Our destination today is a visit to the the largest national park in Mongolia and do a bit of of hiking.
Eclectic breakfast- fried egg and peanut butter/jelly muffin!
On the road again!
Not much vegetation here for grazing.
I was really surprised to see sheep/goats this far south, where is grazing must be difficult.
The scenery around us.
One of several statues atop hills in the area. I was surprised to hear there are bears here.
Pretty bleak surroundings.
Khanbogd ger camp is tonight’s location. We checked in early and then went sightseeing after lunch.
Yes, there was a fence around our camp! Mongolians love fences.
What this area looks like in the winter.
Wow! Civilization coffee?
Quite modern dining hall.
Our ger. Yes, I hit my head on this one!
The Khanbogd ger camp. They all look pretty much the same. This one had 30 gers.
My Mongolia door picture to add to my collection.
Another very good vegetable soup for lunch.
Yolyn Am is a deep and narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains of southern Mongolia. It is located in the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park, the largest national park in Mongolia, covering 27,000 sq km. The valley we will be visiting lies between high cliffs and we may be lucky to see some remaining snow/ice which can achieve depths of several meters during winters, a bit of irony since we are deep in the middle of a desert.
On the way to our hike we stopped to visit the local nature museum that featured dioramas of stuffed animals that live in Mongolia. I was surprised at the variety which included snow leopards and even the rare Gobi bear.
Inside the natural history museum.
The bearded vulture, named yol in Mongolian, gave its name to the valley we will be hiking.
Ibex wild goat are common in Mongolia.
The wild Pallas cat, known as the original “grumpy” cat. It lives in these mountain areas.
There are snow leopards in the area.
The camel on the right is a wild camel; the other is the common domestic one.
Some real dinosaur eggs.
The Gobi Bear is endangered.
Some petrified wood located outside the museum.
On our hike, led by Maggie, we learned a bit more about what “Mongolian time” was. Maggie said our hike was going to only be about 45 minutes. Well, that was a bit of an exaggeration as it was about two hours before we returned to our vehicles and I had recorded 15,041 steps for the day! I was suspicious of Maggie’s estimate of time and/or distances from that day forward! Having said that I can say it was worth it as the scenery was spectacular and we did manage to see a bit of remaining ice deep in the canyon and see several cute pikas (small mammal that looks like an overgrown mouse) that live in the area.
The rough dirt road into the Yol valley.
Wild juniper grows here. It is harvested for use in the Buddhist temples.
You walk or you ride. Maggie made us walk!
Small herd of yak came sauntering by.
Some people seeing the canyon the easy way!
Maggie leading us on the hike.
We are at a pretty high elevation here in the valley.
A small stream, with ice cold water, runs through the valley.
A very small waterfall along the trail.
Only a few wildflowers in the area.
Rock cairn where people leave rocks. Yes, I added one.
Yes, pikas are cute! They are also very fast. It was hard getting a good picture.
The scenery is pretty spectacular here in the valley.
Hand stone carvings by a local artist who was seated on the trail in the canyon. I bought one as a souvenir.
The local rock carver selling his art along the trail.
The canyon narrows as we continue our search for ice.
Our turn around spot-finally! It is mid-July and there was a bit of ice left.
Returning to the parking lot after our 45 minute(ha!) hike.
Cute kids in the parking lot.
Driving back from the valley hike.
After all that walking I deserved a cold beer.
Tasty squash soup as a starter.
Finally a different dinner, but still with beef. It reminded me of the British shepherd’s pie. It was tasty.
Scott took an after dinner hike to the top of a nearby hill to capture these sunset pictures. There are several animal statues on hills surrounding this valley.
Our ger camp from the “goat” hill.
Needless to say after all that walking I slept very well that night!
