3-Day Gobi Straight from the Airport
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Chinggis Khaan International Airport β Tsagaan Suvarga
We meet you at Chinggis Khaan International Airport as you arrive and drive straight south to Tsagaan Suvarga, about 420 km and 6 hours on a paved road, leaving the green steppe behind for the wide, open plains of the Middle Gobi. Tsagaan Suvarga is a sheer escarpment that was once the floor of an ancient sea. Its layered sediments, laid down over millions of years, show as bands of white, pink, orange, and red, each color marking a different age. The cliffs rise more than 50 m at their highest point and run for some 400 m, and from a distance they look like the ruins of an ancient ghost city. Lying on the way from the Middle Gobi to the South Gobi, it's the natural place to break the journey. Take a hike around the formation, then spend the night at a tourist ger camp. Depending on your flight time, you may instead spend this night at Baga Gazar Rock, a granite massif with weathered formations closer to the capital.
Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs) β Yol Gorge
After breakfast, drive about 250 km (4 hours, mostly on dirt roads) to Bayanzag. American explorer Roy Chapman Andrews named this place the 'Flaming Cliffs' in the 1920s, and many important dinosaur finds, including Protoceratops skeletons and the first dinosaur eggs ever discovered, were made here. Walk around the red sandstone cliffs and imagine the expeditions that dug here a century ago. After lunch, drive about 100 km (2 hours on dirt roads) to Yol Gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan mountain range. 'Yol' means bearded vulture in Mongolian, and the gorge stretches for more than 10 km. At its narrowest point only three or four people can walk side by side, and the high rock walls shade the valley floor from direct sun, so the ice formed by its small stream in winter often survives until mid-July. Enjoy an hour's hike through the gorge and visit the small natural history museum. Optional horse and camel rides are possible. Spend the night as guests of a local herding family in their ger.
Yol Gorge β Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast with your host family, drive back to Ulaanbaatar, about 650 km and 9 hours on a paved road, a long but comfortable ride on which you can watch the desert turn back into steppe and look through your photos. On arrival in the city at around 18:00, we take you to your accommodation, and the tour ends.