Olenyi Ruchyi Nature Park

Olenyi Ruchyi is the first nature park of Sverdlovsk Oblast, created in 1999 in the lower reaches of the Serge river between Nizhniye Sergi and the settlement of Arakaevо, a hundred kilometres south-west of Yekaterinburg. The park now covers nearly 189 square kilometres plus a 105-square-kilometre buffer. The park's emblem is the 'Red Deer' rock painting on the Pisanitsa cliff, about three thousand years old. Traces of humans here go back at least 14 millennia. Along the river stand rocks with telling names — Svetlaya, Dyrovaty Kamen (the Drinking Horse), the Frog; the banks hide the Druzhba, Arakaevskaya and Mshistaya caves, a karst bridge and sinkholes. The park is equipped for hiking: the Robert Posta trail runs along the Serge through suspension bridges and boardwalks. Here also stand sculptures by the Swedish artist Lena Edvall — 'The Elk' and the 'Angel of United Hope', placed after the 2004 Madrid bombings. The park's nature is contrasted: over 900 vascular plant species, relic steppe slopes beside taiga forests, elk and bears — and in 2024 newts were recorded here again. Annual visits exceed one hundred thousand; come early in the morning or on weekdays.