The park fills the west side of the "X" where the borders of Kazakhstan, Russia, China, and Mongolia meet.

The highest peak in Siberia (Belukha Mountain, 4,506 m (14,783 ft)), is on the Russian border in the Katun Range.

[1] The park is in Katonkaragay District of East Kazakhstan Region, 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) southeast of the capital city of Astana.

These ecoregions exhibit very high diversity because they are at the biogeographic divide between Siberia to the north and the cold deserts of Central Asia to the south.

In January 2021, a camera trap in the Katon-Karagay National Park captured video of a rare snow leopard (Panthera uncia) in the Altai mountains.