Talmen lake
Talmen lake is located in the Altay Mountains in the valley of the river Ozernaya in the west part of the Katun mountain ridge. Talmen is the largest lake in the basin of the Upper Katun. The water color has a slight muddy shade because of the lake's glacier delivery of Talmenka river. The lake is in the centre of Asia, in Altay Mountains at the height of 1570 m above the sea level. The lake is 5420 long and 1080 m wide. The eastern shore is quite flat overgrown by larch forest with cedar mixture. The western shore is steep with the larch-tree light forest and high-grass alpine meadows. The northern shore is a low marshy valley of Talmenka river.
There are several version of the lake's origin name. The first one says that when pathfinders were the first to reach the lake's shores they were surprised by the number of lenok fish which they took as taimen by mistake. The name of that fish taimen gave the lake its present name - Talmen or Taimen. According to another version offered by the old-timers of Tichon'kaya village (Ust-Koksa region) the lake's name is connected with the fact that some time ago there lived a bushranger named "Talmen" or "Talmen'". Local inhabitants remember their ancestors' words: "Let's go fishing to Talmen".
In Talmen lake there is still a large population of grayling fish, taimen and dog-fish. It attracts great attention to tourists all over the world who prefer alpine fishing and recreaction in the mountains.
Choose the following tours to visit Talmen lake:
Horseback riding tour "To the lake Talmen" 10 days/9 nights
