In the central part of the mountainous Crimea, at the foot of Babugan, on the Yaila and partly on the southern slope of the Main Ridge, the lands of the Crimean Nature Reserve are located. This is the largest protected natural area on the peninsula (33.4 thousand hectares).

The Crimean nature reserve is closed for free visiting. To get acquainted with it, you can go to a very interesting, tastefully and scientifically authentic decorated Museum of Nature in Alushta. Its expositions tell about the history of the reserve, about the current work of its employees in the conservation of flora and fauna, about the research activities of several generations of scientists. Well-made dioramas reflect the life of protected forests, flora on mountain plateaus, show the uniquely beautiful landscapes of the mountain-forest Crimea. Excursions through the halls of the Museum are accompanied by bird singing, recorded on film in the spring forest.
Next to the museum, a 6-hectare arboretum has been opened, which presents 160 species of trees and shrubs and 170 species of herbaceous plants. Animals and birds live in enclosures and nests - the most interesting inhabitants of the Crimean forest.
At present, in agreement with the reserve, organized excursions are being conducted to the territory of the reserve itself. Dense forests of oak, beech and pine occupy almost 95% of the reserve. Only separate areas of yayla and a few glades are treeless. The flora of the reserve consists of almost 1150 species (44% of the total flora in the Crimea), including a number of plants endemic to the Crimea (Steven's maple, Bieberstein's sapling, Yaylin sainfoin, ash-loving onion, etc.). In the forest you can meet giant trees: oak, yew, alder... There are more than 200 such giants in the farm. deer, roe deer, mountain fox, badger and other mammals live in the forests - 40 species in total. Mouflon from Corsica, squirrel from Altai, wild boar from the Far East have been successfully acclimatized here. Many rare animals and plants are listed in the Red Books. The pride of the protected forests is the Crimean deer. This is the largest and most beautiful animal of the mountainous Crimea. The number of animals - deer, roe deer, wild boars, mouflons - is maintained at a certain level in order to preserve forest land.
Within the reserve economy on a mountain slope near a waterfall named after N.A. Golovkinsky, a researcher of the Crimea, is the only native site of growth of the Crimean birch. Each of these northern beauties is a living heiress of a distant ice age, when vast snowfields formed on the yayla in a harsh climate. Gradually, as the weather warmed, the birch began to die out and survived only in the form of small groves in the most inaccessible, shaded and humid places of the Main mountain range. Strange as it may seem, the first birch in the Crimea was discovered not by a botanist, but by the great poet A.S.

To enter the reserve, you must obtain permission and pay for tickets. This can be done in the directorate. In dry weather, access to the reserve above the Kozma-Demianovsky Monastery may be closed.