Arzakan-Meghradzor Sanctuary

Arzakan-Meghradzor Sanctuary covers 13,532 hectares of the Hrazdan forest, on the eastern slopes of the Tsaghkunyats mountains in Kotayk province. Set up in 1971. It runs from 1,600 to 2,100 meters elevation, across the basins of the Dalar and Marmarik rivers.

The reserve is one of 27 large protected areas in Armenia, and it carries an IUCN category IV designation. Its founding purpose was direct: protect roe deer, Ussurian spotted deer, brown bear, and Caucasian black grouse, species that had come under pressure elsewhere in the country.

Rarer still are the relict animals also found in these woods — survivors from older ecological periods, rare enough to be listed in Armenia's Red Book of threatened species.

There are no marked trails or visitor facilities here. Ask in Tsaghkadzor before you go.

The sanctuary sits in Kotayk province, on the eastern slopes of the Tsaghkunyats mountains near Tsaghkadzor, roughly 40 kilometers north of Yerevan as the crow flies.

Elevation here runs from 1,600 to 2,100 meters, so snow likely lingers into spring and conditions stay cooler than in the Ararat valley even in summer.