The Gobi Desert
Our aspirations of seeing the world-famous Gobi Desert seemed to be but an unattainable pipe dream as our stay here in Mongolia wound down to a close. We had missed the short window of opportunity when we first arrived in the fall because of our busy initial schedule. Once the cold weather arrived, the tours and tourist camps closed for the season and that chance was lost. We made inquiries about spring visits but the flights to Gobi didn’t begin until late June and our schedule could not accommodate those dates. The option to travel by car did not seem an attractive alternative to us. It would have entailed a total of almost 30 hours of being on the roads with most of it being on unpaved dirt roads. We were almost resigned to the fact that we would have to forego an excursion to the Gobi Desert when we received an urgent alert from our travel agent. Just a couple of days prior to our last potential departure date, a charter flight had become available. We quickly confirmed the arrangements and packed our bags for a 4-day outing to our much-touted but elusive destination.
The pre-dawn flight landed us in the town of Dalandzadgad where we were met by our local guide and the driver of the Mitsubishi offroad vehicle which would be our transportation for the next few days. After a brief tour of the deserted early morning streets of the sleepy little enclave, we took a sharp turn off the paved road connecting the airport with the town. From this point on until the last moments of the adventure, our travels would all be off-road. Leaving civilization behind in the clouds of freshly raised dust, we ventured into the rugged wilderness of the vast Gobi Desert.
A surprising discovery on our excursion through the desert was the presence of numerous herds of livestock that grazed in this seemingly desolate and uninhabitable environment. While extremely arid and primarily devoid of vegetation, the desert does have substantial quantities of subterranean aquifers and springs where herders have dug wells and installed pumps to provide essential water to their horses, cattle, sheep, and goats.
Our first destination in the Gobi was the Flaming Cliff of Bayanzag, the site of major discoveries of by American paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Numerous well-preserved fossils and the first-ever unearthed dinosaur eggs were found in this area. The red and orange sandstone cliffs gave a Mars-like look to the surroundings and the light at sunset made the hills appear to be aflame.
After spending our first overnight in a traditional Mongolian ger (yurt), we headed out for our second destination, the sand dunes of Khorngoryn Els, a 5-hour drive across 180 kilometers (110 miles) of the central plateau of the Mongolian Gobi. As with the off-road jaunt in Bayan-Ulgii in March, the ride was over very rough terrain with no clearly defined roads, just a variety of tire tracks marking random paths taken by previous drivers. We were jousted left and right, forward and backward, up and down, every which way imaginable. But I have to say, the ride was more comfortable than the 14-hour cross-Pacific flights because I was able to fully recline my seat and fully extend my legs in the vehicle. That level of comfort is unattainable in the minimized seat size and legroom found on today’s aircraft in the cattle call section otherwise known as coach. Along the way, we encountered a dirt bike group traveling the same route — their journey was considerably more adventurous than ours, but I dare say, also more arduous. We also ran into (no, not literally) roaming families of camels, galloping groups of white-tailed antelopes, inquisitive ibex, and a herd of shy mountain goats.
The Khorngoryn Els are the largest and most spectacular sand dunes in Mongolia. They stretch 130 Kilometers (80 miles) in length and 4 Kilometers (2.5 miles) wide, rising 100–195 meters (325–640 feet) above the surrounding ground level. It’s as if a gigantic dump truck left its tailgate slightly ajar allowing its cargo of sand to slowly leak out on its journey alongside the mountain range. The sands are fine, soft and ivory white. The ridges were sharp like a knife’s edge, sparkling brightly in the fading sunlight on one side, cool and serene in stark contrast on the shady side. We climbed to the top of one section of the dunes for a spectacular sunset before returning to the local ger for the night. A multitude of blazing stars of the Milky Way shone brightly in the jet-black sky over the quiet desert as we settled down for a peaceful night’s rest.
We encountered the roughest terrain on our third day of travel in the desert. The going was slowed by the severely rutted landscape and washed-out ravines. Our bones were rattled by the incessant jarring of the car over the harsh, uneven terrain. Peering into the distance as we bounced around in the car, we could see what appeared to be a large body of water, a lake of some sort nestled in the foothills of the mountains. It shimmered and shone invitingly, but alas, it was just an illusion, a mirage of deception luring the unsuspecting wanderer seeking relief from the dry and barren surroundings on a fruitless quest for a source of refreshing water.
After almost 6 hours of dusty, bouncy road, we arrived at our last destination, the Yolyn Am, sometimes referred to as Vulture Gulch. The rare, protected bearded Yol vultures nest in the rugged rocky mountain cliffs that rise high above the narrow canyon that was carved by the Zuun Aikhan River. The ravine is so steep that the sun rarely reaches the floor of the canyon. The ice that forms at the bottom of the canyon in the winter remains intact throughout most of the summer. Who would have imagined an intact ice field in the middle of the Gobi Desert?
The vastness, variety, and harshness of the Gobi were mesmerizing, daunting, and humbling all at the same time. The ever-changing landscape evoked a constantly evolving appreciation for the diversity of the surroundings. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but a thousand pictures cannot fully capture the magnitude and magnificence of this incredible wonder of nature.