Once again, it was surprising that in our territory there are a large number of little-known rocky formations in the form of pillars and outliers. For the first time I learn about the Irkutsk rocky outcrops, like the Krasnoyarsk pillars. And many of them do not differ at all from the well-known miracle of Russia. And they are not so far from Irkutsk, but they are not famous. It's strange.
Bizarre rock formations are located on the Olkhinsky plateau between Lake Baikal and the city of Irkutsk.
Map link
Here are the main remnants of this system:
Knight
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Vityaz was discovered by chance by Svyatoslav Fedchenko, a researcher at SIFIBR (Irkutsk), who in the fall of 1957 came here by a log road with a group of schoolchildren from Bolshoi Lug.
Mirrors
Mirrors - a vast granite massif, an accumulation of short rocky ridges with picturesque turrets and individual outliers in a wooded ridge between the narrow valleys of the First and Second Zyryansk streams flowing into Olkha just below the Vityaz.
The main attraction of the Mirror Massif, which determined its name from the first time, is the eastern wall of the northern ridge, absolutely vertical and without protrusions, like a mirror hanging on the wall, broken by oblique mutually perpendicular cracks into many squares.
Cubs
Bear cubs are the columnar end of a low rocky ridge going from the Mirrors in a southerly direction, towards the already close Starukha rock.
The name was invented in the early 60s by geodesists who carried out topography here. 15 minutes. along the dirt road, to the right, next to the road, in a young birch forest, a low granite massif appears, "made up" of columnar buttresses, and with a head part with two overhanging cornices.
Idol
The name was given all in the same 60s of the rapid sports development of the near-track territory.
From afar and from behind, the Idol looks more like a squat giraffe with a massive body, the end of which is crowned with a head on a thick neck.
If nature created it, then how she superimposed the blocks one on top of the other. The massif is not divided by cracks. They cannot have parabolic, complexly curved faces of block mating
OLD WOMAN, GATE (FORTRESS)
The old woman, the farthest sporting rock of the Orlyonok group, is clearly visible not only from the surrounding stones, but even from such a low point of view as the Big Olkhinskoye bog.
However, the name of the Gate would be more suitable for it: in the lower part of the descending ridge there is a huge multi-ton block, as if by hand covering the gap between the rocks.
In the vicinity of "OLD WOMAN"
LITTLE OLD WOMAN
Of all the known rocks, Malaya Starukha is the closest, its crest can be seen even from the railway. There are several names for this lowest outlier
Malaya Starukha is a fairly long (up to 1 km) low rocky ridge, crowning one of the countless wooded folds of the Olkhinsky plateau, stretching southward from the confluence of the Big and Malaya Olkha.
GRAPHIC RUINS (OLD FORTRESS)
Somehow in the early 80s the author from Mirrors in the northern direction on the next ridge made out an outlier, in appearance resembling the remains of an old settlement. Searches for the name and ways of approaching it among tourists and local residents who know the surroundings did not give any results. The way to it supposedly lay through a quarry of building stone, the extraction of which began in the 70s near Orlenok on a high edge in the lower reaches of the Bol.
Route scheme
Skalniki area st. Podkamennaya
The most famous and visited from the eastern side of the station. Podkamennaya Crow Stone, Stone Shakhtai and White Church; on the west side - Pharaoh and Leo.
Raven stone
The Raven Stone is the closest to the station and, perhaps, the most "sporty" rock in the area. The name determined the similarity of the most expressive sculptural aspect of the front and the highest part of the outlier with a bird's head
Unlike other rocks, Vorona is a single narrow oblong massive block-monolith of granite-togneisses with a length of more than 100 m and a height in the lowest northern part of no more than 15 m on an unexpressed wooded rise. To the south, this wedge-shaped body in plan and profile is not only a few expands, but also doubles its height to 35 m.
Route scheme
Mine Stone
It is located about one and a half kilometers from the Crow Stone in the northeast direction, but there is no "connection" between them in the form of a path. The remnant has the shape of a conical tower of light color, tapering upwards and topped with a metal triangulation signal. Apparently, due to its appearance and color among tourists, this Stone is called the White Church, however, according to the maps, the Church is located further to the east.
Route scheme
Due to its miniature size, the Shakhtai stone is not of sports interest, but it is a popular excursion object, and the first (legitimate!) Desire is to climb to its top. However, this is both difficult and unsafe.
White church
If the first, near ridge, is three adjacent towers 15-20 m high with massive socles separated by deep breaks, then the second ridge, spaced from the first by about 300 m, is a narrow massif of granite gneisses rising to the south and ending narrow, with steep walls, tower - the same as in the first ridge.
Collapsed masonry outlier
Pharaoh and Cleopatra
From the rocks of the area of Art. This podkamennaya group of two stones near the Kultuk tract was known even before the construction and commissioning of the railway line due to intensive logging.
a lion
Although the Irkut slope of the Olkhinsky plateau behind the Kultuk tract is lined with still not overgrown clearings of timber passages, however, due to the inaccessibility and remoteness from settlements and communication routes on the Transsib section of Podkamennaya-st. Deep, the absence of such dominants as outliers with "sporting characteristics" definitely remains outside the tourist interests.
The lion is an outlier, characteristic of the Olkhinsky plateau, in the form of a stepped rocky ridge up to 60 m long, oriented from north to south and crowned in the southern part with a tower massif with a large ledge, which, even without any imagination, can see the head of an animal lying at rest.
Route scheme
Kudlin stones
The further along the railway from the industrial centers of the Angara region, the less known are the visited rocky outcrops of the Olkhinsky plateau.
The further along the railway from the industrial centers of the Angara region, the less known are the visited rocky outcrops of the Olkhinsky plateau.
Here are the Kudlin stones, clearly visible from the windows of trains in the east at the entrance to the station. The deep ones are almost unknown in the sports environment; excursions of schoolchildren only occasionally visit them.
Five brothers
