From Ikh Gazriin Chuluu I drove north back to Ulaanbaatar for one night. I’ve officially ended my loop of eastern Mongolia and now it’s time to start my loop of the north central region of Mongolia. I left Ulaanbaatar headed for the Khögnö Khan Uul Nature Reserve. On the way and due west about 130ish miles from Ulaanbaatar, I stopped at the ruins of Tsogt Taijiin Tsagaan Balgas (N 48.023346, E 104.351773).

This was the home of the mother of the 17th century prince Tsogt who fought against the Chinese. Now it’s just a really cool ruined castle out here in the middle of Mongolia. It also made a good spot for lunch.

Further west just a bit past the little town of Dashinchilen is another small, but impressive ruin, Khar Bukhiin Balgas (N 47.88586, E 103.896637).

This fortress belonged to the Kitan between the 10th and 12th centuries. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t resist climbing all over ancient ruins like this.

After exploring Khar Bukhiin Balgas I went back to Dashinchilen for gas then meandered through town and headed south through what turned out to be an incredibly beautiful valley surrounded by mountains.

I also found what I think are more deer stones, though I couldn’t see any evidence of the deer petroglyphs on them. Whatever they are, the locals honored them with prayer flags.

I kept driving south until it came time to start thinking about setting up camp. I found a truly epic place for camp 9 (N 47.538531, E 103.797854) up on this rocky hill with astounding views.

After a really pleasant dinner I hiked up to the other side of the ridge for even more astounding views. Wow! Camp 9 may be the best one yet.

The good vibes at camp 9 didn’t last, however. Everything was done and ready for bed. I was sitting outside enjoying the warm evening, reading and planning for the next day when suddenly a really strong cold wind blew in. Black clouds were heading towards me bringing with them a lot of rain and a lot of lightening! There wasn’t any time to think about it. After an extremely short debate, I took everything out of the tent, then took the tent down in record time, threw everything hastily in the back of the LandCruiser, drove down the hill a ways for lower ground just as absolute hell descended upon my beautiful camp 9, and I slept in the back seat… and I didn’t get struck by lightening. Whew! It was a pretty terrifying night, though.

I slept a lot better than I thought I would in the back of that LandCruiser, honestly. The rain and lightening were gone by morning. The weather definitely took a turn for the frigidly winter type cold, though. Brrrrr! I packed up everything that was thrown hastily in the car the night before and set on my way to Erdiin Khambiin Khiid.

Erdiin Khambiin Khiid is a fairly small collection of monastery ruins that have been partially rebuilt at the foot of these beautiful mountains.

The best part of the day, though, was hiking up a couple of miles into the hanging canyon above Erdiin Khambiin Khiid.

Eventually, I came up into an amazing hanging canyon dotted with the ruins of Ovgon Khiid. This ancient monastery was apparently built in the 17th century and then destroyed shortly after by Zungar Galdan Bochigtu, who was a rival of Mongolias Buddhist leader and artist, Zanabazar.

Regardless of the history or the ruins, this is a really dramatic landscape and it was a really pleasant and beautiful hike.

On the way down I got some more incredible views of Erdiin Khambiin Khiid.

And ran into some horses enjoying the day as well. They’re not nearly as afraid of me when I’m walking as opposed to when I’m driving. Haha!

After my amazing hike I continued south until I reached the main highway, turned west until I got to the sand dunes, Mongol Els. The locals call it mini Gobi. I did get out and walk around the dunes a bit, but to be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed. I’ll be seeing lots of sand dunes at the real Gobi in a few weeks. They did have camels, though. Yay!

After Mongol Els I continued on about 30 miles west and am already at my next stop. I really debated where to cut this post off and where to start the next one. Since this one seems to be getting a bit long, I’ll cut it here and you’ll just have to wait a few days for the next one. There’s more pavement and the sites are a little closer together here in the northern region of the country so my pace will be getting a little quicker too. Until the next post…