3-Day Middle Gobi: White Stupa & Baga Gazar Rocks
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Ulaanbaatar β Tsagaan Suvarga
We pick you up from your accommodation at 08:00 and drive south to Tsagaan Suvarga, about 470 km and 6 hours on a paved road, watching the green steppe give way to the open plains of the Middle Gobi. Tsagaan Suvarga, the 'White Stupa,' is a sheer escarpment that was once the floor of an ancient sea. Its sediments, laid down over millions of years, show as bands of white, pink, orange, and red, each color marking a different age. The formation rises more than 50 m at its highest point and runs for some 400 m, looking like the ruins of an ancient ghost city from a distance. Its exact age has never been clearly dated by geologists. Hike around the cliffs and along their eroded gullies in the evening light, when the colors are at their richest, then spend the night nearby.
Tsagaan Suvarga β Baga Gazar Rocks
After breakfast, drive about 290 km (4 hours on a paved road) to Baga Gazar, a distinctive granite massif that rises abruptly out of the surrounding plateau, its highest point reaching 1,765 m above sea level. Wind, frost, and sun have weathered the granite into rounded towers, boulders, and hollows, and the sheltered valleys between them hold surprising pockets of green. Spend the afternoon hiking and exploring some of its most interesting places: the Sudut gorge, a mountain mouth lined with aspen trees, the ruins of a Buddhist temple, Jargalant Cave, and a mineral spring whose water is said to heal the eyes. Spend the night nearby.
Baga Gazar β Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast, drive about 260 km (4 hours on a paved road) back to Ulaanbaatar, as the dry plains of the Middle Gobi slowly turn back into the grassy steppe of the central region. On arrival in the city at around 13:00, we drop you at your accommodation.