MONGOLIA GOBI DESERT TOUR

TOUR ITINERARY  

DAY 1 ULAANBAATAR CITY 

Arrive in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. You’ll be greeted at the airport and escorted to 3* hotel. City tour: National History Museum, Gandan Monastery, National Mongolian traditional show concert.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-Free L-Restaurant D-Restaurant Hotel*** 
• Transport: 4WD JEEP   

DAY 2 TSAGAAN SUVARGA 

Drive to Tsagaan Suvarga. Visit Tsagaa Suvarga / White Stupa / National Park. The scarp of Tsagaan Suvarga is located in Ulziit soum of Dundgovi province. It is interesting to see the sheer slope, facing east, which from a distance seems to be the ruins of the ancient city. The cliff is 30 meters high and 100 meters wide. Over thousands of years the wind has created this amazing structure. It is sheer slope and was an old seabed with sedimentary structure created by millions years and the different colors of the ground represent different times.
The formation is over 50m in its highest point and continues 400m. There is 2 famous sites for explore. First one is a interesting cave which is 70 m long Khevtee Bosoo agui (Lie and Stand Cave) and not so far from the site. Second option is exploring Del uul (Back Mountain) for seeing rock drawings of Bronze Age. This is considered to be largest site of Rock drawings in Central Asia.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-hotel L-picnic D-camp Tourist Camp 
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 450km   

DAY 3 YOL VALLEY NATIONAL PARK 

Drive to Yol Valley National Park. It is comprised of 27 million hectares in area. The land of caves and mountains is 2,400-2,600 meters above sea level. The Khongor Sand Dune is one of the Mongolian longest sand dunes and continues 180 kilometers from northwest into southeastern in Sevrei and Bayandalai sumsof Umnugobi province.  Zuunsaikhan, Dundsaikhan, Baruunsaikhan, Bayandalai, Zuulun, Sevrei and Nemegt of the Gobi-Altai mountain grows the special flower and plants. Southern cool plants and Central Asian dry plants are found in this mountains range. The area is rich in Fauna. There are mountain sheep, goats, leopards, black-tailed marten of cliffs, lynx, wildcats, squirrels, white gazelles and other mammal animals.

Yol Valley (Vulture Valley): is situated in east north part of Zuun Saikhan mountain. This area has been main attraction of tourists for many decades. Very wide at the entrance, it narrows gradually into a remarkable gorge. A spring two or three kilometers long winds its way through the defile and in July, freezing into a thick corridor of ice that stretches along a considerable distance.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-picnic L-picnic D-camp Tourist Camp 
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 220km   

DAY 4-5 KHERMEN TSAV NATIONAL PARK 

Drive to Khermen Tsav National Park. In the Gobi, natural miracles are countless and one of them is named Khermen Tsav, a wonderful canyon made of red mud rocks. The spectacular rocky formations of Khermen Tsav are located North the sum of Gurvantes, in the extreme Northwest of the province of Omnogovi, between Mount Sharig at North and Mount Altan at South.

Khermen means “wall” and Tsav means “fissure”. Thousand of years of erosion formed this majestic canyon, in which rocks are balanced 30 metres (98,43 feet) above ground. The canyon stretches on 250 square kilometres (96,53 square miles), and is 200 metres (656,17 feet) deep, but between the lowest point and the highest one, there is a difference in height of 1000 metres (0,62 mile). The colours are a gradation of reds and will delight the photographers.

The first dinosaur skeleton was found in that place. The scientists agree that 200 millions years ago, the place was covered with an inner sea. The American archaeologist Roy Chapman Andrews named this place “The end of the World”. Khermen Tsav is famous for its natural beauties, as well as for its bountiful underground fossils of dinosaurs. Besides it’s not unusual to find some in the place. At the foot of these sand cliffs, the ground is fully covered with saxauls.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-camp L-picnic D-picnic Tent   
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 400km 

DAY 6 ZULGANAI RIVER 

Drive to Zulganai River. This beautiful oasis fed by water source of Zulganai river that starts from the West Altan Mountain and flows to the west and dissolves into the sand. Along the Zulganai River there is a beautiful dense Gobi forest formed by tough species include cane and willow. Height of canes reaches 3 meters, so it can hide completely a man on the camel back. The area plays an important role in keeping the survival balance of the wildlife and vegetation in the region.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-picnic L-picnic D-picnic Tent   
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 100km  

DAY 7 KHONGOR SAND NATIONAL PARK 

Drive to Khongor Sand National Park. Khongor Sand Dunes: are the largest and most spectacular sand dunes situated in Sevrei soum. Also known as the “singing dunes”, they are up to 800 m high, 20 km wide and about 100 km long. The spectacular dunes are bordered by lush green vegetation supported by a small river Khongor, which is fed by underground sources from surrounding mountains.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-picnic L-picnic D-camp Tourist Camp 
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 250km 

DAY 8 ONGI TEMPLE 

Drive to Ongi Temple. Visit Bayanzag / Flaming Cliffs /. One of the famous places is Bayanzag, Ancient Sea bed which excited 60-70 million years ago where a lot of Palentological findings have been discovered. The place is known as Flaming Cliffs so named by Roy Andrew Chapman American explorer, who had visited Mongolia in 1920. During the 2 years he searched through the Mongolian Gobi Desert and he found Dinosaur fossils from Bayanzag, Nemekht Mountain. He brought his palentological findings on 70 camels. Chapman presented Mongolia one large skeleton on show in the Ulaanbaatar Natural History Museum. He discoverd to the science, about 10 different kinds of dinosaurs and eight of them were found from Mongolia.

“The Flaming Cliffs and Bayan Zag – saxaul forest is situated around 85 km from the Gobi Gurvan Saikhan national park.

The barren cliffs look strikingly as if they are aflame during sunset. Not so far from the Flaming Cliffs, there is a forest of saxaul trees –Gobi trees with extremely deep roots. There are some sand dunes about 20 km from the Flaming Cliffs and a small hill called Tugrugiin Shiree, northwest from Bayan Zag, famous for its findings of protoceratops dinosaur fossils.

Formerly one of the largest monasteries in Mongolia, Ongi monastery was founded in 1660 and consisted of two temple complexes on the North and South banks of the Ong river. The older southern complex consisted of various administrative buildings as well as 11 temples. The northern complex built in the 18th century, consisted of 17 temples-among them one of the largest temples in all Mongolia. The Ongi monastery grounds also 4 Buddhist universities and could accommodate over one thousand monks at a time. During the 1930’s communism spread throughout Mongolia. As part of their ideological campaign and rise to power, communists arrested most monks around Mongolia. In 1939 Ongi monastery was completely destroyed over 200 monks were killed and many surviving monks were imprisoned pr forced to join the communist controlled army.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-camp L-picnic D-camp Tourist Camp 
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 330km  

DAY 9-10 HUIS NAIMAN LAKE NATIONAL PARK

Drive to Shireet Lake. Naiman Nuur National Park is located in the province of Ovorkhangai, in the Khangai range, and it has the typical landscapes of the Mongolian high mountains with their large forests of larches.

The area of Naiman Nuur, ”Eight lakes”, formed behind the volcanic eruptions that occurred all along the centuries. The park is 2400 meters (1,5 mile) above the sea level. The eight lakes in question are lakes Shireet, the largest and the most beautiful, Khaliut, Bugat, Khaya, Khuis, Onon, Doroo and Bayan Uul. Two of the smallest lakes are completely dry, and the second largest lake, Khuis Nuur, is 90% dry.

The national park is located in a high mountains area comprising alpine meadows and forests of conifers (Siberian pines and Siberian larches). In the North of the protected area, we can see entire valleys strewn with volcanic stones. The peaks of the mountains are arid. The place is very cool and there can be snowstorms in June or August. In the heart of Summer, temperatures rarely go until 20°C during the day. 400 to 500 millimetres (16 – 32 inches) of rain fall each year. Inside the national park, we can see 50 species of birds, such as the black-throated loon, great cormorant, bar-headed goose, or whooper swan.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-camp L-picnic D-picnic Tent  
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 280km  

DAY 11-12 ORKHON VALLEY NATIONAL PARK 

Drive to Orkhon Waterfall. Orkhon Falls or ”Orkhonii Khurkhree”, white waves flowing on the black stone, transformed in rainbow by sunrays… These 16-metres (52,5 feet) high and 5-metres (16 feet) wide waterfalls are just magic. Orkhon waterfalls formed 20.000 years ago after a unique combination of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In the heart of summer, their flow is very important, but they can dry up during spring. It’s the Ulaan Tsutgalaan River, ”Red Confluence”, which forms these falls by flowing into the Orkhon River. From the camp of the families living in the surroundings, they can be an ideal hike along the river, or a ride among the steppes.

Stay at Nomadic Family from the valley. During your stay, you will discover their way of life and you will be proposed many activities, such as milking, making traditional dairy products, or rounding up the animals with a horse. You will also attend the preparation of a Mongolian barbecue that you will enjoy with yours hosts.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-camp L-picnic D-family Nomadic Family Ger   
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 160km 

DAY 13 ELSENTASARKHAI SAND 

Drive to Elsentasarkhai Sand. Visit Erdenezuu Monastery. The first Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, Erdene Zuu was established on the ruins of ancient Khar khorin city in 1586 by Avtai Sain khan, probably the most ancient surviving Buddhist monastery in Mongolia. The monastery located Kharkhorin soum, Uvurkhangai province. It is surrounded by fortress wall sized 420m each side, with 108 stupas. In 1792, it housed 62 temples, Mongolian lords tried to have own named temple inside of wall of monastery because it means they have high reputation.
Also in 1658, the biggest ger consists of 35 walls, 1700 long pole and could contain 200 people, was built up at the middle space of monastery wall. During the communist era this monastery nearly destroyed, nowadays it contains 3 main temples, other some smaller temples, 2 tombs which were dedicated to Avtai sain Khan and his son Tusheet khan Gombodorj and the biggest stupa in Mongolia named “Golden stupa”. The temples became museums in 1947 because Erdene Zuu was allowed to exist as a museum only; the only functioning monastery in Mongolia was Gandantegchinlen Monastery in Ulaanbaatar. However, after the fall of Communism in Mongolia in 1990, the monastery was turned over to the lamas and Erdene Zuu again became a place of worship.

Three main temples are named west zuu, middle zuu and east zuu. Zuu means respectful name of Buddha. So we can see Buddha’s different images such as past time Buddha, future time Buddha, present time Buddha, his child image, adult image, old aged image and his sapient pupils in these temples. These temples have double wall, for encapsulate warm and cool and kind of praying named “Goroo”. Today this monastery could become active monastery again and open for local believers and visitors. This is one of the places where we can learn more about religious and cultural traditions of Mongolia.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-picnic L-picnic D-camp Tourist Camp   
• Transport: 4WD JEEP 220km 

DAY 14 BACK TO THE ULAANBAATAR CITY 

Drive to Ulaanbaatar. Rest of the day free. With our guide, you can go shopping in the center of the city.

• Meals @ Accommodation: B-camp L-picnic D-restaurant Hotel***        
• Transport: 4WD JEEP-280km   
• Km All: 2700km  

DAY 15 HAVE A GOOD JOURNEY AND SEE YOU SOON 

Breakfast at the hotel. We go with you to the international airport of Ulaanbaatar. The transfer can be organized at the time you want, according to the schedule of your flight.