I broke into Siberia's TOP SECRET Mountain Range to find THIS…

How did I end up in the thicket of the deepest Siberia? Part of Siberia that the Soviet Union kept top secret and removed from the maps. It all started when I took a Trans-Siberian train in Russia. One of my stops was in the Trans-Baikal region where my friends invited me to go camping in the mountains. They told me they want to reach an extraordinary natural phenomenon, something you would never expect to find in Siberia. That sounded intriguing, so I'm joining. Our starting point is a town of Novaya Chara and we are about to head to one of the most inaccessible places of Russia. Quick ladder repair and we're back on the road. But in most of Siberia there are no roads, only directions, so it was time to meet Dmitry and his swamp buggy. It's Russian roads. Yeah, my favorite kind. Welcome to the wild mighty taiga and here is our hardcore team. Let us introduce ourselves. I'm Sergei. I'm from Moscow. Traveling tests my physical ability. Hello, my name is Anna. I'm from Moscow. I just found this place on Instagram and was inspired by all these colors. My name is Nikita. I'm from Moscow. I joined this party because I love a lot of food, but I don't want to be plump. Kadar is the best way to lose my calories. I'm Garrett. I'm from Idaho in the U.S. and I wanted to come to Siberia to get to know myself a little more and just explore some beautiful nature. I've always been so inspired by this part of the world. And this is me. I love challenges. Finding a hidden place in Siberia? Yeah, challenge accepted. Our journey takes us across the Kadar mountain range. Kadar is often called a mountain island because it rises sharply from endless taiga, rivers and swamps. It was one of the last major mountain ranges in Russia to be explored and mapped due to its isolation and lack of access. Steep mountain passes, fast icy rivers, frequent weather changes and wildlife that includes reindeer, wolves and of course brown bears. Looks like we're in for one serious hike. Our trip took place in September, a beautiful time when the leaves get colors and it's also the time when it starts to get quite cold in Siberia. But mother nature always had gifts for us to make us stay warm and well fed. The Siberian wilderness and our team's broken English became the perfect motivation for our American to start learning Russian. Can you read this? Hang in there comrade, you didn't choose the easiest language or the easiest trail. Something about the house. Just read it. Which you can. I think it says I don't know. And then? So the words that you learned today. So hard for me to remember. The Kadar mountains region was closed and strictly secret in the Soviet Union. In 1947 uranium ores were discovered in the Chara basin. Shortly thereafter uranium mining was organized and a prison labor camp part of the Gulag system was built nearby in the valley. Kadar became part of a secret supply chain that contributed to the creation of the Soviet Union's first atomic bomb and the whole area was classified and removed from maps. All the way from the US and we arrived in Gulag camp. It was a concentration camp. What do you think? I think it's a travesty that it existed. However, if I was going to choose a Gulag I would choose this one to work in. Why? Prisoners worked in complete isolation while the surrounding taiga and swamps served as natural barriers making escape nearly impossible. This chapter of history remained top secret for many years and is still known today only in fragments. What is your favorite Russian word? Kadar means a stone wall in the Evenki language which perfectly describes the local landscape. The region is home to more than 40 glaciers and is one of the most remote areas of modern glaciation on earth far from any ocean. Within the Kadar national park there are huts that provide shelter along the remote routes. We decided to take advantage of this small comfort whenever possible. This is umyvalnik and I will put water here. What would you use it for? I would use it for feeding birds. How? So they can come and have some water. But why there is this thing under? Maybe it's for feeding dogs or pigs or deer. How will you feed deer? They'll come up and they lick this. Oh you're so cute. This is our sink. For washing dishes or what? You can wash dishes, also teeth or face. Oh that's nice. So you take the leaves and... This is our house for today. Here we see lots of notes from other tourists that visited. There is even a flag of my hometown region Perm. And Nikita is always hungry. He's trying to find food. You're right. Everyone went to sleep but this student is still on the Russian alphabet. How is it going? How are you doing? Everything is good. The weather is good. Only the water is cold. It's more beautiful in autumn. The leaves are so green. Somewhere yellow, somewhere red. Russian car. When I said that our destination was hard to reach, I should have said seriously hard. But after breaking through the thicket, we finally saw the desert in the area of permafrost in the middle of taiga forest. And we were not dreaming, the Chara desert is the real sand dunes in the heart of Siberia. It was formed during the last ice age. Back then a large glacial lake existed in the Chara basin and when it melted powerful meltwater streams sorted and deposited huge amounts of sand. Over thousands of years strong local winds shaped these deposits into dunes up to 30 meters high creating a desert. The world's northernmost desert in the area of long snowy winters where temperatures can drop below minus 40 Celsius. This is Siberia after all. Thank you Elina for this video and put your thumbs up. My name is Gared. You know goodbye? It's a goodbye. Who will come after us will also find their way.