Blue Lake is a small spring-fed lake in the Karmaskalinsky District of Bashkortostan, beside the village of Novomusino, 40–50 km from Ufa. Its Bashkir name, Zäñgär kül, means just that: blue lake. The republic's government declared it a hydrological natural monument in 2003.
Springs rise from the lake bed, and the swirls they leave are visible on the surface. The water stays at about +5 to +6 °C all year, and that is the lake's defining feature: it is icy in summer and does not freeze in winter. A stream flows out of the lake into the Uzen River.
The lake itself is tiny. The register of protected areas gives a diameter of about 15 metres; other sources describe it as elongated, roughly 34 by 15 metres. The sources disagree on the depth as well: about 8 metres in the register, 5.5 in guidebooks, 6 to 7 according to the researcher Yuri Sokolov. Rumour has it that the lake is bottomless and that a cave lies under its bed; Sokolov refutes both.
White cliffs stand above the water. Meadows lie around the lake; the slopes carry broadleaf forest with patches of pine, and rocky steppe.
The banks have been reinforced, and there are walkways and a viewing platform. Since late 2023 a private bathhouse complex with a cafe and a car park has been operating by the water, and weekends are busy. The natural monument's rules ban construction and driving up to the lake; the complex by the water has been built all the same.
Fishing is out: almost nothing lives in water this cold. Drinking it is not advised, because it carries a lot of mineral salts. As for swimming, the district administration's website says the rules forbid it. In practice people do go in, and then the things to keep in mind are the cold and the unexpected depth.
By car from Ufa, take the Orenburg highway to the Novomusino turn-off, then about a kilometre of dirt road; the whole drive takes under an hour. There is a barrier at the entrance and a car park. Without a car, take bus No. 120 from the Southern Bus Station to Novomusino and walk the remaining two kilometres or so.
