2-Day Mini Gobi Dunes & Wild Horses
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Ulaanbaatar β Elsen Tasarkhai Sands: Camel Ride β Uvgun Monastery
We pick you up from your accommodation at 08:00 and drive west to Elsen Tasarkhai, about 285 km and 4 hours on a paved road. Its name means 'piece of sand,' and it is considered the northern edge of the Gobi Desert: a narrow band of small dunes running through the lowland between the legendary Khugnu Khaan and Bat Khaan mountains, with green steppe on either side. After lunch, ride two-humped Bactrian camels across the sands. They are very comfortable to ride, as they walk slowly and gently and you sit securely between the humps. An optional horse ride is also possible here. Then drive about 15 km on a dirt road to the ruins of Uvgun Monastery, founded in 1693 and destroyed by the communists in 1937. The raw violence of that destruction is still visible among the walls today. Visit the small house museum at the site, then spend the night with a nomadic family in their ger.
Khustai National Park β Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast, drive about 225 km (4 hours on a paved road) to Khustai National Park, where takhi wild horses have been reintroduced since 1992. Known in the West as Przewalski's horse, the takhi is the last wild horse subspecies to survive into the 21st century. Russian explorer N. M. Przhevalsky first described it in western Mongolia in the late 1870s, but it died out in the wild and survived only in zoos, until breeding programs brought it back to the Mongolian steppe. Spend time hiking at leisure in the surrounding hills to find the wild horses, and with luck you may also see maral deer and other wildlife. Afterward, drive about 80 km (2 hours, mostly on a paved road) back to Ulaanbaatar, arriving at your accommodation between 18:00 and 19:00.