My flight back to Ulaanbaatar from Ulgii was, thankfully, uneventful. I spent one day getting myself in order, getting my trusty LandCruiser back (they gave me the same car again, but a different tent), getting supplies at the State Dept Store, and I was off again. This time I’m headed south to the Gobi Desert. I planned this for last thinking the weather would be warmer while the rest of Mongolia started to freeze. My first stop isn’t really that far from Ulaanbaatar, but it is technically the start of the Gobi, Baga Gazriin Chuluu, which means “rocks in a small place”.

In the middle of all this endless grassland, Baga Gazriin really is a small but fascinating place. I arrived a little late to actually do any exploring, so I just found a secluded spot to set up camp 21 (N 46.210073, E 106.041913) and prepared for tomorrow.

It was pretty cold in Baga Gazriin, but not too bad. I started by exploring the petroglyph site. I searched and searched, but I could not find anything resembling petroglyphs anywhere. It was a nice walk just the same and there was a small ruined monastery(?).

Baga Gazriin also has it’s share of crazy and interesting rock formations like Ikh Gazriin from a few weeks ago. The site is quite a bit smaller, but still beautiful. There was also a cool cave nearby that you can crawl through and come out the other side. It got to be too cramped quarters inside for me, though, so I didn’t go all the way through.

The highlight of Baga Gazriin, however, was hiking up the highest peak in the area, Baga Gazriin Uul (N 46.201401, E 105.995033). After starting and getting about half way up the wrong peak, I eventually found the right way. There’s no signage or actual trail to follow, so it’s a bit of a guessing game, but I made it.

Next, I drove out to see what was described as a theater in a dramatic setting next to the ruins of a 10th century temple and an 18th century palace, Sum Khukh Burd (N 46.154717, E 105.760139). It was a dramatic setting, and it was next to the ruins, but like most things in Mongolia, it looked severely abandoned and neglected. Supposedly they use this place every July during the Naadam festivities, but it looks like it hasn’t been used in years.

After my short visit to Sum Khukh Burd, I went back to Baga Gazriin and set up camp 22 (N 46.195068, E 106.015437) for the night on the south side of the mountains this time.

Checking the weather forecast before leaving Ulaanbaatar, it looked like the weather would be good for my time in the Gobi, with the exception of one random day in the middle. With this in mind, I left Baga Gazriin a day early to my next stop where I could stay in a ger camp. I didn’t want to be in a tent during what was supposedly coming my way.

I followed the highway south until I found my turnoff, made a hard left into the desert for about fifty miles until I reached Tsagaan Suvraga. It was a bit late, so I found Zorigoo’s Ger Camp (N 44.54836, E 105.663438) out in the middle of nothing and checked in. My ger was actually quite comfortable. It was set up like a dorm room, five beds (though I had the place to myself), a stove in the middle filled with camel dung for heat, and a light that you turn on by attaching it to a car battery. Awesome! I cooked myself some dinner, did some reading, and turned in to rest up for tomorrow.

Good thing I left Baga Gazriin and came here because the weather forecast turned out to be accurate. I woke up to snow and holy crap was it COLD!

I have one day to explore Tsagaan Suvraga. It’s 22°F, factor in the 25mph winds and it’s -1°F. Brrrrr! Whatever, off we go!

First up, I drove out a further 25 miles to a petroglyph site (N 44.452099, E 105.975498) I was told about from, Murray, the owner of the guesthouse I stayed at in Tsetserleg a few weeks ago. He gave me a bunch of GPS info about the Gobi that wasn’t in my research, sites, routes, the works. Thanks, Murray! His info was spot on because this petroglyph site was a treasure trove. I bundled myself up to the gills, struggled to stay upright in the intense freezing wind, and nearly lost a couple of fingers to frostbite taking pics, but the petroglyphs were awesome! Here’s a sampling…

The views from the site were pretty incredible as well. Not only did I get to see how remote a location this really is, but I also got to be reminded that I’m the only knucklehead on planet earth willing to come out in this God awful extreme weather to take pictures of f*©#ing petroglyphs!

There was also a cave at Tsagaan Suvraga, but like the cave at Baga Gazriin, this one seemed very cramped quarters and with the four layers of clothes I was wearing I decided not to go in. Instead I headed to the main attraction, the white sand cliffs of Tsagaan Suvraga, and tried not to get blown over the edge by the wind.

The white cliffs at Tsagaan Suvraga are normally best seen at sunrise, but since there was no sun in the morning I settled for late afternoon. The next morning, though, I woke up and while it was still cold, the wind had stopped and the sun was shining. So I went back to the cliffs and got some good morning pics before heading further south.

I drove to Dalanzadgad next, which is sort of considered the gateway to the main tourist track in the Gobi. I had intended to stay in town a couple of nights, grab a shower, eat at a restaurant, the usual, but that didn’t work out. Here’s a bit of current affairs for all of you… every room and every bed, in every guesthouse, hostel, and hotel, in every city in Mongolia is booked by a Russian dude fleeing Russia. No joke! I’ve had conversations with a few that I’ve met along the way and the whole situation is a big mess. Anyway, so I drove out towards the next attraction on my list and checked in at Goviin Urguu Ger Camp (N 43.556712, E 104.033035).

I didn’t get to eat at a restaurant, I cooked inside my ger, but they did have solar powered hot showers. Yesssss!!! And here they light the stove in the ger with coal, which burns very very hot. Let me tell you, that ger was like a sauna turned on full blast. I stripped down to my undies and commenced sweating. And I still had to step outside occasionally to cool off.

Goviin Urguu is conveniently located just off the road to Yoliin Am canyon (N 43.488949, E 104.067108), the next thing on my list. So off I went. Apparently, on that super cold day I spent at Tsagaan Suvraga, this area around Dalanzadgad got hit with even more snow than up there, even though the temps are a bit warmer down here.

I found the canyon easily and started hiking. Even though all the snow makes it look cold, the temperature was really pleasant in the 50’s all day. It was a nice change.

Yoliin Am is really nothing more than just a really pretty ice canyon. The further in you hike, the narrower it gets. And there is ice in this canyon supposedly all year long, even during the blazing hot Gobi summers. The Soviet military used to use Yoliin Am to store meat.

The river in Yoliin Am was mostly frozen all the way through. There were occasional little waterfalls poking through the ice and I saw one section where about an inch of water was flowing OVER the ice, which I’ve never seen before, but was pretty cool to see.

By the end of the day most of the snow had melted and I was looking forward to warmer temps for the rest of my time here. That is why I saved this section for last after all. First, though, I had one more night to sweat out the toxins in my ger/sauna at Goviin Urguu. The next morning, I headed west.

A very long drive out west took me to Khongoriin Els (N 43.796019, E 102.181174). Most of the Gobi that I’ve seen so far, isn’t a sandy desert, but a rocky one. It seems they concentrated all the sand in one place, here. These dunes are about 12km wide and stretch on for about 100km. It’s a really impressive thing to see.

I came here thinking I could just drive up to the dunes, hike up to the top and walk around, but apparently not. The good bit was blocked by a fence of cement pylons that stretched for who knows how many miles across the entire valley (they can do that, but they can’t pave the roads). There’s an entrance where you pay and go on through, but it was closed. So I thought I would just drive up to a different section, but the sand got too thick. I would’ve had to hike through a couple of miles of sand to get to the sand. I think most people come here and book camel treks to the dunes, but I didn’t have time as it was already late in the day and quite frankly, I’ve hiked through sand before. So I admired the sand swirls from as close as I could get and marveled at how it all got here in this one relatively small spot, and then moved on.

After driving through a beautiful small mountain pass, the desert opened up and it was just a lot of open, flat driving. Although with the grating on the roads it was still difficult to get over 10 or 15mph. I drove until I couldn’t take the pounding anymore and set up camp 23 (N 44.023094, E 102.99845) in the middle of nothing.

The next day was a busy one. I continued further northeast to another really amazing petroglyph site, Khavstgait (N 43.904155, E 103.52709)

Thankfully the weather was warmer than the last petroglyph site. There’s a short, but steep hike up the mountain, which is just littered with really cool petroglyphs. I had GPS coordinates of the major concentrations of them mapped out, but I still found tons of random ones just wandering around up there. The views of the valley were pretty amazing as well. Here’s just a sampling…

It took me forever to get back down the mountain because I kept finding random petroglyphs that I didn’t see on the way up. I did finally make it down though. A quick lunch and I was on my way north about thirty miles to the number one destination in the Gobi, Bayanzag (N 44.144477, E 103.723053).

Bayanzag, also known as the Flaming Cliffs, is arguably the most well known and most visited site in the Gobi. It was probably the highlight of my time here, that’s for sure. Those red sand cliffs glowing in the sun are stunning.

I was told the best time to see the Flaming Cliffs was sunset and I was not disappointed. However, it also meant I couldn’t drive very far or waste any time finding a place to camp. Luckily, I spied some miniature flaming cliffs to the east of the main ones while I was hiking around, so I made my way there and set up camp 24 (N 44.123401, E 103.755966) for the night.

Touring the Gobi requires many many miles of driving. Like A LOT!

After getting away from the Bayanzag area the terrain really opened up and that annoying grating was suddenly gone. Nothing but flat and mostly straight road for about 80-90 miles. I actually got up to around 50mph for most of it, when the camels weren’t in the way, of course.

I felt like I was absolutely flying through the desert on that stretch. I reached my final stop, Ongiin Khiid (N 45.340159, E 104.006187) around lunchtime. Ongiin Khiid was an 18th century monastery complex that once had 28 temples, 4 Buddhist universities, and housed over one thousand monks. Thanks to Stalin’s purges in 1937, though, the complex was completely destroyed and the monks were all either murdered or conscripted into the Soviet military.

The Soviets were not messing around when they destroyed this place! They did an unbelievably thorough job. To this day there’s really nothing left, just one small rebuilt temple and only a few monks, though I didn’t see a single soul while I was there.

Just a short stroll along the river and I found the Golden Buddha on top of a small mountain and climbed up for a Buddha’s eye view of the valley.

Ongiin Khiid was the last site on my list, but I still had a lot of desert driving to get back to Ulaanbaatar. I drove east until it started getting late and set up my final camp in Mongolia, Camp 25 (N 45.077923, E 104.830616).

Aside from my very cold day in Tsagaan Suvraga, I was very grateful for all the good weather. I was also, finally, able to enjoy sitting outside for a while in the evenings looking at the stars. I even saw what I think was a meteor falling to earth one night. Awesome!

In the morning, after enjoying the sunrise for a bit, I drove the rest of the way back to Ulaanbaatar to shower, wash clothes, and get ready to fly back home in two days. This has been, by far, the most difficult trip I’ve ever done. The logistics of car rental, camping, food prep, horrible luck with weather, illness, navigating with GPS that worked less than half the time (something about interference from the ionosphere above Mongolia), and trying to find beds amongst a wave of Russian migration was challenging to say the least. And let’s not forget all the crazy off road driving. I kept track of the mileage and I drove that trusty LandCruiser 4,826 miles over the last ten weeks, and only around 10-15% of it was paved! Wow! Anyway, thanks for hanging with me and I’ll be back soon with the next adventure…