Accommodation – Zoloto Altaya Hotel (lit. Gold of Altai)
Distance – 230 km (vehicle)

5.55 - Arrival to Barnaul airport (flight SU1430 from Moscow, Aeroflot company)
Upon the arrival you will be met by guide and transferred to the Museum of Culture, Arts and History of Altai. It is situated in the former mansion of gold miner E.Olarovsky (19 century). At the museum we will have a breakfast and short cultural program – Russian Bell Ringing. You will learn how to make musical sounds with different bells.
10.00 – transfer to Zoloto Altaya Lodge.
13.00 – arrival to the lodge, check-in
14.00 – lunch. Traditional Russian cuisine. All the meals are coocked only from eco-products. You will enjoy natural food, grown on non-chemichal fertilized fields, meat and milk eco-farms.
Spare time
17.00 - At the evening you will enjoy Russian Sauna (banya or bath-house). You will visit famous Sanduny Banya (the oldest sauna in Moscow, formed in 1808).
20.00 - dinner

Accommodation – Zoloto Altaya Hotel (lit. Gold of Altai)
Distance – 30 km (vehicle), hiking – 7 km
9.00 – breakfast
10.00 – bike (horseriding or hiking) excursion to Belokurikha Pass
14.00 – returning to the hotel, lunch
16.00 – automobile excursion to the only female blacksmith in Siberia – Anna Malgezina. She will show her forge and help you to make a horseshoe.
19.00 – returning to the hotel, dinner
Spare time

Accommodation – Inegen Lodge
Distance – 230 km (vehicle)
8.00 – breakfast
9.00 – departure from the hotel, land transportation to Central Altai. We will travel along famous Chuisky Trakt – the most beautiful road in this region.
14.00 – arriving to Karakolskaya Valley – sacred valley in Altai. There are hundreds of ancient archaeological sites, such as burial mounds, rock drawings, stone steles of various historical ages. Many artifacts from the valleys are exposed in Hermitage Museum now.
Lunch at the café.
15.00 - Excursion along the Karakolskaya Valley together with local inhabitant – Marina Tohtonova. She keeps ancient traditions of Altai nomads. You will know how the Altaic people pray to mountain spirits and deities, who are shamans and many other particulars of everyday nomadic lifestyle.
Dinner in traditional dwelling of Altai people – ail. You will enjoy Altaic traditional cuisine based on meat (sheep), milk and cereal products. Concert of Altaic throat singing, unique nomadic folk singing. It is inscribed to UNESCO Heritage list of nonmaterial arts.
22.00 – arrival to the hotel – Inegen Lodge. Check-in and rest

Accommodation – Inegen Lodge
Distance – 50 km (vehicle), 5-8 km hiking
9.30 – breakfast
10.30 – automobile transportation to the beginning of hiking path (30 min riding)
11.00 – hiking along the Katun River bank towards the mouth of its tributary – the Argut River. It is considered as the most remote river in Altai. The Argut valey is home to snow leopard – rare wild cat-animal. There are only 70 snow leopards in Russia. Almost half of them are registered in the Altai Mountains.
15.00 – picnic lunch on the bank of the Katun River. After you can enjoy fishing or have short trekking.
18.00 – returning to the hotel, spare time
19.00 – dinner

Accommodation - Hotel of Saylyugemskiy National Park, Kosh-Agach village (Chuysky steppe)
Distance - 230 km (vehicle), hiking 5-7 km
Please note, that Kosh-Agach and Sailyugemsky National Park is border area. Need to issue border pass. We will arrange all needed documents, but foreign citizens should submit papers in advance (30 days before visit).
9.00 – breakfast and departure from the hotel
Today we continue move towards Mongolia. On the way, we can see the most beautiful places on the Chuya River, visit two waterfalls, get acquainted with the rock paintings of the Kalbak-Tash sanctuary. We see the Geyser Lake and the ancient furnaces, in which the nomads smelted metal ore. Picnic lunch.
In the afternoon, you have an excursion to Mars. This unique place was formed long before the appearance of the Altai Mountains. Rocks of various shades of red appeared on the surface along the line of tectonic fault, which covered the planet at a time when a warm, shallow tropical sea splashed around Altai.
At the end of the day we arrive at Kosh-Agach village, that locates in the Chuysky steppe. It is the coldest and, at the same time, the driest place in Altai. Local landscapes are very reminiscent of the landscapes of neighboring Mongolia. In the Chuysky steppe live Kazakh herders. Even nowadays they graze herds high in the mountains.
Check-in at the Hotel of Saylyugemskiy National Park. Dinner

Accommodation - Hotel of Saylyugemskiy National Park, Kosh-Agach village (Chuysky steppe)
Distance - 80 km (vehicle), hiking 5-7 km
After breakfast we make a trip to the most amazing ritual complexes of Altai. At first we visit the valley of the Yustyd River where there is the necropolis of the ancient nomads. The valley is replete with mounds, there are many deer stones and petroglyphs. In old days a large metallurgical area was located here, as evidenced by the remains of forged and ancient smelting furnaces. The Yustyd Valley can be compared to the Nazca Desert in South America, because from a height you can see that the stone constructions of the kerexurs (mounds with an external framing of stones) intertwine into a single unique pattern.
Further we go to the temple mountain of the Turu-Alty sanctuary. This structure occupies the whole ridge of Turu-Alty. The ancient complex was a temple of sun worship. On the slopes of Turu-Alty Mount and at its foot there are numerous mounds, ritual fences and petroglyphs. At the highest point of the mountain ridge there is the altar - a stone slab facing south with numerous images of deer, symbolizing the sun. It is possible that in ancient times not only rituals were performed here, but also luminary observations. On the days of the vernal and autumnal equinox, as well as the winter and summer solstices, the sun sets at the horizon in strictly defined places. The mountain also has a special acoustic effect. From the highest point you can hear the Mullah singing in the Kosh-Agach Mosque, which is located more than 40 km from here.
In the evening - return to the hotel, starry sky observation through a telescope with professional astronomer.

Accommodation - Hotel of Saylyugemskiy National Park, Kosh-Agach village (Chuysky steppe)
Distance - 100 km (vehicle), hiking 5-7 km
This day we are going to get to the reserved areas. On the border with Mongolia, on the territory of Sailyugemsky National Park, we climb to the top of the mountain where we will be able to see such rare animals as argali which are also called mountain sheep, wild birds (golden eagle) and also check photo traps for the snow leopard.
Picnic lunch. Returning to the hotel.
Dinner. At night - starry sky observation through a telescope with astronomer

Accommodation – Ezen Lodge (standard room with private WC inside and common shower at the floor)
Distance - 250 km (vehicle), hiking 5-7 km
Today we have a long automobile transfer and many hiking excursions. First, we see the Red gate - a rocky section along the Chibitka mountain river, which are composed by minerals containing mercury (cinnabar). Along the road there are cascades of lakes. Commonly known as Dead. According to the legend, nothing alive is found in the lakes because of the content of natural mercury. But in fact, the fish lives there, it is just difficult for it to rise up because of the stormy and rapids of the Chibitka River.
A little further we visit the Pazyryk burial mounds, where in the 1940s an expedition of the State Hermitage Museum excavated the royal mounds of the Scythian period and found unique exhibits. Now they are stored in the Hermitage in 26 and 27 halls. Among them are the tattooed mummy of leader, the oldest surviving Persian pile carpet in the world, a birch wagon of Chinese work, and much more. This fact of the discovery of valuable things in such a wilderness proved that in 6-2 centuries BC (such is the dating of objects) there was a developed civilization.
The farthest point of our route is the Katu-Yaryk Pass, it is a zigzag about 4 km long and a height difference of 800 m, which come down from the Ulagansky Plateau to the valley of the Chulyshman River. From the observation deck of the pass a breathtaking panorama of the canyon and waterfalls of the meandering riverbed opens.
Come down from the pass, you get into the Chulyshmanskiy canyon. In these places, the ancient Turks could well hide here, who, according to legend, came to Altai from the territory of modern Xinjiang (China). No wonder Altai is considered like the place of formation of the ancient Turkic ethnos.
Check-in at the Ezen Lodge

Accommodation – Meshke-Tash Lodge (wooden house, private bio-toilet and common banya)
Distance - 450 km (vehicle), hiking 7-9 km
9.00 – breakfast
10.00 – two and half hours hiking towards the Kurkure Waterfall (30 meters of height)
13.00 – returning to the lodge and lunch
14.00 – land transportation towards the Chulcha River mouth
16.00 – hiking towards stone mushrooms – geological sight formed by ancient giant glacier.
19.00 – returning to the hotel, check-in, dinner and spare time

Accommodation – Urochische Aktra Hotel
Distance - 45 km vehicle, 80 km motor boat, hiking 5-7 km
8.00 – breakfast
8.30 – departure from the hotel. Automobile transportation to the southern bank of Lake Teletskoye.
11.00 – motorboat excursion along the lake. It is the deepest lake of the Altai (325 m) and one of the 5 deepest lakes in Russia. Lake Teletskoye is similar to Baikal on origin and structure.
13.00 – arrival to Yailyu village, territory of the Altaisky Natural Preserve. Lake Teletskoye and Altaisky Preserve are inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Lunch
14.00 – 18.00 - Hiking excursion in Preserve together with local dweller and ranger of the preserve – Evgeniy Veselovsky.
Motor boat transportation to the hotel

Accommodation – Urochische Aktra Hotel
Today you will have day-off from transfers and hiking. You will enjoy leisurely strolls in the forest, along the lake shore and visit souvenirs shops.

Distance - 350 km
Automobile transfer to Barnaul city and airport
Evening flight to Moscow (Aeroflot company, flight SU 1433)