Zyuratkul National Park

Lake Zyuratkul sits at 724 metres, the highest lake of any size in the Southern Urals, in a bowl closed by five ridges - Zyuratkul, Nurgush, Moskal, Uvan and Lukash - with Nurgush at 1,406 metres the highest point of Chelyabinsk region. It was a natural lake, raised and enlarged by a dam in the 1940s. The park around protects about eight hundred square kilometres of taiga, mountain tundra and bog, with trails up the ridges, boardwalk over the wet ground, and elk, bear, lynx and beaver present. In 2011 satellite imagery revealed a geoglyph on the slope of Zyuratkul ridge: a figure around two hundred and eighteen metres long, built of stone, generally read as an elk or deer, and dated by excavation to a range that would make it among the oldest geoglyphs known, though the dating is debated and further work has been limited.

What you actually see

• The high lake - the Southern Urals' highest at 724 metres, in a ring of ridges.
• The geoglyph - a stone figure around two hundred and eighteen metres long, found in 2011.
• Nurgush - at 1,406 metres, the highest point in Chelyabinsk region.
• The boardwalk - laid over bog on the main trail to the ridge.

When to go

June to September for walking; winter for skiing and the frozen lake. Two days to a week. Permits from the park.

Honest expectations

The geoglyph is on a slope and is hard to make out from the ground - it was found from the air, and its dating is contested. Weather on the ridges is unpredictable. Mosquitoes and ticks are severe in summer. Accommodation is basic and books out at weekends.

Nearby

Taganay is north; Satka and the Porogi hydro station are west.