The Bashkiria National Park is known to a fairly narrow circle of tourists. Local residents love to come here during their holidays, but guests from the near, and even more so far abroad, are not yet met as often as we would like. But in vain. After all, this place is worth to be seen at least once in a lifetime. The nature of Bashkortostan is really unique. Here you can often find relic trees, rare animals, and endangered species of insects.
This article aims to introduce the reader to this amazing site on the map of the Russian Federation. Of course, considering the reserves of Bashkiria, the national park definitely cannot be ignored. And it is about him that we will try to tell you in as much detail as possible.
General information
The Bashkiria National Park, which will be discussed here, is located in the Republic of Bashkortostan, on the slopes of the South Urals, to the west of the Ur altau watershed. This area occupiesthree administrative districts at once - 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 15 settlements are located within its boundaries, and the park area is 92 thousand hectares.
Forest here covers almost 77 thousand hectares, i.e. 92% of the total area. The most attractive places in the reserve are the Nugush and Belaya rivers, the Kutuk tract and the Nugush reservoir. There are also a lot of interesting natural monuments here, which, of course, are worth seeing for everyone.
Where is the national park "Bashkiria" and how to get to the destination
We all choose the paths that can be considered simpler and most comfortable. If you decide to visit this territory while in other regions of Russia or remote corners of the globe, the easiest way to do this will, of course, be by air.
The nearest airport is Ufa, where today planes fly from absolutely different parts of the planet.
Then from this settlement you should go to Meleuz or Salavat. This can be done by bus that leaves from the South Bus Station or from the Iremel shopping center. The ticket price is about 260 rubles. Then you will have to transfer to a bus to the village of Nugush. In generalIt takes travelers 1-2 hours to make the journey difficult.
History and reasons for creation
The National Park "Bashkiria" was created with a very specific goal - to preserve a unique natural complex, which has not only ecological and historical, but also purely aesthetic value. Cultural and natural landscapes were so favorably combined (and continue to be combined) in this territory that it would be simply blasphemous not to use it for educational, recreational, cultural and scientific purposes.
Like other reserves and sanctuaries in 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 this name.
Physical features
The districts of the Republic of Bashkortostan that are part of the park are located on the southwestern slopes of the Urals, to be more precise, to the west of the Ural-Tau ridge.
The relief of this area is fairly dissected by river valleys. Water arteries form here deep and at the same time narrow canyons. It is rocky ledges of bizarre shape that the area owes to such stone objects as the Devil's Finger, the Sphinx, the Duck's Nose, and others.
The mountain rivers of the park are fed by snow, rain and groundwater. Interesting and unusual local streams -Shulgan, Kutuk, Yuriash, Sumgan. In the upper reaches, they disappear underground and move rapidly under limestone, thereby forming karst cavities.
The climate of "Bashkiria" is continental, with a pronounced inconstancy of the weather. The average temperature in July is +19.7 ºС, but at times it can even rise to +41º С. In winter, the temperature in the park sometimes drops to -48º С.
Features of flora and fauna
The nature of Bashkortostan is very rich. The vegetation cover of the park area combines features of the steppe, taiga, broad-leaved and mountain-meadow flora. In the central part of "Bashkiria" massifs of forests with many old trees and deadwood have been preserved. Locals often come here in search of mushrooms, berries and valuable medicinal plants.
In total, 15 rare and endangered species of representatives of the plant range have been identified in the flora of the park, for example, Russian hazel grouse, red pollenhead, Clara's astragalus, real lady's slipper, low iris, etc.
Regions of the Republic of Bashkortostan are famous for their favorable habitat for the brown bear, roe deer, wolf, lynx, ermine, mink, hare, etc. More than 30 species of birds living here are endangered. For example, black-throated diver, peregrine falcon, black stork, imperial eagle, golden eagle, etc.
What to see first
Like many other nature reserves and sanctuaries of the planet, "Bashkiria" has immediatelyseveral wonderful and unique monuments of nature, which are definitely worth seeing not only for local residents, but also for guests from near and far abroad. For example, the Kuperl karst bridge. The river of the same name once disappeared into an underground channel. There she persistently made her way, destroying the cave. As a result, the roof of the latter almost completely collapsed, only part of it remained standing in its original place and now resembles a bridge a little more than 1 m wide.
Another remarkable 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, specially shaped chambers, pearls and numerous grottoes.
Sumgang Cave is especially admired by many tourists, not only because of its beauty, but also because of the scale of architecture.
The director of the Bashkiria National Park is doing everything possible to preserve the uniqueness of this region.
Sumgan-Kutuk Cave
The abyss cave Sumgan-Kutuk is the most complex and at the same time the longest cave in the Urals with a 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 the Bashkir "Sumgan" is translated as "dived", and "kutuk" means "well". It is enough for non-professionals to get to Sumgan-Kutukproblematic, because it is located in the remote 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 over, which almost never melt until the summer. There is an additional danger for cavers due to ice collapses.
Tragedies here, unfortunately, happened more than once.
The skeleton of a cow was once found in one of the passages of the cave, so it was given the name "Cow Passage". Walking further along it, we cannot help but be amazed at what is happening around. The dimensions of individual grottoes are really impressive, some are up to 20 m high.
The assembly hall is the largest in the entire cave, it even has its own Everest, a clay hill forty-six meters high. In the Hall of Figures there is a special place for creativity, everyone can mold clay figures here and leave them as a memory.
Kuperl's waterfall and karst bridge
Perhaps the national park "Bashkiria" would not be so impressive if it were not for the Kuperlya waterfall, which is located near the Nugush reservoir.
The source itself breaking through the stones can be seen on the Kuperlya stream. It is here that the elevation changes reach 100 m over a distance of only a few hundred meters. And this automatically means that incredible waterfalls open before 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 transparent.
Over the gorge, just above the waterfall, you can seekarst bridge, created by nature in the form of a huge arch 20 m high, the length of the hanging part is 10 m. Having climbed the mountain, everyone can enjoy the panorama of the river. Nugush and mountains.
Unique Plant of Bear Meadow
In narrow scientific circles, the Bashkiria National Park is also known for its Medvezhya Glade, which is an important botanical monument of nature. It was created 30 years ago, in 1985, in order to protect a special representative of the local flora - the onion, which is considered a very ancient plant.
The slanting onion has a rather isolated relict area in the Southern Urals. This perennial plant looks like garden garlic. Since 1985, groups of specialists have been coming here almost constantly to study it.
