I haven't written anything about my trip to Karelia for a long time.
I want to remind my readers and subscribers that at the beginning of August this year I was on vacation with my children in Karelia. This region of the Russian Federation, located along the Finnish border. Today I want to tell you about one of the tourist attractions of this region. This is the RUSKEALA MOUNTAIN PARK.
This place is so popular that separate trains run here from Moscow, St. Petersburg, and from Sortavala. A retro train runs from the last city, driven by an old steam locomotive.


Our company came to this place in two cars. I didn't expect to see this. Imagine - a huge Parking lot and almost no empty seats. We had to drive between the rows before I could park my car. To buy tickets to the park, it was necessary to stand in a long queue at the ticket office. We were not prepared for this turn of events. But it turned out that tickets can be purchased online, which we did. The only drawback is that you cannot buy tickets online for an excursion to the cave and for a boat trip along the marble quarry.
I took photos of the parking lot, but for some reason, I lost these pictures. it's a shame.



So, we entered the territory of the park. To get to the marble quarry, you need to go left through a small cave, and then we go out to the trolley descent.
We decided to make a trip along the cables over the quarry to the other side of it.









Well... I managed to partially photograph the kids before the start. My older children. Go ahead!















Well, friends, we all flew safely over this quarry with water. I will say that I was a little anxious at some point. I suddenly thought that I could hit the finishing post. I can't control my movements during the movement, because I was rotated by inertia around the axis. It's not very nice not to see what's ahead.
On the opposite side of the quarry, there is an area where there are souvenir shops and cafes where you can eat. Or you can just sit on the benches and enjoy life, just look at the quarry, at the bustle of people.



I bought some souvenirs, we ate some sandwiches with local delicious trout and we decided to take a walk through the territory of the mountain park. We met 2 more quarries filled with water and everywhere people were riding on various boats on the water. There were a lot of people, but somehow it was still free and spacious. We even went to the bank of the river, which flows next to the park. I will say that there were waterfalls upstream, which we went to after visiting the park.







I really love fishing. I would love to try fishing here. I have several boats at home. We decided that we would not ride on the water, especially since fishing was waiting for us the next day and we would go boating all day.



In Karelia, you can find many wooden statues, figures of people, animals, and some fairy-tale characters. That's what an interesting Pegasus can be seen in this park. This is a wooden miracle horse with wings.



Do you remember, friends, that at the very beginning I said that I bought tickets online? But you will not be able to buy a ticket for an excursion to the cave online. This can only be done at the ticket office at the entrance to the park. It's strange, but it's true. I think that the owners of the park should fix this problem.
This is the entrance to the cave we didn't go to. I said - we will visit there next time! Maybe I'll just take a trip from St. Petersburg by train to this place. If I have time for that.





After the cave, we came across another quarry with water on the way. And people go boating on it too.







When I was in Finland with my daughter, we visited a natural national park and took a 5 km walk around the lake. In the description of that park, it was said that they wanted to show people the wild untouched nature. Here, in Ruskeala, this wildlife was everywhere.



Suddenly we came to a quarry where there was no water because it was higher than the rest of the quarries. We came from the upper side, and all the people entered the quarry from below. We never look for easy ways. We are going in interesting ways! We didn't even know what was waiting for us in this park. And it's much more interesting.
I want to say that when we were walking along a forest path, we heard a locomotive whistle. It was distributed with some frequency. We wanted to look at the locomotive, but we were prevented by the forest, which was located between the road we were walking on and the railway tracks. And it was impossible to leave the park, otherwise, we risked not getting into it again, if only to buy a ticket again.














Probably, 7 dwarfs who helped Snow White live in this house. But I didn't look there. Joke. This is a holiday home where you can cook your own food, barbecue.




What's it? Is this the post office? Probably, you can send a greeting card from here.
In 2019, I sent myself a Christmas greeting card from the Vatican. Apparently, this is something from the same series.


Well, friends. After this quarry, we walked a little more towards the railway station and then headed for the exit. We also wanted to visit the waterfalls that we found near Mountain Park. And I will try to tell you about them in the near future.

@apnigrich