - Yasnaya Polyana
After breakfast, you will depart to Katon-Karagai, where you will switch from the horses to the car. In the afternoon, you will have lunch in the local tavern, walk around the village and visit the local market. Further the route lies in the direction of an amazing place - Yasnaya Polyana, where you will take a sauna, have a delicious dinner and overnight in cozy ailas.
Length of horseback route during the day is about 11 km, automobile mileage is about 60 km
Altitude drop: 720 m
Yasnaya Polyana is a guest house, and it is extremely difficult to find the words to describe it succinctly. It contains everything you need to fully immerse into the Altai culture, to be detached from the urban bustle, and to charge of vigor and energy of the beauty that surrounds you. Wooden house (log cabin) is built and decorated with own hands of the owners. In each element of the interior invested love and care for the guests. A real village stove on firewood, a player of vinyl records, which, by the way, here is in large quantity. And a huge number of interior items, made by the hands of the owner of the house.
Cozy ailas are traditional hexagonal dwellings of ancient Altaiers, which are also built and decorated with love and awe that is felt in every detail.
Yasnaya Polyana - Uryl - Yazevoye Lake
After breakfast in the guest house you will have a small art therapy with the amazing master Andrey, whose fantasy and subtle skills create incredible masterpieces. Under Andrey's guidance, you will be given an opportunity to make something unusual in the spirit of Altai culture and take it with you. Then your journey will continue, and the next amazing place on the way is Uryl village. The first what you will visit in Uryl is a local bakery, where fresh and madly delicious bread is always sold. Then you will visit the local people, where you will be fed with homemade lunch. After lunch and a short rest, you will move on to Yazevoye Lake. Upon arrival to the lake, you will be accommodated at a tourist base, and after you can go fishing, visit the sauna or go to admire the Belukha mountain, reflecting in the lake. Dinner and overnight at the tourist base.
Total automobile mileage in this day is about 50 km
Yazevoye Lake is very popular among tourists who want to get to the foot of Belukha or to the very top, because the lake is located, perhaps, on the most popular trail in the area, leading to Kok-Kol lower camp, where there are many attractions. The main feature of the lake is a tourist base, founded in the distant Soviet Union. To this day, this base is still functioning and hosts many tourist groups. There are those who are already returning from the mountains and those who are still on their way to Belukha. In good weather from the shores of the lake one can see the massif of Belukha, the two-headed peak. An interesting fact is that for a mountain lake the water is quite warm, although the lake it is located at an altitude of about 1655 m above sea level.
Yazevoye Lake - Yazevyi Waterfall - Berel Burial Mounds - Klimov's Lodge - Ulken-Naryn
On this day you will have an early wake-up, light breakfast and then a brief 2-kilometer walk to the opposite shore of Yazevoye Lake, where you can admire the charming dawn panorama of Belukha. After returning to the camp and a full breakfast, you will depart to Uryl village. The first sightseeing of the day will be Yazevyi Waterfall. After the walk around the waterfall, you will move in the direction of Berel village, where, of course, make a stop at the local bakery. The bread there is very tasty, and you can eat buns with milk endlessly. The traditional half hour wait for the bread to come out of the oven, gives this ritual a special meaning. Next, you will have another short drive to a very interesting place - the Berel Burial Mounds. There you will have a tour of the museum, where some artifacts found during excavations are presented, and the museum guide will tell you a lot of interesting things. After the excursion you will move to the Klimov's lodge, where you will be fed with home lunch. Then you will have a little rest and go further along the right bank of Bukhtarma River. By the end of the day you will arrive in Ulken-Naryn village.
Total automobile mileage in this day is about 195 km
Overnight in a hotel
Berel necropolis has been known to the general public since 1998 thanks to unique findings obtained in one of its largest mounds, although the first excavations were carried out here as far back as 1865 by the famous archaeologist Vasiliy Radlov. Today Berelsky burial ground counts more than 100 funerary and memorial structures of the early nomadic era. A group of researchers discovered the royal burial, where the tsar with the queen and thirteen red horses in full decoration have been resting in the mound for about two millennia. The studied burial mound is a special structure erected for the burial of a person who occupied the highest position in the social ladder of the nomadic Scythian-Saxon tribes of the Altai sub-region.
Ulken-Naryn - Vasilyevskaya Ferry Crossing - Ak-Baur - Ust-Kamenogorsk
After breakfast at the hotel, you will go to the ferry crossing of Bukhtarma Reservoir. It should be noted that the ferry crossing of Bukhtarma is a separate adventure that leaves pleasant impressions, and during which the obligatory tradition is to visit the cafeteria on the ferry "Odessa". After crossing of the reservoir, you will continue to move, making a stop for lunch. In the afternoon, you will arrive to the mysterious historical place Ak-Baur, from where after sightseeing you will depart to Ust-Kamenogorsk. Upon arrival to the city, you will be taken to the hotel or at the airport or railway station.
Total automobile mileage in this day is about 310 km
Ak-Baur neolithic temple complex is one of the most unique cultural monuments of the Ore Altai, located in 40 km from Ust-Kamenogorsk, in the upper reaches of Akbaur brook. Exactly on the hillside of Ak-Baur hill there is a grotto of the same name with a natural opening "on the roof" and rock images inside, made of red ochre (or blood of sacrificial animals). Paintings of such color are not found anywhere else in Eastern Kazakhstan. Reverence for heights was common in many early cultures and is related to the fact that the mountains were thought to be the home of local deities. They symbolized the center of the world, the place where heaven and earth meet, eternity and aspiration to the highest world. It was on the basis of the cults of the mountains that many early forms of religion were formed.
Important Information and Recommendations:
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Age restriction: 16+
Please advise any specific dietary requirements at time of booking (traditional local cuisine includes mostly lamb or beef, dough, milk products)
Clothing and equipment required for the tour: waterproof membrane Gore-Tex jacket and pants, warm fleece jacket or Polartec jacket, storm coat, windproof jacket, warm down vest or down jacket, warm hat, gloves; several sets of underwear, several pairs of socks and a pair of warm socks, several T-shirts with short and long sleeves, shorts, cap, swimming suite; appropriate hiking boots, shoes for camp (lightweight sneakers); sunglasses and sunscreen; torch, several sets of batteries, thermos for 1-1.5 liters or other water container, backpack of at least 80 liters and a small backpack for personal belongings; personal hygiene items, personal first aid kit, mite and mosquito repellent, personal sleeping bag (may be provided, if necessary)
Gallery:
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