The Maloe More (Buryat name Narin-Dalai - “narrow sea”) is part of Lake Baikal, separated from Lake Baikal by the island of Olkhon.
The shores of the strait are strewn with many wonderful sandy bays, the water in which warms up to a temperature of +22 degrees Celsius in the summer months - this is an ideal place for a beach holiday. This is precisely why tourists come here - after all, it is almost always sunny here, and the Malaya Sea tan lasts up to several months.
In addition to beach holidays, Maloye More is famous for excellent fishing for pike and perch.
In winter, roads are built on the ice of the Small Sea, and on the ice you can often see accumulations of cars and tents, the so-called “fishing grounds”.
FEATURES OF THE ROUTE
Along the shore of the Small Sea there is a picturesque forest road with a length of 110 km to the village. Ongurena. Road for the most part goes close to the shore - in some places 3-5 m from the water's edge, only closer to the village. Ongurenu rises into the mountains to a height of 300-500 m.
As a rule, due to the difficult road, the number of tourist parking areas noticeably decreases north of the village. Kurma. The climate of the Small Sea is favorable for recreation. The water in shallow bays with a sandy bottom warms up to +22°C in summer. A large number of picturesque bays and islands, warm water and a fertile place for fishing attract much more tourists here than to any other area of the Baikal coast.
Maloye More is a great place for hiking, cycling, kayaking, catamarans, sailing yachts, and in winter - ice skating and ice buoys.
The entire coast of the Small Sea is strewn big amount unique natural attractions, a photograph of each of which can be worthy of the first page of any geographical magazine.
HOW TO GET THERE
The coast of the Small Sea itself stretches for almost 100 kilometers from Mukhor Bay near the village of MRS (crossing to Olkhon) to the village of Onguren and the borders of the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve.
The coast of the Small Sea can be reached both by water and by car or shuttle bus.
The car route from Irkutsk is 250 km to Mukhor Bay and then, depending on the chosen recreation center or sightseeing, stretches along the entire coast of the Small Sea for another 100 km.
When traveling by car, you must take into account that the last gas station is in the village. Elantsy, which is 45 km from the ferry crossing and Mukhor Bay.
Maloye More and Olkhon Island remain the most attractive places for summer holidays by car. The warm water of the bays with sandy beaches and the rapid growth of private tourist shelters and bases are attracting more and more townspeople here on vacation. In the southern part of the Small Sea, in the warm Mukhor Bay, there are no longer bays whose shores are not built up with campsites and tourist centers. During the hottest summer days, in July-August, the beaches of Mukhor Bay attract no less vacationers than the city’s city parks.
Tent camps of vacationers form dense and noisy settlements. To find solitude, cars with vacationers prefer to drive along the coast of the Small Sea further north, where there is still silence wildlife.
Due to the lack of kilometer posts on the coast, in order to make it easier to navigate by description, it is recommended that at the fork in the road before turning left towards Mukhor Bay from the main asphalt road (113 km, sign - “Turn to Chernorud and to the village of Onguren”) a daily mileage counter switch to zero.
1. Mukhor Bay (5-7 km of road from the turn)
The southernmost bay, from which the road along the Small Sea coast begins. This is the warmest and one of the most popular bays on the coast due to its location next to the ferry and the village of MRS (3 km from the village).
The correct transcription is “Mukhar”, but on most maps the name “Mukhor” is found. In Buryat, “mukhar” means a dead end, an end. Here the Maloe More ends in a shallow bay with sandy shores, while on the opposite side it connects with Lake Baikal. The bay goes 8 km into the land and has an average depth of 4-5 m. At the very end of the bay the Kuchelga River flows into it. The coast is heavily indented with bays, the water in them warms up to +22°C in the second half of August.
2. Sarma gorge (16 km of road)
The famous wide gorge from where a crushing (up to 40 m/s) westerly wind breaks out onto Baikal - Sarma. Usually this wind blows in the fall, rushing off the cliffs in strong short hurricanes. The Sarma wind caused the largest ship disaster on Lake Baikal. In the fall of 1902, in front of Cape Kobylya Golova, towed barges on which fishermen and their families were returning from the fishing season perished. The force of the Sarma wind is such that it uproots centuries-old trees along the way.
The Sarma Gorge is also famous for the fact that Russian Cossacks first reached Lake Baikal through it. In the valley of the Sarma River, a road has been preserved along which, on July 2, 1643, under the command of the Russian Cossack Kurbat Ivanov, 75 “hunting, serving and walking people” from the Verkholensky fort for the first time, according to official data, came to the shore of Lake Baikal.
The gorge is quite picturesque; it runs along the canyon of the Sarma mountain river. The road along the river bed takes 6-8 hours. At the end of the trail, tourists will find Garnet Mountain, where they can search for and find a precious stone - garnet.
3. Cape Uyuga (Kurminsky) (26 km of road)
Cape Uyuga is one of the most picturesque capes with an almost two-kilometer long pebble spit of light rocks, with an arched grotto cave on the Small Sea side.
Due to the distance from big land A unique plant and animal microreserve, unique to it, was formed on the cape.
4. Kurminsky Bay (26 km of road)
This bay, bounded by capes Uyuga and Tsagan-Khushun, is considered one of the warmest on Lake Baikal. The temperature here warms up to +22 C. The beaches are pebble, made of smooth light stones. You can often find marble pebbles.
Good trails lead to the peaks of the Primorsky ridge along the Kurminsky gorge, and in winter - to the grottoes of Cape Uyuga and the natural arches of Cape Tsagan-Khushun. There is a beautiful view of Olkhon and the islands of the Small Sea. And the sandy spits are a good place for fishing.
5. Panorama of the Small Sea (27 km)
Opposite the Kurminsky Cape there is a road to the mountains. You need to drive past four serge pillars and if you rise higher, a magnificent helicopter panorama of the waters of the Small Sea and rocky islands opens up.
6. Pebble spit of Cape Tsagan Khushun and Lake Kurma
Lake Kurma is interesting because of its thin pebble spit, only a few meters wide, stretching from north to south for more than 3 km.
The pebble spit ends with the very picturesque cape Tsagan-Khushun with red lichens and a grotto, into which you can descend from above.
7.Ancient stone tent (37 km of road)
At 37 km in the forest, 150 m from the road, there is an ancient tented stone structure with a special masonry of walls in two rows and an air passage between them. The height of the structure is 2.5 m, the circumference at the base is 4-5 m. The floor is laid with stone tiles with a slope towards the center, the internal walls are coated with clay mortar. The antiquity of the structure is evidenced by the red lichen at the joints of the stones, the formation of which takes many, many years.
The purpose of this structure remained unclear for a long time: according to one version, it could have been a furnace for smelting metal, but its location is not known ore deposits and there are no settlements nearby. According to another version, this is an Evenk place for performing complex shamanic rituals and a long ritual associated with life and death. The double wall was intended to magically protect the second fire, which was lit inside the tent structure for the ceremony.
In September 2007, excavations were carried out inside and outside the stone tent. Careful examination revealed that this was an antique resin mill, a rare historical example of resin furnace design.
8. village Ongureni (120 km)
The northernmost large village on the shores of the Small Sea (as of January 1, 1998 - 467 people, 170 farms). There is a mineral spring 5 km from Onguren in Lukovaya Pad. The local population uses the water for stomach ailments. Iron and radon give healing properties to water. The water temperature is constant in winter and summer (+4.2 °C).
In the northwestern part of the Onguren depression on the Krestovsky lakes there are significant reserves of medicinal mud. They have been known to the local population since the last century as an effective remedy for the treatment of rheumatism, radiculitis and other diseases.
ROUTES AROUND THE SMALL SEA
Most of the attractions of the Small Sea, and the warmest shallow beaches, are concentrated on the coast of the Small Sea along the coastline between Mukhor Bay and the village of Kurma, the distance between which is no more than 15 km. In this regard, for sightseeing, it is convenient to stay either in a tent or at any of the recreation centers in the area of Mukhor Bay (Shida, Baikal Wind, Chara) or in the area of Kurminsky Bay (Danko, Laguna, Oltrek) and make radial car or bicycle - walking routes to attractions. In this review, we will choose Kurminsky Bay as the starting point for all routes.
Route No. 1 To Cape Uyuga
Type of route: walking, length one way - 2 km from Kurminsky Bay.
Travel time: 40 min.
Route thread: Kurminsky Bay - Cape Uyuga
Route No. 2 To the Sarma Gorge
Type of route: automobile - walking, length in one direction - 14 km to the beginning of the gorge and then 12 km along the gorge.
Difficulty of the route: the route is not categorical, but requires physical training.
Travel time: 15 minutes by car, then 2-3 hours on foot
Route thread: Kurma Bay - bridge over the Sarma River - Sarma Gorge
Route No. 3 To Lake Kurma and Pebble Spit
Type of route: walking, length one way - 10 km.
Difficulty of the route: the route is walking and does not require physical training.
Travel time: 2-3 hours on foot
Route thread: Kurma Bay - Kurma village - Lake Kurma - pebble Spit - Cape Tsagan-Khushun
Route No. 4 Route to the observation plateau
Type of route: walking, length one way - 8 km.
Difficulty of the route: the route is walking and does not require physical training.
Travel time: 2 hours on foot
Route thread: Kurma Bay - Kurma village - spring - observation plateau
WHAT ELSE TO DO
Besides natural beauty, in the summer, Maloe Miore will delight you with a large number of different cultural events and festivals. such as the one that has already become annual festival of creative recreation "Pooh", taking place from August 1 to 11, the program of which is designed in such a way as not only to show the beauty of Baikal, but also to help adjust your perception, listen to yourself and open up to the magic of this place. And, of course, to meet equally curious people who come from various places to walk the Baikal trails and look into non-tourist corners.
Also traditionally in March (on International Women’s Day) a winter sports festival is held on the coast of the Small Sea near the village of MRS (next to the ferry crossing to Olkhon). "Sarma Squall". The festival takes place on the ice of the Small Sea and is a very spectacular, sporting and cultural event on Lake Baikal.
Every year on the last weekend of August in the territory recreation center "Ark of Baikal"(near the village of MRS and the ferry crossing to Olkhon) there is a traditional festival of bard song Baikal-Live, where masters of bard song and songwriters from almost all countries gather. This year, the art festival Baikal-Live 2013 is going to be more interesting and eventful than ever and will be held on August 23-25 in the village of MRS on the territory of the Ark of Baikal tourist center. You can view the program of this exciting event
The Small Sea is a region of Lake Baikal that is unique in its natural conditions.
Translated from Buryat, Narin Dalai means narrow sea. It is located between west coast lake and the largest island on the lake, Olkhon. The Olkhon Gate Strait connects the Small Sea with the lake. The sea has a complex coastline, forming many shallow bays, convenient for tourists and shelter for small vessels. Low rainfall, large amounts of sunlight, warm water in the bays, beautiful mountain-taiga and forest landscapes, as well as the accessibility of the shores of the Small Sea have made it one of the most popular holiday destinations. This is one of the most extensive shallow parts of the lake, rich in fish. The water in shallow bays warms up to + 19-21°C in summer.
On the mainland side of the strait is the village of Sakhyurta (MRS), connected to Irkutsk by bus, and to Olkhon Island by ferry. A special feature of the climate of the Baikal Basin is a complex system of winds, characterized by great constancy and depending on the season of the year. The mountains surrounding the lake form narrow corridor, which forms longitudinal winds covering the entire Baikal or its individual parts.
An important feature of Baikal is the extremely low water temperature. At a depth of over 10-15 m it is 4-5 degrees, and on the surface, even during the period of greatest warming (in early August), it does not rise above 12-14 degrees. Only in closed bays and shallow waters in summer does the water temperature reach 18-20 degrees, which makes the shores of the Small Sea especially attractive for vacationers, tourists and fishermen in the summer.
The Small Sea, although truly small, nevertheless contains 14 rocky islands - from Bolshoy to Maly Toynak in the south to Yedor in the north.
The largest fish living in the Small Sea is the Baikal sturgeon, the most amazing is the viviparous golomyanka. The commercial fish on Lake Baikal and in the waters of the Small Sea is omul. The most popular among amateur fishermen are grayling, omul and whitefish. Ice fishing is especially popular on the Small Sea. On weekends and holidays Sometimes thousands of fishermen gather on the ice.
When moving on the ice, in order to avoid troubles, ice fishing enthusiasts must constantly remember the peculiarities of the lake’s ice regime. Under the influence of near-shore currents and the release of warm springs, a large number of steam holes and polynyas of various sizes are formed, which are repeated in the same places and pose the greatest danger to vehicles and inexperienced fishermen.
In the summer, vacationers and fishermen should remember the treachery of Lake Baikal. A sudden onset of “sarma” can cause tragic incident, therefore, when using rowing boats, it must be possible to immediately return to shore. In summer, vacationers face other dangers - tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne recketsiosis of Asia. To avoid infection, you need to carefully examine and remove ticks more often or get vaccinated in advance.
The shores of the Small Sea along the entire length and adjacent territories, including about. Olkhon, occupies the Pribaikalsky natural reserve national park. The national park regime allows organized tourism along routes agreed with the park administration, as well as recreation in specially designated and equipped places for this purpose - tourist centers.
Oltrek Island, Small Sea, Baikal
GEOGRAPHY
Maloye More is a part of the waters of Lake Baikal, separated by Olkhon Island. On topographic maps and atlases of Roscartography and Rosreestr, the Maloe More is classified as a strait. On navigation maps, atlases and navigational directions of the State Budgetary Institution of National Economy of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation is classified as the Maloye More Bay. The toponym “Small Sea” is often also used without the generic words strait/bay.
In the southwestern part, Maloye More is connected to Baikal by the Olkhon Gate Strait. North-west of the Olkhon Gate Strait is Mukhor Bay.
In Buryat, the Small Sea is called Narin Dalai, which means narrow sea.
The length is about 70 km. Width from 5 to 16 km. Depth up to 210 m in the northern part. The coast is mountainous. On the northern coast there is the Primorsky Ridge (height up to 1746 m). The vegetation of the banks is mountain-taiga, steppe. There are shifting sands.
In the Small Sea there are the islands of Izhilkhey, Zamogoy, Ogoy, Oltrek, Khibiny, etc. Capes Aral, Zunduk, Oto-Khushun, Ulan-Khansky, Uyuga, Khadarta (mainland coast), Khoboy, Budun, Shibetsky (Olkhon Island) stand out on the coast. . The Sarma and Kurma rivers flow into the Maloe More.
The Small Sea is home to sturgeon, golomyanka, Baikal omul, grayling, whitefish, perch, pike, and dace. Fishery is developed.
On the coast of the Small Sea there are the settlements of Khuzhir, Kharantsy, Peschanaya, Kurma, Sarma, MRS (Sakhyurta) and numerous small hotels and camp sites.
Maloe More is located on the territory of the Pribaikalsky National Park in the Irkutsk region.
Oltrek Island 
OLKHON GATE
The Olkhon Gate is a narrow strait separating the Baikal island of Olkhon from the mainland in the southwest. Length 8 km, smallest width about 1 km.
The shores are mostly steep and steep, the coastline is indented by long narrow bays and bays. The strait has a fairly strong current for Baikal, and waves coming from different directions can reach 5 meters in height. In winter, many cracks and steam holes appear on the ice of the strait.
From the village of Sakhyurta there is a ferry crossing "MRS - Olkhon Island". In 2005, a high-voltage cable was laid along the bottom of the strait, providing the island with electricity.
Babushka Bay, Primorsky Range 
PRIMORSKY RIDGE
Primorsky ridge is a mountain range in the Baikal region, on the territory of the Irkutsk region. The highest point is Three-Headed Char (1728 meters), the prevailing heights are 900-1000 meters.
The ridge is located along the western coast of Lake Baikal. It starts from the Torskaya basin (in the Irkut valley) from the southern end of the lake and stretches to the northeast. In the area of the source of the Angara it drops to 200 meters. Then it gradually rises again to the northeast and acquires an alpine character in the northeastern part of Baikal beyond the Ilga River.
The Primorsky ridge serves as a watershed between the tributaries of Baikal and the rivers of the Angarsk and Lena systems. It is deeply cut by rivers of the Baikal system, such as: Goloustnaya, Bolshaya Buguldeika, Anga and Sarma. It is characterized by angular contours and rocky soil properties, and only within the course of the Humilhu River is distinguished by a gentler slope and dissection, and the surface of the ridge is terrace-like in nature, above which the highest rounded peaks weakly protrude. The slopes are covered with forests, mainly pine and larch, in the northern part of the eastern slope - The ridge is covered with steppe.
The Primorsky ridge is composed mostly of rocks: Proterozoic sandstone, limestone, gneiss, granite. Characteristic are karst landforms. The western slope is gentle, the eastern slope ends steeply with cliffs towards Lake Baikal.
Babushka Bay 
ON THE SHORE OF THE SMALL SEA
(review article on the Small Sea)
Along the shore of the Small Sea to Cape Kurminsky (29 km) the road is gravel, with improved coverage, then to the tourist base "Zama" and the village. Ongureny is forested, with large boulders, stones and fords through streams. The road becomes especially difficult and sometimes impassable during the rainy season (Cape Ulan-Khansky).
For the village There are no kilometer posts on the Kurma road. To make it easier to navigate according to the description, it is recommended that at the fork in the road (113 km, the sign reads “Turn to Chernorud and the village of Onguren”), switch the daily mileage counter to zero. The distance to the tourist base "Zama" along the shore of the Small Sea from the turn is 88 km. The average travel time without stops is 3 hours 30 minutes (if you're in a hurry and don't skimp on the car's suspension, you can cover this distance in 2 hours 15 minutes in an SUV), with stops for photography and rest usually taking more than 4 hours 30 minutes.
The first 10 km of the road goes through the mountains above the Mukhor Bay among deciduous forest, especially beautiful in October, when the needles turn yellow, or in early June, when wild rosemary blooms. After the bridge over the river. Chernorud (1.9 km) begins the ascent to a small pass (4.7 km) with a steep descent. The road is clearly visible from the pass and people usually stop here to take photographs as a souvenir. At 9-10 km there are turns to the tourist bases: to the left - to the tourist base "Baikal-Dar", to the right - to the Mukhora bays, to the bases "Chara" and "Shida".
At 10 km you can make a stop at the pass (540 m) and take an easy walk to the right to the top of the mountain (about 600 m), from where a 360-degree panorama of Mukhor Bay opens up. Under the mountain, along the shore of the Khuzhir-Nugai Gulf, there is old road with a steep climb over sharp rocks, which connects at the village. Sarma with a new gravel road.
The Khuzhir-Nugai Bay juts into the coast between the Ulirba capes and the river delta. Sarma. In the middle of the entrance to the bay are the rocky islands of Small Toynak and Big Toynak, bordered by shallows. The islands serve as a nesting site for herring gulls.
There is a good observation deck at 11-12 km; the turns off to it are visible from the road.
16. MUKHOR BAY
The correct transcription is “Mukhar”, but on most maps the name “Mukhor” is found. In Buryat, “mukhar” means a dead end, an end. Here the Maloe More ends in a shallow bay with sandy shores, while on the opposite side it connects with Lake Baikal. The bay goes 8 km into the land and has an average depth of 4-5 m. At the very end of the bay the Kuchelga River flows into it. The coast is heavily indented with bays, the water in them warms up to +22°C in the second half of August.
In early June, while it is cold, there is not a single tent here; in the middle of summer - in July and August - there is not a single deserted bay. Tent camps completely cover the coast, especially the southern part of Mukhor Bay, where the valleys with sandy beaches are very beautiful. At this time it is too crowded and noisy. It is difficult to find fuel for a fire on the shore, so you need to have a primus stove or gas stove with you. Most of the bays are occupied by permanent tourist bases. Their number increases every year. In 2004, the number of tourist centers and summer children's summer camps on Mukhora reached 21 - in terms of their density, this is the most crowded place among vacationers on the Small Sea.
Kurkutskaya Bay, Small Sea 
Accommodation
RECREATION CENTER "ULIRBA". The recreation center is located on Cape Ulirba in the Mukhor Bay of the Small Sea, 6 km from the village. Sarma. It occupies an area of 2 hectares. Designed for simultaneous stay of up to 70 tourists. Offers accommodation in summer houses and trailers from June 18 to August 31. On the territory of the base there is a summer kitchen with gas stoves, a volleyball court, a shopping kiosk, and a rental point for pleasure boats and catamarans. The camp site has radio contact with Irkutsk.
RECREATION CENTER "FRIGATE". Many tourist centers have been built on the shores of Mukhor Bay. In the southern part of the bay, in the picturesque Burliuk Bay of the Gulf of Kurkutsk, on Cape Ulan there is a recreation center "Fregat". The camp site is conveniently located on the shore of a small bay with a sandy beach, comfortably fenced on both sides rocky capes. Without leaving the house, right from the windows early in the morning you can watch colorful sunrises over the mirror-like surface of the lake: the houses are oriented towards the water, to the east. The water in this shallow bay warms up to 23 C at the end of summer and allows you to swim for a long time. Three wooden houses with verandas and kitchens can accommodate 30 people. On the very shore there is a well-decorated wooden bathhouse, opposite a boat pier.
The two-story wooden cottage accommodates 2-4 people per room. The cottage has 4 bedrooms of 16 m2 each, a common hall - 15 m2, a kitchen with a full set of equipment - 16 m2, two bathrooms and two showers. The sandy beach is equipped with sun loungers and parasols. Catamaran and water ski rentals are available.
TOUR BASE "TOGOT". The camp site is located in one of the bays on the shores of Mukhar Bay. The shallow bay with a sandy bottom and beach warms up to 25 °C in the heat. Accommodation in 2- and 4-person specially equipped trailers and 4-person tents. There are boat rentals, a Siberian bathhouse, and a food kiosk.
RECREATION CENTER "ZUNHAGUN". Located on the shore of Mandarkhan Bay, Mukhar Bay. The shore of the bay is sandy. The base is designed for 60 places in wooden houses and 36 places in tents. The houses and tents have electric lighting. The camp site has a bathhouse, a mini-shop, dance and volleyball courts.
RECREATION CENTER "CHARA". Accommodation in wooden cottages (15 wooden buildings with rooms for 2, 3, 4 people), the interior of which is designed in a wooden Siberian style. Each room has an individual entrance from the street. Separate cottages for 2 people. equipped with an individual summer shower and dry closet. Meals are served in two dining rooms in a separate building. Bar-shop, sauna, billiards, satellite phone, fishing tackle and boats. Freshly smoked omul is always available for sale. Excursions along the river are conducted. Cascade with waterfalls to the top of the Primorsky ridge, a hike to the Sarma Gorge, excursion trips to Olkhon Island are organized.
HEALTH CENTER "GESER". The base is located on the shore of the warm bay of Bazarnaya Guba, 1.5 km from the village of MRS. Accommodation in 3-4-bed houses. Not far from the beach area, archaeologists have discovered the site of an ancient man.
TOUR BASE "KHUZHIR-NUGE". The camp site is located 500 meters from the shore of one of the warmest bays of the Small Sea - Khuzhir-Nugaisky. Accommodation in 2- and 4-bed rooms. There is a bathhouse, billiards, table tennis, bar, rental of TVs and VCRs, boats and catamarans. Not far from the camp site, archaeologists discovered ancient burials. According to Russian and Canadian scientists, the age of the burials exceeds 4 thousand years.
RECREATION CENTER "CHAIKA". Kurkut tract, 500 m from the shore of Mukhor Bay. In summer the water warms up to 22 C. Rental motor boat, banana ride. Hikes to the Sarma Gorge, car trips to Olkhon Island and the Dream Cave are organized. Vacationers are offered accommodation in separate houses made of calibrated logs, equipped with a dry closet and washbasin in each room. There are single rooms in the hotel and 2- and 3-bed houses. The base is designed for 120 places in the summer, in winter time for 60 seats. Cafe with Buryat cuisine. Press center for seminars. Guarded parking lot. A bathhouse with a pool 1.8 m deep and 5 m long and birch brooms for those who wish.
RECREATION CENTER "BAIKAL RAINBOW". Kurkutsky Bay, Radost-2 Bay. The tourist base is designed for 50 people, accommodation in separate houses for 2-3 and 4-5 people. Home cooking and four meals a day for vacationers. For those who wish, there is a bathhouse with a broom, healing tea and massage, barbecue and hot smoked fish. There is a summer bar and discos. There are equipped places for those wishing to set up their tents, and there are also tents that can be rented at the camp site.
RECREATION CENTER "LAZURNAYA". Accommodation in a large wooden two-story house: 2-, 3-. 4-bed occupancy with separate entrances
RECREATION CENTER "SHIDA". Mukhor Bay. Opened in 2002. 50 meters from the tourist base there is a sandy beach of a warm bay. A Russian bathhouse with access to the water was built on the shore. Paintball competitions are held. Rental of boats and inflatable bananas.
Small Baikal, Sarma Gorge 
17. SARMA RIVER (16 km)
FROM V.A.’S DIARY OBRUCHEV, DESCRIPTION OF A TRAVEL AROUND THE VALLEY OF THE R. SARMS
"There were colossal stone balls and huge tree trunks, like the spirits of the mountains, a tribe of titans, played skittles here in the Sarma valley and scattered their “cute” toys on the ground. And among this chaos, the taiga stream seethed and foamed, a fierce, icy stream, which we often had to cross, in spite of everything, in search of better way on opposite bank".
Sarma is the largest of the rivers (length 42 km) flowing into the Small Sea. Sarma forms a vast delta. A long alluvial spit projects from the middle part of the delta, on which lie several low and sandy islands, which are only recognizable from a short distance.
Before the new road was laid, it was difficult to drive along the rocky delta; this section, due to numerous detours, was called Turn 33. Now a 2-kilometer paved road crosses the delta in a straight line, and at speed it is not even possible to see traces of the old road among the stones.
In the river valley Sarma has preserved the road along which, on July 2, 1643, under the command of the Russian Cossack Kurbat Ivanov, 75 “hunting, serving and walking people” from the Verkholensky fort for the first time, according to official data, came to the shore of Lake Baikal.
One of the most insidious and ferocious winds on Lake Baikal got its name from the river. Here, rolling over the Primorsky ridge from the vast Prilenskaya Upland, the Arctic air rushes into a valley narrowing towards the mouth, which, at the exit into the Baikal basin, forms a kind of natural wind tunnel. The difference in height between the Lena Upland and the level of Lake Baikal is more than 500 m. This creates very favorable conditions for the masses of cold air falling from such a height to acquire enormous speeds and destructive power. From the river valley Sarma, especially in autumn period, the wind can suddenly blow up to 40 m/s or more. Some researchers claim that gusts reach 60 m/s at the mouth of the valley. The Sarma wind caused the largest ship disaster on Lake Baikal. In the fall of 1902, in front of Cape Kobylya Golova, towed barges on which fishermen and their families were returning from the fishing season perished. Fishermen consider the appearance of motionless clouds over the top of the mountain to be a harbinger of “sarma”. The wind begins as soon as a small gap forms between the top of the mountain and the lower edge of the clouds. Locals call this opening a gate. If the gate is opened, the wind will start in 20-30 minutes.
In the upper reaches of the river. Sarma in the 19th century. Alluvial gold was discovered, which was mined illegally; there were no officially registered mines here. 15 km from the village. Sarma has explored rich reserves of phosphorites, estimated at 4 million tons.
At the exit of Sarma from the gorge, 2.5 km from the village. Sarma, at the foot of the Primorsky ridge on the left bank of the river, ancient drawings made with red ocher were discovered in 1987. The pisanitsa, measuring 1.7 to 2.0 m, are located under a small cornice on smooth granite surfaces facing southwest. The drawings are poorly preserved and are clearly visible only after the rocks have been moistened. Their composition includes a symbol in the form of a trident, a stylized image of a person and amorphous spots.
At the fishing and sports base, located below the bridge over the river, you can spend the night in the cold season.
The village of Sarma is located 15 km of the road, a kilometer from the bridge over the river.
18. CAPE KURMINSKY (26 km)
Maloye More in the area of Cape Kurminsky.
The cape is famous for its large grotto located on the sea side. At the beginning of winter, it becomes overgrown with beautiful ice splashes and icicles. Along the 2-kilometer pebble spit of the Kurminsky Cape you can drive up to the rocky hill at its tip, but you should not do this, because... car wheels are destructive to the unique grass vegetation of the pebble spit. Between Cape Hadarta and Cape Kurminsky there is a picturesque treeless Hogden Hole Bay, protected from the sea by a thin sand spit, where fishermen usually like to stop.
Accommodation
RECREATION CENTER "DANKO". The recreation center is located near the picturesque Hagdan-Dalai Bay, 14 km from the village. Sarma at 28-29 km of the road and 500 m from the shore of the lake. Baikal (opposite Cape Uyuga). The camp site opened in 2003. Bathhouse, disco, dining room, billiards.
RECREATION CENTER "LAGUNA". It is located next to the tourist base "Danko", almost opposite Cape Kurminsky. Wooden houses and cottages.
Cape Uyuga, Small Sea 
Opposite the Kurminsky Cape there is a road to the mountains. You need to drive past four serge pillars and if you rise higher, a magnificent helicopter panorama of the waters of the Small Sea and rocky islands opens up.
At 29 km in the village. The Kurma gravel road ends and the forest road begins. Road to the village Ongureni in this place moves away from the coast into the mountains into a deciduous forest, another road leads to recreation areas on the shore of Soro Lake and the Small Sea. You need to go to Zama and Onguren on the left road.
Soon after the first ford at 33 km, through a small stream the road comes to the very edge of the shore, and for a long time goes close to the water's edge and pebble beach. At 34-35 km, the deciduous forest on the shore was severely damaged by a forest fire; dead wood was cut down and the fire site was subsequently overgrown with dense thickets of wild rosemary. In early June, when wild rosemary blooms, this area stands out with a solid pink color.
Cape Kurminsky. Small Sea
At 37 km (road marker N53 13 836 E107 01 505) in the forest, 150 m from the road, there is an ancient hipped stone structure (N53 33 977 E107 01 437) with a special masonry wall in two rows and an air passage between them. The height of the structure is 2.5 m, the circumference at the base is 4-5 m. The floor is laid with stone tiles with a slope towards the center, the internal walls are coated with clay mortar. The antiquity of the structure is evidenced by the red lichen at the joints of the stones, the formation of which takes many, many years. Presumably this could have been a furnace for smelting metal, but there are no known ore deposits nearby and no settlements nearby. And the place is located in a dense forest on the slope of a mountain, where no traces of housing or roads are visible. Local resident Alexey Andreevich Takhiev remembered a legend that he was told: in the Butu area several centuries ago there were nomadic yurts of the Shono (wolf) clan, there were three iron smelting furnaces for making cast iron products. According to another version, also told by a local resident, this is an Evenk place for performing complex shamanic rituals and a long ritual associated with life and death. The double wall was intended to magically protect the second fire, which was lit inside the tent structure for the ceremony. It has not yet been possible to find an answer about the purpose of the structure. Perhaps, over time, experts will tell what this only well-preserved ancient structure on the shores of the Small Sea was intended for.
The road in this place passes through a dense forest and has one track, so it is not possible for oncoming cars to pass everywhere. It is quite difficult to find a tent structure based on its description; there are no noticeable landmarks on the road. The most suitable landmark is Cape Ulan-Khansky (40-43 km). From the tent structure to the ford across the river at Cape Ulan-Khansky it is approximately 3 km.
19. CAPE ULAN-KHANSKY (40-43 km)
The swampy lowland along which the road runs is impassable for passenger cars in rainy weather. To the north of this cape, on the coast, there are many convenient parking places, but usually there are few motor tourists here due to the bad road.
On the cape there are several deep fords through streams, the bottom of which is pebbly and reliable enough for passage by passenger cars. The depth of the first of them is uneven; they usually cross it diagonally.
Immediately after the Ulan-Khan Cape there is a remarkable section, 300-400 m long, when the road goes along the bed of a stream with large stones and pebbles. In deep water, passing this section with creative approach could become similar to the Camel Trophy run.
At 45-46 km the road passes through a dense forest that grows to the very edge of the pebble beach. Individual trees even stand on the pebble beach, almost close to the water.
At 47 km in front of the Forestry Department base, 1.2 km from the road at the foot of the mountains, there is the Arshan spring. According to the legends and beliefs of the Olkhon Buryats, the water in the source has healing properties. It is used in the treatment of colds and diseases of the musculoskeletal system. The spring has two chutes for separate use by men and women and is considered sacred among the local population. Next to it there is a traditional altar for shamanists, where the ritual of sacrifice takes place annually. On the bushes around the source there are many tied cloth ribbons - zaala.
Accommodation
INDIVIDUAL RECREATION CENTER "ENHOK" (56 km)
Tel.: (8-395-2) 336-654. Email: [email protected]
In front of the Thin Cape, up the creek, there is a tourist base "Enkhok" (300 km from Irkutsk) with year-round operation for 20 places of the tourist enterprise "Chanchur". Built in 1994-1996. Not far from Zama, in the area of Yenkhok, there is another small tourist base "Yenkhok" with wooden cottages for 2-4 people each. Deciduous forest, blooming edelweiss, and a large number of anthills gave this place the name Ant Kingdom. The base has its own highlight: the hunting flavor of a taiga village, the outer walls of the winter hut decorated with antlers, a colorful gazebo made of natural stones, a fireplace room also decorated with stone, a Buryat tagan on chains, dried fishing nets and dried pikes on the wall, as well as numerous samovars and free-grazing horses. A real Russian bathhouse on a stream with a dam for swimming in ice water after the steam room.
There are four cozy wooden guest houses for 2-6 people, which have a gas stove and utensils. One house is fully equipped: with a bathroom and toilet. Near each house there is a picnic area with a fire pit. The base has its own diesel engine, providing a voltage of 220 V, a Russian bathhouse and a warm toilet outside, radio communication with Irkutsk. In 1995, a café was built from round logs, stylized as a hunting winter hut, with a bear skin on the wall and an original fireplace made of natural stone. Nearby there is a gazebo with a fireplace in the center - a large picnic area with 25 seats. Horses are provided for riding and pack routes into the mountains. This is a secluded getaway. A great option is to come by car with a friend, take a steam bath in a Russian bathhouse and early in the morning climb the mountains to watch the sunrise. You don’t have to take food with you; the hospitable hosts will feed you delicious Baikal fish soup, homemade pancakes and pancakes. You can order pancakes with either homemade honey or minced omulin. Successful fishing and catching fish are guaranteed.
There are horses at the cordon: six horses under saddle. A horse riding tour has been developed from the Yenkhok cordon to the village. Kocherikovo: two nights at the cordon, transfer to the shelter, guide and horse rental.
20. CAPE OTO-KHUSHUN (CAPE TONKIY, 59 km)
The largest, most interesting shaped spit-arrow on Lake Baikal. It was formed by sediment from countercurrents. The pebbles on the spit are well rounded and very varied in composition. Recently, the cape was unwisely destroyed: they decided to mine pebble material on it. As a result of the decrease in the height of the cape, the spit became available for wave overlapping and erosion during a storm.
Camping "Yenkhok".
From Cape Ulan-Khansky to Cape Zunduk, about 13-14 km, the road runs along the water's edge. The coastline in this area is almost straight, without coves or bays, with a pebble beach and sparse deciduous forest that grows away from the shore. Due to the lack of forest on this section of the coast, there are practically few attractive places to set up tents on the shore.
At km 64 there is another notable place where the road comes out to a pebble beach and follows it for some time. Sometimes here you can see ducks and scoters swimming away from the shore when a car approaches. When the water level in Baikal is low, they use the lower road along the pebble beach; when in the fall the water level in Baikal rises, the beach is flooded and the lake is stormy, they use a bypass road along the top with large stones and a steep climb.
21. CAPE ZUNDUK (73-78 km)
At the foot of the cape mountain is the base of the Irkutsk Radio Plant, and the road at 73 km turns into the mountains. The section of the road from Cape Zunduk to the village. Onguren is one of the hardest on the route. The road, narrow and difficult in the rain, along a deep ravine, rises steeply into the mountains, leaving Baikal far below. Dense forests with wild rosemary come close to the road. From the shore to the bridge over the river. Zunduk - 2 km. Immediately after the bridge, a steep climb to the pass begins.
On the left bank of the river. The chest from the path running along the river, a wide triangular entrance to the cave is visible in the middle of the mountain. A cave with two halls, a total length of 7-12 m. The passage to the second hall is blocked by a large boulder. According to stories local residents, the spirit of an old shaman rests here. Someone was excavating in the left corner of the cave.
To the right of the road, old serge pillars have been preserved, which were previously installed near the shaman’s burial place. The construction of serge in memory of the deceased shaman indicated that here one could make a sacrifice to the spirit of the shaman, who was now the owner of the place. Not far from serge, traces of thirteen fresh and last year’s fire pits with bones bleached in the ash are visible. To conduct a shamanic ritual, a new fire is lit each time. A lamb shoulder is burned in the fire, and the shaman tells fortunes and gives advice based on the pattern of cracks on it.
At the top of Mount Zunduk, traces of experimental open-pit mining of red marble - drilling - have been preserved.
At the foot of the mountain you can find plant species whose origin is attributed to ice age. Among them are such as the unique tundra-steppe dryad (Dryas oxyodonta), which grows on marble outcrops, rockweed (Androsace bungeana), astragalus (Astragalus kaufmannii), Lloydia (Lloydia serotina), and the endemic of the Baikal region - tragacanth (Oxytropis oxyphylloides).
The name of the cape gave its specific name to the Zundukian kopek, which grows only on the coast of the Small Sea and is not found anywhere else on earth. It grows on rocky, gentle limestone slopes. The plant belongs to the ancient forms of drought-resistant flora; it is a grayish-white perennial with feathery compound leaves. Beautiful raspberry-pink flowers are collected in dense short racemes.
22. ZAMA TERRITORY (80-88 km)
Small Sea. Zama area.
Beautiful and extensive alluvial meadow plain. Its name is associated with legend. When the ancestors of the Olkhon Buryats in the 17th-18th centuries. settled along the shores of Lake Baikal, their path to the north was blocked by mountains. Then the Buryats allegedly exclaimed “Zam ungeree”, i.e. the road dried up, ended, and a settlement was founded.
From the village The old road leads through the pass to the gold mines of Pravaya Ilikta and to the river. Chanchur, a tributary of the river. Lena. In 1990, the Camel Trophy motor rally took place along this road from Kachug to the shores of Lake Baikal.
To the left of the Aral Peninsula, in front of a long curved pebble isthmus, a large warm lake has formed, the shore of which can be reached through the isthmus from Cape Kaltygei. This is a good place to relax. There is a sandy beach on the shore of the lake, coniferous trees grow in a narrow strip, but it is almost impossible to find firewood for making a fire.
To the right of the Aral Peninsula, on the shores of Lake Baikal, 3 km from Zama, there is a cordon of the Pribaikalsky National Park.
Tourist base "Zama" Tel.: 259-259. Email: [email protected] The tourist base "Zama" of OJSC Irkutsenergo was built in 2003 and is aimed at family and corporate recreation, located among wild nature on the western coast of Lake Baikal, on the Small Sea, 330 km from Irkutsk, 124 km from the village. Elantsy and 88 km from the turnoff at 113 km of the Elantsy - MRS road (N53 29 906 E107 30 557). You can get there by car from the city without long stops in 5.5-6 hours, by bus or by bus in 9-10 hours. The last 80 km pass along a forest road along the very edge of the shore of the Small Sea, and although the road may seem difficult in places for unprepared drivers, it is easily traversed even in passenger cars. An experienced driver can cover this section of the forest road in 2 hours 15 minutes; a leisurely drive takes 4-5 hours. In winter, the journey across the ice of Lake Baikal will take about an hour. To communicate with the mainland, the administration of the tourist center purchased a high-speed hovercraft "Alligator" to quickly transfer tourists from the MRS over the water or ice of Lake Baikal (1 hour 15 minutes). The tourist base was put into operation in 2002: a two-story building with all amenities according to the standards of the European hotel industry, with attractive decoration and satellite TV. The building has 21 rooms for 47-50 people, a bar and a restaurant. One single room, six double rooms, nine triple rooms, two double luxury rooms. An extra bed can be added to double rooms.
A Category I cook can bake a cake to order or prepare a signature stuffed whitefish in foil. This is the only tourist base on Lake Baikal where the waiter will be wearing a bowtie, and the bar will have an extensive wine list. In the fenced area there is also an outdoor swimming pool and an indoor swimming pool with internal lighting, continuous water filtration and automatic heating, a Russian bathhouse with brooms and a sauna with a swimming pool, volleyball and tennis courts, an equipped picnic area with a fireplace and benches. For active recreation, it is possible to rent one of five Frakjer mountain bikes. The season starts on June 16. A special advantage of the new tourist base, along with unconditional comfort, is the picturesque surrounding nature. From the windows of the building, located on the mountainside, a magnificent panorama of Lake Baikal and the Zama area opens, framed by a perfect semicircle of the pebble beach of the lake. Warm water in the Baikal sor - Lake Zama with a sandy bottom in front of a pebble isthmus, and good fishing are additional advantages of this place. Near the tourist base on the coast there are Capes Aral and Khaltygei.
23. CAPE ARAL
In ancient times the cape was an island. At the top of the cape, the remains of an ancient Kurykan guard post, surrounded by a stone wall (VI-XI centuries), have been preserved. There is a hypothesis that such places were not fortifications, since their territory is very small, but were cult objects, the ditches and walls around which had magical protective significance. The circular trace of the ditch and stone wall on the Aral Peninsula does not exceed 8-10 m in diameter.
According to local historian A. Imetkhenov, on the sea side, on Cape Aral, there is a coastal cave-grotto, the largest on Lake Baikal, its length is 37 m, width up to 5 m, height up to 5 m. The second cave-grotto is located on Cape Khaltygei in 1.5 km north of the village. Malaya Zama. The length of this cave is 13 m and the width is about 5 m. But the search for these grotto caves without a guide may be unsuccessful.
24. CAPE KHALTYGEY (89-91 km)
In Buryat, kheltege means “sloping slope.” The picturesque rocky cape has a characteristic slope in one direction and is sharply upturned on the other side. On the side of the lake, on the steep cliffs in the crevices of the capes, you can find thickets of mountain onions. On the pass of the cape near the road there are old serge pillars and obo made of stones. From here you can see a beautiful panorama of Zama and the northern tip of Olkhon Island.
From the tourist base you can take a walking tour to the cape (2-3 km). The cape is composed of the oldest rock on the Small Sea - granulite, 1 billion 880 thousand years old. Opposite the cape, on Olkhon, for example, the age of the rocks is 460 million years.
To the north of the cape is the picturesque Khaltygei Bay, with an ideal pebble crescent of a beach. In good weather, the mountains of the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve and Cape Ryty are clearly visible in the distance.
After Khaltygei, the dorga again rises high into the mountains (101 km) and goes high above Lake Baikal; in good weather, the Ushkany Islands and the mountain outline of the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula are visible. Through a forest with dense thickets of wild rosemary and large boulders, the road leads to the village of Onguren.
25. VILLAGE ONGUREN (120 km)
The northernmost large village on the shores of the Small Sea (as of January 1, 1998 - 467 people, 170 farms). There is a mineral spring 5 km from Onguren in Lukovaya Pad. The local population uses the water for stomach ailments. Iron and radon give healing properties to water. The water temperature is constant in winter and summer (+4.2 °C).
In the northwestern part of the Onguren depression on the Krestovsky lakes there are significant reserves of medicinal mud. They have been known to the local population since the last century as an effective remedy for the treatment of rheumatism, radiculitis and other diseases.
When it rains, the road in front of the village becomes difficult to pass due to mud and swampy lowlands. To the north of the village you can drive 15 km along a difficult road to the village. Kocherikova.
Pribaikalsky National Park
National parks, which in the 20th century became the main form of territorial nature conservation for most countries of the world, appeared in Russia only in the 1980s. One of the first was the Pribaikalsky National Park, organized during the peak of the public struggle for the preservation of Lake Baikal. The decision to create it was made by the Council of Ministers of the Russian Federation on February 13, 1986. The park is a specially protected natural area federal significance. In 1996, as part of the Lake Baikal site, it was included in the UNESCO World Natural Heritage List. The territory of the park in the form of a narrow strip covers most of (about 470 km) the western coast of Lake Baikal - from the village of Kultuk in the south to Cape Kocherikovsky in the north. We can say that this is the most “extended” of the national parks in Russia. It occupies the eastern slopes of the Primorsky Range, the southern part of the Olkha Plateau, and the river basin. Bolshaya Rechka (flows into the Angara River), as well as about. Olkhon. South part cut by the mighty Angara flowing from Lake Baikal.
The park includes the largest protected area of the Baikal shores (almost a quarter of them total length). Larger than the total of the Baikal-Lensky and Barguzinsky nature reserves and the Transbaikalsky National Park. According to the richness of flora and fauna, quantity rare species flora and fauna, as well as an abundance archaeological sites our national park is superior to any other specially protected natural area Baikal region. The total area of the park is 417,297 hectares. It is located in Slyudyansky, Irkutsk and Olkhonsky administrative regions Irkutsk region.
More than 300,000 hectares of the total area of the Pribaikalsky National Park are forests. Pine forests predominate, often with an admixture of larch. There are cedar and cedar-fir forests, spruce forests.
The park's flora includes more than 1,000 species of vascular plants (this is more than half of the flora of Central Siberia), about 250 species of lichens and 200 species of mosses. Animal world the park is also rich and varied. There are 9 species of amphibians and reptiles, 55 species of mammals, and about 340 species of birds.
Park attractions
The main attraction of the Pribaikalsky National Park is the largest Eastern Siberia wintering of waterfowl. In the place where the Angara flows from Lake Baikal, a huge polynya is formed, where up to 10-15 thousand ducks survive the winter. The southwestern coast of Lake Baikal is a kind of route for the mass autumn migration of birds of prey. Up to 2 thousand of them fly here every day; for Siberia this is an exceptional phenomenon.
Hydrography
Pribaikalsky National Park is mainly located within drainage basins Lake Baikal, and in the southern part - the Angara River (Irkutsk Reservoir). Lake Baikal is one of the largest and deepest lakes in the world; it contains 20% of the world's fresh water reserves. The coastline of the lake within the boundaries of the park is 470 km (not counting the coast of Olkhon Island) and is relatively weakly indented and straight in some areas. Currently, the average long-term level of the lake is 457 m. The waves are almost constant, the wave height in the northern part of the lake reaches 6 m. In summer, the water temperature in open Baikal rises to only +12°+14°C.
Monuments of nature, history and culture
On the territory of the national park, 54 natural monuments have been identified: geological - 22, water-hydrological - 8, botanical - 2, zoological - 10, complex - 12. Geological natural monuments include various forms of weathering of rocks, rock stations, caves, karst sinkholes, sand dunes, dunes and other forms. Two of them - Cape Ulan-Hyp and Shaman-Kamen - have a protected regime. Cape Ulan-Hyp is an object of the International Geological Year, a massif with a rare accumulation of rare and unique minerals. Over the past decade, 120 different minerals have been diagnosed here. Shaman-Kamen, the most popular and legendary place on Lake Baikal, is a tiny island at the source of the river. Hangars, the only surface projection of the Angara threshold. The list of water-hydrological monuments includes springs, hydrolaccoliths, Tazheran lakes and a mineral spring. The botanical monuments included two objects - the “Courage of Life” cedar and a relict spruce forest on Olkhon Island. These objects are a botanical mystery and represent educational and scientific interest, have a reserved regime. Nine out of ten zoological natural monuments are located in Maloye More. These are tower-type rocky islands typical of Baikal with steep banks: Shokhoy, Borgodagon, Oltrek, Shargodegan, Zumugoy, Urungoy, Khubin, Khunuk, Big Cache. All islands are places of mass nesting of herring gulls. The tenth zoological natural monument is the Bird Bazaar cliff, the only place on Lake Baikal where herring gull nests are located on steep walls. The most interesting and most popular of the complex natural monuments are Peschanaya Bay and the Sagan-Zaba cliff. Among the historical attractions of the national park is the famous Circum-Baikal Railway, a monument of history and engineering art.
Sharga-Dagan, Small Sea 
Tourism
About 400 thousand people visit the Pribaikalsky National Park every year. The maximum influx of visitors is in July-August. The most visited area of the park is the Small Sea area (Olkhonsky district). There is a network of tourist service facilities in the park.
The national park operates three camp sites and tourist shelters: “Taiga” (accommodating 15-20 people), “Kadilnaya” (30 people), “Akademicheskaya” (25 people), “Pad Chernaya” (15-18 people). ), “Semenikha” (15-18 people), tourist shelter on the Circum-Baikal Railway (15-18 people). In addition, on the territory of the Pribaikalsky Park there are more than 20 boarding houses and tourist centers belonging to various departments. In Listvyanka there is the Intourist hotel with a capacity of 112 people, and the Baikal sanatorium with 210 beds.
The largest and most visited tourist centers are “Malomorskaya” and “Peschanaya” (with a capacity of 300 people). Currently, from May to September, the park operates several tourist routes for groups of up to 15 people: weekend route (duration - 2 days); sports walking route along the Primorsky Ridge system (length - 100 km); walking route along Pribaikalsky national park(duration - 5 days, length - 40-50 km); cruise on a motor ship with rest at the camp site "Kadilnaya" (duration - 4 days); cruise on the lake Baikal (duration - 10 days). These routes offer visits to Listvyanka village, the Baikal Ecological Museum, the Museum of Wooden Architecture, Kadilnaya, Peschanaya and Khargino bays, Kadilsky Caves, Dry Lake, and relaxation at the Kadilnaya and Peschanaya tourist centers. In the future, it is planned to develop both summer and winter views tourism: fishing, water on rubber rafts, horseback riding, hunting, winter on snowmobiles. In the field of ecotourism and ecology, the national park cooperates with foreign organizations: Baikal Watch (USA), Korean Government Land Development Corporation, etc.
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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://baikal.irkutsk.ru/
http://www.olkhon-myst.ru
http://nature.baikal.ru/olhon/
http://ozerobaikal.info
http://anomalno.ru/neverojatnye_javlenija/neizvestnye_fakty/tajjnu_bajjkala_razgadat_poka_ne_udalos/
http://fanatbaikala.livejournal.com/
http://www.photosight.ru/
Gusev O.K. Sacred Baikal. Reserved lands Baikal. - M.: Agropromizdat, 1986. - 184 p.
olkhon.su - website of Olkhon Island and Baikal
Mysterious Olkhon - Informational portal Olkhon Islands
The Small Sea has already been mentioned on my website. For those who don’t already know, this is the body of water between the western coast of Lake Baikal and Olkhon Island. Now I set out to tell you more about the mainland coast and the bays of the Small Sea.
The Small Sea is considered a strait. Translated from the Buryat language, the name means “narrow sea” (sounds like Narin-Dalai).
Holidays on the Small Sea beckon various reasons. The natural landscapes of the Baikal region are stunningly beautiful here. At the same time, there are places where you can find comfort and service. Not five-star hotels, of course, but by Siberian-taiga standards there is service on the Small Sea.
Routes along the Small Sea
The majority of the attractions of the Small Sea, including the warmest and shallowest beaches, are located on the coast along the coastline between Mukhor Bay and the village of Kurma. This distance is no more than 15 km.
In this connection, it is more convenient to stay in a tent or at any of the recreation centers in the Mukhor Bay region or in the Kurminsky Bay area. From there, you can travel by car, bicycle or on foot to explore the sights of the Small Sea.
If you count from the crossing to Olkhon in Sakhyutra, then Bazarnaya Bay is the very first in the direction of travel. Little is written about this bay, although there are recreation centers and guest houses here. Some sources do not attribute this bay to the Small Sea at all. I won’t say that it’s just nearby, at least, and I decided to write a couple of lines about two bays located next to the crossing to Olkhon. One of these bays is Bazarnaya.
The bay is quite small. After entering the water for two meters there are stones, then sand. The beach is sandy. It can be windy. From entertainment:
There are campsites for tents. The ferry to Olkhon Island is 3 km away, you can walk to the village of MRS, where there are shops and a nerpintarium.
One of the warmest bays. The coastline of the bay with many bays creates excellent conditions for recreation. 
In some places it has shallow bays, and in summer the water can warm up to +21 °C. Many sunny days a year. The bottom of the bays is mostly pebble, with sandy beaches in some places.
The beach area is equipped: there are sun loungers for rent, water excursions, scooter rentals, riding behind a speedboat on an inflatable banana, a three-seater rubber donut or water skiing are offered. 
At the northern end of the Kurkutsky Bay there is the picturesque Ulan-Khad Bay, which is separated from the “open sea” by the picturesque Cape Burliuk, which in profile resembles a swimming sea turtle.
The Gulf of Kurkutsk is favored by paragliders. There is a good training slope from which novice pilots fly.
There are dozens of campsites and holiday homes here; in the summer there are many campsites for tourists who came “in the wild”.
Mukhor Bay is located in the southernmost part of the Small Sea coast, where the road begins. This is one of the most popular bays and the warmest on the Small Sea coast. The popularity is obviously explained by the proximity of the crossing and the MRS village (3 km from the village). 
It is correct to say “Mukhar”, but on most maps and among the people the name “Mukhor” is common. In Buryat, “mukhar” means a dead end, an end. Here the Maloe More ends in a shallow bay with sandy shores, but on the other side, opposite the beach, it connects with Lake Baikal and its expanses are visible. The bay goes 8 km deep into the mainland, with an average depth of 4-5 m. The Kuchelga River flows into Mukhor Bay. The coastal bay is heavily indented by bays. In them, in the summer (in the second half of August), the water warms up to +22°C.
A crushing (up to 40 m/s) westerly wind breaks out into Baikal through the Sarma Gorge. This wind is called Sarma. Sarma reaches its apogee in the fall. Sarma should not make noise from the wind. He pulls out the centuries-old trees standing on it. It became the cause of the largest ship disaster on Lake Baikal so far, which happened in the fall of 1902. Then, in front of Cape Kobylya Golova, which was near, the towed barges on which fishermen and their families were sailing from the Putin were lost. 
Sarma Gorge entered official history development of Baikal by the fact that Russian Cossacks first reached the lake along it. Along the valley of the Sarma River, a road has been preserved along which, on July 2, 1643, under the command of the Russian Cossack Kurbat Ivanov, 75 “hunting, serving and walking people” from the Verkholensky fort for the first time, according to official data, came to the shore of Lake Baikal.
The gorge is quite picturesque; it runs along the canyon of the Sarma mountain river. The journey along the river bed takes 6-8 hours on foot. At the end of the trail, tourists will find Garnet Mountain, where they can search for and find a precious stone - garnet.
Cape Uyuga (Kurminsky)
Cape Uyuga is one of the most picturesque capes with an almost two-kilometer long pebble spit of light-colored stones. There is an arched cave here, the entrance to which is located from the Small Sea. 
Due to its remoteness from the mainland, a unique plant and animal microreserve was formed on the cape, unique to it.
Kurma Bay is located between capes Uyuga and Tsagan-Khushun. It is considered one of the warmest in all of Baikal. The water temperature here also reaches +22 C. The beaches are pebble, made of smooth light stones. You can often find marble pebbles. 
The Primorsky Ridge rises nearby. There are good trails leading to it along the Kurminsky Gorge. In winter, you can go to the grottoes of Cape Uyuga and the natural arches of Cape Tsagan-Khushun. There is a very beautiful view of the islands here. And fishermen can sit comfortably on the sandy spits.
Opposite the Kurminsky Cape there is a road to the mountains. You need to drive past four serge pillars, and then rise higher. From that place a magnificent panorama of the waters of the Small Sea and rocky islands opens. 
Pebble spit of Cape Sagan Khushun and Lake Kurma
There is a unique pebble spit on Lake Kurma. It is narrow, several meters wide, but very long. The spit stretches from north to south for more than 3 km. 
At the end of this pebble spit there is a very picturesque cape Sagan-Khushun with red lichens and a grotto, into which you can descend from above. 
Ancient stone tent
150 m from the road along which everyone moves, there is an ancient stone structure in the form of a tent with a special masonry of walls in two rows and an air passage between them. The height of the structure is 2.5 m, the circumference at the base is 4–5 m. The floor is laid with stone tiles with a slope towards the center, the internal walls are coated with clay mortar. The antiquity of the structure is evidenced by the red lichen at the joints of the stones, the formation of which takes many, many years. 
What this structure was intended for remained unclear for a long time. According to one version, it could have been a furnace for smelting metal, but there are no known ore deposits nearby and no settlements nearby. According to another version, this is an Evenk place for performing complex shamanic rituals and a long ritual associated with life and death. The double wall was intended to magically protect the second fire, which was lit inside the tent structure for the ceremony.
In September 2007, excavations were carried out inside and outside the stone structure. Research has revealed that this is an antique tar mill, a rare historical example of furnace design for making tar.
Ongureni village
The northernmost large village on the shores of the Small Sea (as of January 1, 1998 - 467 people, 170 households). There is a mineral spring 5 km from Onguren in Lukovaya Pad. Water is used for stomach diseases. Iron and radon give healing properties to water. The water temperature is constant in winter and summer (+4.2 °C).
In the northwestern part of the Onguren depression there are Krestovsky lakes with significant reserves of medicinal mud. They have been known to the local population since the last century as an effective remedy for the treatment of rheumatism, radiculitis and other diseases.
Holidays on the Small Sea - Baikal
Maloye More is located between the western coast of the lake and Olkhon Island. There are more than a dozen rocky islands in its strait. Many of them are valuable natural monuments and have environmental status.
A strait on Lake Baikal separates Olkhon Island from the mainland. In the Buryat language it sounds like Narin-Dalai - “narrow sea”. The complex coastline forms many shallow bays, convenient for tourist stops and recreation centers. The length of the strait is 76 kilometers. The warm water of the bays with sandy beaches and a large number of recreation centers attract tourists here more than to any other area of the Baikal coast. For example, in the southern part of the Small Sea in Mukhor Bay There are no more bays left whose shores are not built up. To relax in a tent, you already need to drive along the shore of the lake further north.
The strait is home to Baikal sturgeon, viviparous golomyanka, omul, grayling, whitefish, perch, pike, and dace. The shore of the Small Sea and Olkhon Island are part of the Pribaikalsky National Park.
From Elantsy to the shore of the Small Sea is 45 kilometers. Along the tract there is a steppe area - Tazheransky massif. There are a large number of salt lakes in the steppe. Along the way, you can visit Aya Bay, explore the caves, and stop by the Buryat uluses with yurts. The most famous cave of the Tazheran steppe - cave Dream. It has many grottoes, halls, and passages. There is also a huge ice stalagmite up to 4 meters high, called the Guardian.
The steppe is rich in many other interesting caves. At different times of the year it looks unusual. Due to the small amount of snow in winter, the Tazheran steppe looks especially impressive - the alternation of white and yellow snow with dried grass makes the landscape extraordinary.
The recreation center on the Small Sea is a tempting holiday option for those who want to enjoy communion with nature, the stunning beauty of the Baikal region landscapes and, at the same time, prefer comfort and quality service. Guests of the recreation center can enjoy walks and trips to the most beautiful corners of this region, the opportunity to swim in warm water Baikal Bay, here you can celebrate an anniversary in a bright and unusual way or hold a private corporate event. The unique location of the base - just a few hundred meters from the shore of the warmest bay of Baikal, called the Small Sea - allows guests not only to enjoy the gentle summer sun, but also to swim in the crystal waters of Baikal.
Under the summer sun Smallseawarming up up to 25 degrees, and the shallow depth turns it into perfect place for a safe and relaxing holiday with children.
Guests are offered cozy rooms in four buildings, as well as separate wooden houses with outdoor showers and toilets, designed for two, three or four residents. The interior decoration of the rooms is made of pine, which has absorbed the warmth and energy of the Baikal sun and gives a special atmosphere of lightness and freshness, deep dream and a pleasant awakening.
You can relax after a boat trip or walk in the restaurant of the recreation center, enjoying a royal selection of dishes and delicacies from omul, pike, whitefish and other Baikal fish. Four spacious halls and a cozy fireplace room are also an excellent solution for holding a banquet or buffet. Guests can enjoy a real Russian bathhouse with fresh birch brooms, volleyball and mountain bikes, billiards and table tennis, a disco and karaoke.