Buiratau National Park

Buyratau State National Natural Park (2011): Steppe, Granite Hills And Shallow Lakes In Central Kazakhstan, With Migrating Birds And Steppe Fauna. A Little Visited Park, Known Mostly To Astana Day Trippers And Bird Watchers. · Yereymentau, Akmola

Buiratau National Park is a little-visited park of upland steppe, granite hills and shallow lakes in the Yereymentau district of Akmola region, about 200 km east of Astana. It became a state national park in 2011. The landscape is open, wide and quiet: rolling grassland, low rocky hills and lakes that draw migrating birds in spring and autumn. Almost no tourism infrastructure exists, so this is for self-sufficient people with a 4WD or a sturdy car, a local driver, or a bird-watching interest. The base is the town of Yereymentau, which has basic hotels, shops and a market. The area also has a wind-power field and wind plant, which you may see on the horizon. Honest advice: it is little documented, so confirm trails, fees, routes and what is open locally. Worth a full day if you are already near Astana or Pavlodar road; not worth a special trip otherwise. Winters are brutal and summers hot and buggy.

Upland steppe and granite-hill park in the Yereymentau district of Akmola, about 200 km east of Astana, with the Buiratau hills, small lakes and a steppe-and-bird landscape, Yereymentau, Akmola, Kazakhstan

No fixed gate hours are known here, so confirm locally. The park is open country with few formal entrances, and in practice it is visited in daylight, mainly from late April to early October. The park office, where one exists, usually keeps ordinary working hours on weekdays and may be closed at weekends. There are almost no cafes, shops or lodgings inside the park, so what is open is mostly in Yereymentau town. In winter, snow, ice and temperatures of minus 30 C and below make tracks unsafe for ordinary cars, and many routes are effectively closed. Tracks have no lighting, so be back in town before dark.

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