Bashkiria National Park is known to a fairly narrow circle of tourists. Locals love to come here during their holidays, but guests from near and especially far abroad still do not meet as often as we would like. But in vain. After all, this place is worth it to be seen at least once in a lifetime. The nature of Bashkortostan is actually unique. Here you can often find relict trees, and rare animals, and endangered species of insects.
This article is aimed at introducing the reader to this amazing site on the map of the Russian Federation. Of course, considering the reserves of Bashkiria, the national park is definitely impossible to ignore. And it is about him that we will try to tell as much as possible.
general information
The Bashkiria National Park, which will be discussed here, is located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, on the southern Ural slopes, in the western direction from the Uraltau watershed ridge. This territory immediately occupies three administrative regions - Meleuzovsky, Kugarchinsky and Burzyansky.
The director of the Bashkiria National Park, Ildar Yakupov, is a serious person who does everything possible and sometimes impossible to maintain and ennoble the object entrusted to him.
The reserve was officially opened relatively recently, on September 11, 1986, and today there are 15 settlements within its borders, and the park's area is 92 thousand hectares.
Almost 77 thousand ha are occupied by forest here, i.e. 92% of the total territory. The most attractive places in the reserve are the rivers Nugush and Belaya, Kutuksky tract and Nugush reservoir. There is also a mass of interesting natural monuments, which, of course, are worth seeing for everyone.
Where is Bashkiria National Park and how to get to your destination
We all choose those paths that can be considered simpler and most comfortable. If you decide to visit this territory while in other regions of Russia or in remote corners of the globe, it will be easiest to do this, of course, by air.
The nearest airport is Ufa, where today planes fly from completely different points on the planet.
Then from this settlement you should go to Meleuz or Salavat. You can do this on a bus that leaves the South Bus Station or from the Iremel shopping center. The ticket price is about 260 rubles. Then you have to transfer to the bus, next to n. Nugush. In total, travelers take 1-2 hours to travel.
History and reasons for creating
Bashkiria National Park was created with a very definite goal - to preserve a unique natural complex, which is inherent not only in ecological and historical, but also in purely aesthetic value. On this territory, cultural and natural landscapes were so favorably combined (and continue to be combined) that it would be blasphemous not to use it for educational, recreational, cultural and scientific purposes.
Like other reserves and reserves of our country, Bashkiria protects a certain natural area. In this case, this is a whole complex of alpine forests of the Southern Urals.
And this place began to be called a park only after almost 10 years after its formation. In October 1995, by a special Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation, he was given such a name.
Physico-geographical features
The districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan that are part of the park are located on the southwestern slopes of the Urals, and more precisely to the west of the Ural-Tau ridge.
The relief of this area is pretty dissected by river valleys. Water arteries form deep and at the same time narrow canyons. It is the rocky ridges of a bizarre shape that the area owes to such stone objects as the Devil's Finger, Sphinx, Duck Nose, etc.
The mountain rivers of the park are fed by snow, rain and groundwater. Local streams are interesting and unusual - Shulgan, Kutuk, Yuriash, Sumgan. In the upper reaches, they disappear underground and rapidly move under limestones, thereby forming karst cavities.
The climate of Bashkiria is continental, with pronounced weather inconsistency. The average temperature in July is +19.7 º, but at times it can even increase to + 41º . In winter, the thermometer in the park sometimes drops to -48º .
Features of flora and fauna
The nature of Bashkortostan is very rich. The vegetation cover of the park territory combines the features of the steppe, taiga, broad-leaved and mountain meadow flora. In the central part of "Bashkiria" preserved forests with many old trees and deadwood. Locals often come here in search of mushrooms, berries and valuable medicinal plants.
In total, 15 rare and endangered species of plant range representatives were identified in the park’s flora, for example, Russian hazel grouse, red pollen-headed, red astragalus Claire, real veneren slipper, low iris, etc.
The districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan are famous for having a favorable environment for brown bear, roe deer, wolf, lynx, ermine, mink, white hare, etc. More than 30 species of birds living here are endangered. For example, black-throated loon, peregrine falcon, black stork, burial ground, golden eagle, etc.
What to see first
Like many other reserves and reserves of the planet, Bashkiria has several wonderful and unique natural monuments at once, which are definitely worth seeing not only to local residents, but also to guests from near and far abroad. For example, the kuperl karst bridge. The river of the same name once disappeared in a channel underground. There she persistently made her way, destroying the cave. As a result, the roof of the latter collapsed almost completely, only part of it remained standing in its former place and now resembles a bridge a little more than 1 m wide.
Another noteworthy place is the speleological museum - the Kutuk-Sumgan tract. Here, in different places along the river valleys, there are amazing karst caves, healing springs, an impressive karst tunnel, a unique bridge, various funnels and wells.
In the caves you can see stalactites, bizarre stalagmites, a special-shaped chamber, pearls and numerous grottoes.
Sumgan cave is especially admired by many tourists, but not only because of its beauty, but also because of the scale of its architecture.
The director of the Bashkiria National Park is doing everything possible to maintain the uniqueness of this region.
Sumgan-Kutuk Cave
The cave-abyss Sumgan-Kutuk is the most complex and at the same time the longest cave of the Urals with a currently installed total length of passages of 9860 m and a depth of 134 m. The volume of its cavities is 350,000 cubic meters. m
From Bashkir, “sumgan” is translated as “dived”, and “kutuk” means “well”. Unprofessional access to Sumgan-Kutuk is quite problematic, because It is located in the inaccessible Nugush-Belsky interfluve. The entrance to the cave is a deep vertical abyss of 116 m, and it itself consists of three tiers at once. On the ledges in the walls of the mine in winter, ice growths freeze, which almost never melt until the summer. Due to the collapse of ice there is an additional danger for cavers.
The tragedies here, unfortunately, have occurred more than once.
In one of the cave passages, a cow skeleton was once found, so it was given the name “Cow Pass”. Going further along it, we cannot but be amazed at what is happening around. The dimensions of individual grottoes are really impressive, some of them reach a height of 20 m.
The assembly hall is the largest in the entire cave, there is even its own Everest, an earthen hill forty-six meters high. In the Hall of Figures there is a special place for creativity, everyone can sculpt clay figures here and leave them as a keepsake.
Cuperl Waterfall and Karst Bridge
Perhaps the Bashkiria National Park would not have been so impressive if it had not been for the Kuperlya Waterfall, which is located near the Nugush Reservoir.
The source itself, breaking through the stones, can be seen on Cooperl Creek. It is here that the elevation reaches 100 m over a length of only a few hundred meters. And this automatically means that incredible waterfalls open in front of tourists, rushing down from the cliff with a roar. By the way, it should be noted that the water in them is clean, cold and very clear.
Above the gorge, just above the waterfall, you can see the karst bridge, created by nature in the form of a huge arch 20 m high, the length of the hanging part - 10 m. Having climbed the mountain, everyone can enjoy the panorama of the river. Nougos and mountains.
Unique Bear Glade Plant
In narrow scientific circles, the Bashkiria National Park is also known for its Bear Glade, which is an important botanical natural monument. It was created 30 years ago, in 1985, with the aim of protecting a special representative of the local flora - oblique onion, which is considered a very ancient plant.
Oblique onion has a fairly isolated relict area in the South Urals. This perennial plant resembles garden garlic. Since 1985, groups of specialists involved in its study come here almost constantly.