Altai Mars

Start early. We pick up tourists at about 7.00 from the campgrounds in Aya, Manzherka, Turquoise Katun and go for color impressions! We have a very busy program and we have to do everything!

Tour tour to Altai Mars - the most capacious one-day trip to the Altai of all our routes! The central question we will be answering on this journey is: Is there life on Mars? While Elon Musk implements his idea of colonizing the “red planet” (the billionaire plans to build a city with a population of 1 million people on the planet by 2050), we will already see alien landscapes today. Space photos are guaranteed!

The route passes along the Chuisky highway, which took the honorable 5th place in the rating of National Geographic magazine in 2014 "10 most beautiful roads in the world". Mentions of the current Chui tract, formerly called Mungal, can be found in Chinese sources thousands of years ago. From then until the beginning of the XX century it was just a mountain path, which was used by merchants and pilgrims walking to the sacred tree in the upper reaches of the Katun River. The wheel road from Onguday to Kosh Agach (255 km) was built only by 1903. Today, the Chui tract is one of the few roads in the world, awarded its own museum.

Finally wake up will help coffee at the first location in our tour of the Altai – Seminsky pass, one of the highest passes of the Chui tract. The unique natural complex, which presents several zones of vegetation, is located at an altitude of 1717 m.

A memorial stele is installed on the pass in honor of the 200th anniversary of the voluntary entry of Altai into the Russian Empire. The ancient Altai name of the Seminsky pass - Dial-Menku ("Eternal mane"). The name of the pass comes from the Mongolian word "sebi" - fortress. At all times it was a place, as there was huge snow here in winter.

Chicke-Taman Pass. Translated as "Flat (Straight) Soil." The top of the pass is at an altitude of 1295 m, but it seems much higher than Seminsky. The canvas of the pass passes through a cut of a steep slope of the mountain, cut into rocky granite massifs. The road passes the mountain serpentine. You will definitely want to be here longer difficult to pass, because the views from it open simply unrealistically beautiful.

Sand rocks. The vertical wall of pressed sand is located along the Chui tract. This interesting natural phenomenon, one of the old riverbeds, was formed during the construction of a transport highway along the Katun River (one of the old riverbeds). As a result of the erosion of winds and rains, it is gradually destroyed, forming steep sand rashes along the road.

Inin columns. Complex of ancient religious buildings. Founded in the 1980s by an archaeologist, Dr. East. Kubarev V.D. attributed the appearance of stelae to the Eneolithic era. At that time, more than five thousand years ago, deer stones were the basis of an ancient cult object. The highest stele exceeds 4 meters.

The confluence of two legendary Altai rivers. A location of incredible beauty and power, overflowing with the energy of the elements of water and nature itself. Rivers are different colors, so you can clearly see the boundary between them. This place looks different at different times of the year, weather, time of day. It's always beautiful here.

Geyser lake. It's silver, blue and malachite. The depth of the reservoir is about 2 meters, the diameter is about 30 meters. Its unique feature in the fountain spring, which is located at the bottom. Periodically, it turns on and bears a bluish-blue silt, forming magical, constantly changing pictures on the surface of the reservoir. And this always happens suddenly and silently - just a giant watercolor suddenly begins to creep through the mirror of the water. The water in the lake is completely transparent and the whole mystical picture is clearly visible. Similar reservoirs are located in Kamchatka, in the USA, New Zealand, Ireland.

Altai Mars. We finally reached the goal of our tour. Altai Mars is really impressive. To get to alien landscapes, we will switch to all-wheel drive transport and drive a very short distance on an off-road car. And here we are. What is Altai Mars? These are several locations in the Kyzyl-Chin tract: Mars-1, Mars-2 Mars-3 and the Moon, where the surrounding mountains have completely insane bright colors, as if someone spilled colorful colors. Rocks of different colors come to the surface - primarily red-yellow-orange shades, blue, green, pink and even purple. As part of this excursion to Altai Mars, we will visit the Mars-1 location. One of the main points from which the Martian landscape looks most spectacular. 90% of tourists limit their stay on Mars to this place. Mars-2, 3 and the Moon look better in the photos from the drone, and from the side of the incredible impression does not make.

Due to its high location, indecently beautiful views in all directions on the landscapes of insanely bright colors open. This place, hidden in the valleys of the Kyzyl-Chin and Chagan-Uzun rivers, is completely different from the Earth we are used to seeing. The Martian mountains millions of years ago were the walls of a giant relic deep-sea lake Chui. The sides of this bowl, like a colored multi-layered mineral pie, consist of many geological layers, in each of which you can find the remains of the oldest freshwater lake fauna. Researchers have discovered deposits 66-70 million years ago.

The abundance of bright colors of the red and yellow range is explained by the presence of minerals and polymetallic ores. The composition of each layer includes a certain set of natural dyes, which can include quartz, rutile, sulfur pylcedan, chalcedony or siderite. Red shades are explained by the presence of hematite and maggemite, yellow - the presence of chromium. Geologists found in the sediments impurities of titanium, tantalum, iron and tin. Underfoot the soil is completely unreal red. Because of the fantastic color scheme of its constituent rocks, this place was nicknamed “Mars”.

We take tourists from hotels and tourist centers located in the area of Lake Aya, in the Special Economic Zone "Turquoise Katun", Manzherok, etc. The tour includes several locations between which we travel by bus. We walk through the locations themselves. On the route, a stop is planned for lunch in a cafe. Food is not included in the cost of the tour. Throughout the tour, the group is accompanied by a highly qualified guide. Also included movement on SUVs from the village of Chagan-Uzun to Mars proper.