One of the most picturesque rivers of the Sverdlovsk region attracts not only with its fascinating rafting along the mountain rapids, but also with a "quiet" hunt - fishing. For lovers of outdoor activities with a backpack behind them, the Tagil River is one of the typical taiga routes, which will make you feel the obstinacy of mountain rivers and the calm of the lower reaches with the aroma of meadow grasses.
Where is Tagil located?
The source of the river is located on the mountain Pass, in the spectacular ridge of the Red Mountains, which is the ancestor of many rivers of the Middle Urals. Seven kilometers from this place is the city of Novouralsk, which is famous for its significant contribution to the nuclear future of Russia. Tagil flows mainly to the northeast and is a right tributary of the Tura, one of the most significant rivers of the Sverdlovsk region.
They are found near the village of Bolotovskoye, which is located near the village of Sankino: only sixteen kilometers. To navigate and more precisely understand where it is, you need to find on the map of Nizhny Tagil: this city is located north of Yekaterinburg, it is on it that the river is located.
Description and specifications
The Tagil River is 412 kilometers long, and the water basin spans over 10,100 square kilometers (for comparison: the area of the entire Sverdlovsk Region is 195 thousand square kilometers). In the upper reaches the river is quite stormy, with dangerous rapids and dams, and closer to the lower reaches it becomes a more calm, flat river with a slow flow.
The river covers three important reservoirs of the Urals: Nizhne- and Verkhnetagilskoye and Lenevskoye, being part of the water system of the Irtysh district. Forests in the river district are mostly taiga, with predominance of conifers and dense shrubs, and the farther inland from settlements, the more often wolves, elks and lynxes, foxes and hares are regulars, and sometimes brown bears can also be found. In addition to numerous waterfowl, you can find black grouse and capercaillie, as well as grouse.
Two significant cities are located on the river: Verkhny and Nizhny Tagil, on the map you can see in more detail how curving the river is and how numerous its tributaries are. Its main food is snowy and due to tributaries.
The main tributaries of Tagil
The river has about forty tributaries of different lengths and distances from the mouth:
- Barancha - extends over 70 km.
- It is about 34 km long and connects to the main river within the city of Nizhny Tagil.
- Salda reaches a length of 122 km and is considered one of the most important tributaries that feed the Tagil River.
- Mugai is the second most important tributary; it originates in the Mugai bogs and stretches for 88 km.
- Kirtomka in length is about 81 km, originating at 140 meters above sea level.
The nature of the mountain river is visible on the rapids.
Before reaching twenty kilometers to the village of Tagil, on the river there is a two-stage Pryanishnikovsky roll, and after it, between Tagil and the village of Morshinino, the rifts are more complicated and dangerous: three hundred meter zigzag, crushed by large boulders, randomly lying and breaking the main stream of the river. After a short break, there is another one, after turning to the left.
Further along the river, the right bank becomes steeper and higher, towering granite cliffs up to a hundred meters high, and before merging with the Salda tributary, the Tagil river begins to loop strongly between the hills and gradually becomes much deeper and more full-flowing, despite the same width (about 45 meters).
After the mouth with Salda, another kilometer-long threshold begins, something similar to Morshininsky, and after it eight more smaller and simpler.
Not reaching Tolstova, the river becomes twenty meters wider, mountains and forest give way to flood meadows and settlements.
The origin of the name of the river
The origin of the name is a topic of long-standing discussions between historians, linguists and local historians. According to the generally accepted and widespread version, the word “tagil” in translation from Vogul means “polyhydramnios, a lot of water”, but this option is constantly disputed by linguists who are inclined to two equally interesting versions.
- The most primitive option: in translation from the Tatar language “tag” is “yet”, and “yl” (yul - according to some sources) is translated as “river”. This version is little loved by historians because of its unconvincing.
- “Tag” in ancient Turkic means mountain, “el” - homeland or country. That is, initially Tagil is not a river, it is a mountainous country, and the name of the area determined the name of the river in the future.
- There is a Kazakh version of the translation: "tagyly" is a place with wild animals, or a place rich in game.
Which of the translation options is valid, is known only to long-dead ancestors, but all versions have their own reason and hidden meaning.
Tagil pond
An artificial reservoir with a sandy bottom with an area of about ten square kilometers extends to Lenin Avenue in Nizhny Tagil, and the beginning takes place near the village of Nikolo-Pavlovskoye, in the Gornouralsky district. The Tagil River crosses this pond and extends further north.
Almost all the banks of the Tagil pond are occupied by various economic facilities, sanatoriums and beaches, residential quarters, only the southern part is poorly developed - the area is swampy in places, but the "wild" tourists and fishing enthusiasts still often stop there, away from noise and fuss. The depth of the pond reaches two meters, which makes it possible for fisheries to actively breed freshwater fish. Among the avid fishermen there is a saying: "If you want to catch a significant fish, go to Tagil." A favorite place for fishing is at the dam at the entrance to Tagil, where pike and perch, ide and goldfish, burbot and bream are well caught. Moreover, fishermen say that fish are caught in this place at any time of the year or day.
Tagil River Historical Facts
Between the villages of Balakino and Makhnevo, which are located on the shore, there is a rocky ridge on which rock paintings by ocher dating back to 5 thousand years ago are preserved. Images of local wild animals still attract archaeologists and local historians.
In 1852, on the Tagil River towards the Tura River, Ermak Timofeevich, a Siberian conqueror, made his famous trip.
The first Siberian highway was laid along Tagil for the colonists who were looking for a new life and their lands. A few years later, the tract was moved to a safer location, but the river still keeps the secrets of the first pioneers of the Ural land.
A few kilometers from the village of Yasva is located Big Balaban, which is a national botanical monument of nature. Here once was one of the sites of the legendary Cossack chieftain Ermak, on which his comrades-in-arms Vasilyev and Kashin founded the settlement.
The stone bear is the pride of the Urals
18 kilometers from Nizhny Tagil on the river bank there is the famous Bear-stone: a rock massif about 288 meters high, remotely resembling a sleeping beast. This place was chosen by climbers and climbers for their training everyday life, because the rocks here consist mainly of syenite (a rock similar to granite, but without quartz).
This place is still valuable because in the rock at a height of seventy meters there is a grotto with traces of the presence of an ancient man. It is noteworthy that this is the only site of primitive man known to the world in the Urals region. Opposite this historic site, there is another, no less appreciated by historians, is the Ermakovo settlement, in which the brave traveler spent the winter in the distant 1852 and built ships for rafting along the river to meet new lands.