The Taganai National Park may be considered the most beautiful in the Urals and one of the most beautiful in Russia. The entrance to the park is within the city of Zlatoust. It will be easier to get to it from Chelyabinsk. Zlatoust is 350 km from Yekaterinburg.
Unlike many national parks of European Russia, where their most beautiful places are usually included in a a day tour, you can see the main sights of the Taganai, if only you go there with a tent for 2-3 day. There are only walking routes in the Taganai. You can not enter the park in a motorcar.
The main sights of the Taganai are: the Big Stone River, the Glade of Fairy Tales, the Otkliknoy (Respond) Crest, the Two-Headed Hill and the Kruglitsa. The Big Stone River is the most impressive. It is a «river» of big rocks of 3-4 tonnes with the length of 6 kilometers and the width of 400 meters. You can find no such stone rivers nowhere in the world, excepting India, but it is smaller there.
If you have only a day to visit the Taganai, you can arrange it in the following way. Early in the morning you enter the park from Zlatoust and go along the Upper Path to the Two-Headed Hill. Near the shelter White Spring you will see a steeply ascending stair. The last part of the way will go along a rather steep path but above you will have very beautiful views on the main mountains of the Taganai, as well as the South Urals taiga.
Coming down to the shelter again, you need turn left and, going over loose rocks, which is, by the way, a local singularity, turn on to the Lower Path. In the valley between the mountain ridges of the Big and Middle Taganai you need turn towards Zlatoust and then go along the Big Stone River. The length of the route is about 20 km and you can cover it for a day.
If you are ready to stay overnight at one of the shelters of the Taganai, you must climb the upper path to the Otkliknoy Crest and then to the Glade of Fairy Tales. If you are strong enough, you may climb Mount Kruglitsa. But you should take it into account that the climb will be very difficult as the upper part of the mountain is covered with taluses. And at that you must remember that Mount Kruglitsa is over 20 km from the entrance of the park in Zlatoust, so the best variant will be a three day trip.
In the first day you will go on the upper path and have a look at the Two-Headed mountain and the Otkliknoy Crest. Spending the night at the shelter Taganai, you will go to the Glade of Fairy Tales and Mount Kruglitsa on the following day. Spending one more night at the same shelter, on the third day you may go to Zlatoust and see the Big Stone River on the way.
