Dolgiye Gory

Dolgiye Gory (Долгие горы, "Long Mountains") is a steppe ridge in the Sarakhtash and Belyayevsky districts of Orenburg Region, on the border with Bashkortostan, lying between the valleys of the Sakmara and Ural rivers. The ridge stretches for about 14 kilometers from north to south and forms part of the larger Karamuruntau range.

What to see

The ridge is made up of several summits: Verblyuzhka, also known as Dyuyatash, in the south, and Nos-Gora, also called Kurmain, in the north. Journalists have repeatedly compared the ridge's soft, rounded slopes covered with open feather-grass steppe to the view on the classic Windows desktop wallpaper, and this resemblance has made Dolgiye Gory a popular spot among hikers and photographers.

Nature

The slopes are covered with feather-grass steppe: in spring they bloom with irises, Bieberstein's tulips, pasque-flowers, cornflowers and bellflowers, and by midsummer the grass turns a golden-ochre colour. The steppe is home to ground squirrels, badgers, jerboas and polecats, and snakes and lizards can also be found here. During seasonal migrations from Kazakhstan, saiga antelopes, listed in the Red Book, pass through the area around Dolgiye Gory. At the northern end of the ridge, near Nos-Gora (Kurmain) mountain, a cliff exposes a Permian-period geological section containing fossils of ancient mollusks, bryozoans and sea lilies.

Legends

A local legend tells of a steppe khan's daughter who fled an unwanted marriage and turned to stone on this spot, becoming the mountain. Another belief holds that anyone who climbs to the top with a pure heart will find lasting love.

Getting there

The southern part of the ridge, the Verblyuzhka (Dyuyatash) peak, can be reached by a bus running the Orenburg — Kuvandyk — Mednogorsk route; get off at the stop at the 135th kilometer of the Orenburg — Orsk highway, from where the summit is about a five-minute walk. The northern tip, Nos-Gora mountain, is more easily reached by a suburban train to Kondurovka station, followed by a 30–40 minute walk.

Good to know

The best time to visit is late May and early June, when the steppe flowers are at their brightest; by midsummer the grasses dry out and take on a golden-ochre tone. Ticks are active in the steppe zone from April to September, so it is worth taking precautions in advance.