A Trip to the Edge of the World: Why One Traveler Says This Russian Plateau Feels Like Another Planet

Russian travel blogger Mark Yeremin recently returned from the Putorana Plateau in Krasnoyarsk Krai, and he can’t stop talking about it. In a post on the platform Zen, he described the remote region as a place where modern comforts simply don’t exist—no Wi-Fi, no roads, and no cell service. But that’s exactly the point.

“You get something you can’t buy, download, or subscribe to,” Yeremin wrote. “The feeling that you’re standing on the edge of the world, looking at a landscape that hasn’t changed in 250 million years.”

Water is the main sculptor here, he explained. Over millennia, it has carved canyons into basalt, filled tectonic cracks, and created a network of 25,000 lakes. At lakes Lama and Keta, the water is so clear—visibility reaches 11 meters—that standing on a cliff makes the bottom look knee-deep. “Then you realize it’s dozens of meters of pure glacial water,” he marveled.

Getting there is an expedition in itself. Visitors fly by helicopter from Norilsk or take a boat across Lake Lama. No roads, no GPS. “This isn’t the kind of tourism where you get a breakfast buffet and a rooftop pool,” Yeremin said. “It’s a backpack, a tent, bear tracks on the shore, dinner of freshly caught taimen, and a night sky packed with stars.”

Earlier, veteran traveler Alexei Kotelnikov, with 40 years of experience, recommended other offbeat Russian destinations, including the Anabar Plateau, known for its eerily empty plains and pristine waterfalls.