The rock walls here are the colour of rust and dried blood, and the road squeezes between them through a gap barely wider than a truck. The Altai people and Russian travellers alike have called it the Red Gate, Krasnye Vorota, and it is the dramatic entrance to the road climbing from the Chuysky Trakt at Aktash up onto the Ulagan Plateau. The colour comes from iron and from cinnabar, the mercury ore that was mined near Aktash in the Soviet period, and the rocks glow most vividly in the low light of early morning and late afternoon.
Aktash, about ten kilometres away, is a small, somewhat tired settlement that grew up around the mercury mine and the road. Beyond the Red Gate, the landscape changes completely. The road climbs onto a high plateau of larch forest, alpine meadows and lakes, with snowy peaks in the distance and the air growing cooler with every bend. This is the territory of the Telengits, one of the Turkic peoples of the Altai, and you will see their wooden houses, horses and sometimes yurts as you climb.
The riding is the main attraction. The road from Aktash through the Red Gate to Ulagan is narrow, with tight bends and steep sections, and it has been progressively paved, though stretches of gravel, washboard and potholes remain. Beyond Ulagan, the road continues to the Katu-Yaryk pass, where it plunges down into the Chulyshman valley in one of the most famous descents in Russia, a series of steep, loose hairpins carved into the cliff. Check the current state of the road before you go, especially after rain.
Services are limited. Aktash has fuel, a shop or two and simple cafes, and is the last reliable place to fill up before heading up onto the plateau. Ust-Ulagan, about forty kilometres further on, has some services, but beyond that, the Chulyshman valley is remote, with only small villages and guesthouses. Carry extra fuel if you plan to go all the way, along with water and food. Stop just beyond the gate, turn back, and look at the red rocks framing the valley below; it is one of those places that photographs never quite capture.