Day Schedule

➤Breakfast

➤Kurai Steppe

➤Red Gate

➤Mountain passes Ulagan & Katu-Yaryk

➤Chulyshman River Valley

Your day begins with a morning drive to the Kurai Steppe, famous for its incredibly photogenic landscapes. South of the village of Kurai, there is one of the most spectacular fields of giant current ripples in the world. Here as nowwhere else in Altai, we feel this incredible power of nature, our connection to the universe and endless freedom.

Take a road to, perhaps, the most picturesque Altai mountain pass - Katu-Yaryk. Passing through the Red Gate Gorge, named for the reddish shade of the surrounding rocks, you find yourself on a mountain road, following through numerous lakes and passes, starting from the Ulagan Pass and ending with the Katu-Yaryk Pass, from which an incredible breathtaking view of the Chulyshman river valley opens. Many travelers go to Altai just to see the magical Katu-Yaryk that can’t help but amaze everyone who has reached these wild beautiful lands.

Katu-Yaryk is a unique pass. The pass is a descent from the Ulagansky plateau to the valley of the Chulyshman River - it is a 3.5-kilometer zigzag of 9 loops, cut down in the ~ 70 ° slope of the mountain, with an 800 m height difference, a "single track" over the abyss, you can only leave with oncoming cars at turns (there are small pockets).

Chulyshman River Valley is UNESO World Heritage Site. It is a gorge or canyon 135 km long surrounded by rocks of a kilometer height. It begins in the upper reaches of the river, originating from the highlands of Lake Dzhulukol. The valley ends on the southern shore of Lake Teletsky, into which the Chulyshman River flows. The monumental pass Katu-Yaryk, literally cut down in the slope of the mountain, is the only way into the valley from the south. On the other edge, there is south bank of the Teletskoe Lake.

Going down to the valley of the Chulyshman River, you stop for the night in wooden houses not far from an amazing natural phenomenon - the Akkurum tract, which has the shape of stone mushrooms.