Destination · East Kazakhstan / Altai
Eagles, glaciers, forests the size of small countries. The wildest corner of Kazakhstan.
Access
Ust-Kamenogorsk / Airport
Best season
Jun – Sep / Jan – Mar
Character
Eagle Hunters
Park
Katon-Karagay · National Park
Overview
East Kazakhstan is where the eagle hunting tradition lives on the Kazakh side of the Altai — away from festival crowds and tourist infrastructure, with only the hunters and the birds. Katon-Karagay National Park covers 643,477 hectares — larger than Switzerland — and is almost entirely roadless. Belukha Mountain, at 4,509 metres the highest peak in the Siberian Altai, is sacred to both Kazakh and Russian Altai peoples.
Lake Markakol sits in pristine high-altitude wilderness, its mist at dawn among the finest natural photographs in Central Asia. The Naiman tribe — one of the major Kazakh tribal confederacies — has its homeland here. This is the wildest corner of Kazakhstan, and it has not yet been discovered by international tourism.
Program highlights
Eagle hunters in winter snow, roadless wilderness larger than Switzerland, and sacred peaks on the Russia-Kazakhstan border.
The berkutchi tradition — eagle hunting — exists in equal measure on the Kazakh side of the Altai as in Mongolia's Bayan-Olgiy. The difference: no festival crowds, no tourism infrastructure, no performance. Only the hunters and the birds, in winter snow, on a landscape that has not changed since the tradition began.
643,477 hectares. Larger than Switzerland. Almost entirely roadless. Old-growth spruce forests, Siberian wildlife, river valleys that have seen perhaps a hundred foreign visitors in total. This is wilderness in the most literal sense — not managed, not interpreted, not made comfortable for the unprepared.
Belukha Mountain (4,509m) on the Russia-Kazakhstan border is one of the most sacred peaks in the Altai spiritual tradition. Lake Markakol, reachable by helicopter when the road is closed, sits in silence so complete that the mist at dawn feels like weather happening for the first time.
Key Facts
Region
Altai Mountains — East Kazakhstan, the headwaters of the Irtysh
Best time
June–September for mountain access. January–March for eagle hunting and winter landscapes.
Key sites
Katon-Karagay National Park (643,477 ha — the largest in Kazakhstan) · Lake Markakol (pristine high-altitude lake) · Belukha Mountain (4,509 m, the highest point of Siberian Altai) · Bukhtarma Reservoir · Kazakh berkutchi (eagle hunters) of the Bayan-Olgii border zone · Naiman cultural territory
Elevation
300 m (Irtysh valley) — 4,509 m (Belukha)
Nearest airport
Oskemen (UKK) — regional hub with flights to Almaty
Photo priority
Belukha in clear weather (rare — patience required), berkutchi in snow, fog above Markakol at dawn, old-growth spruce forests of Katon-Karagay
Why it matters
East Kazakhstan is where the eagle-hunting tradition lives on the Kazakh side of the Altai. Katon-Karagay is larger than Switzerland and has almost no roads. Belukha is sacred to the Kazakh and Russian Altaians. This is the wildest corner of Kazakhstan.
What you walk into
The Naiman tribe — one of the major Kazakh tribal confederations — have their homeland here. Eagle hunting (berkutchi): a tradition celebrated in Mongolian Altai but equally alive on the Kazakh side — without festival crowds or tourist infrastructure.
Dala Arba positioning
"The Altai that hasn't been opened yet. Eagles, glaciers, forests the size of small countries."
In place
The Naiman tribe has lived in the Altai for centuries. Their relationship with the landscape — the eagle, the mountain, the old-growth forest — is not a tradition preserved for visitors. It is simply how life works here. Dala Arba's network of local contacts in East Kazakhstan makes access possible in ways that independent travel cannot replicate.
East Kazakhstan requires careful planning — Katon-Karagay permits, seasonal road conditions, and local berkutchi contacts all need advance coordination. Tell us your dates and whether you are coming in summer or winter.