5-Day Frozen Khuvsgul Lake Winter Trip
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Ulaanbaatar β Uran Extinct Volcano
We pick you up from your accommodation at 08:00 and drive north to Uran Extinct Volcano, about 540 km and 8 hours on a paved road, across wide snow-covered steppe dotted with herds of horses grazing through the winter. 'Uran' means 'artistic' in Mongolian, and the name comes from its crater rim, a near-perfect circle that looks like the work of a skilled craftsman. The ring-shaped ridge is about 500 m across and holds a small crater lake about 20 m wide and 1.5 m deep. Other volcanoes with broken craters, including Tulga, Jalavch, and Togoo, rise nearby on the same volcanic plain. Climb up to the top of the volcano for a view over the frosty craters, then spend the night in a local hotel.
Uran Volcano β Uushig Deer Stones β Khuvsgul Lake
After breakfast, drive about 300 km (6 hours on a paved road) to the Uushig Deer Stones near Murun. This complex of 30 deer stones and the burial mounds around them in the Uushig Valley is more than 3,000 years old. Carved from long blocks of granite, the stones are decorated with stylized flying deer and other animals, and together they represent the funeral practices, sacrificial rituals, beliefs, and 'animal style' art shared by the ancient nomads of the Bronze Age. Then drive about 145 km (3 hours, mostly on a paved road) to Khuvsgul Lake. Close to the border with Russian Siberia, in a gigantic stone bowl nearly 110 km long and almost 40 km wide, it holds about 3% of all the fresh water on Earth. In winter its surface freezes solid into thick, glassy blue ice, often cracked into dramatic ridges. Spend the night in a tourist ger camp by the lake.
Khuvsgul Lake: Horse Ride & Reindeer People
After breakfast, set off on a 2-hour horse ride along the shore of the lake and up the mountainside for a view over the frozen lake and snow-dusted larch forest; no riding experience is required, and the sturdy Mongolian horses are well used to winter conditions. Then visit the reindeer people, the Tsaatan. They are Tuvan people who moved into the northernmost part of Mongolia from the Tuvan Republic around the 1920s and still herd reindeer in the taiga. Some families come down to the lake area with their reindeer to sell handmade souvenirs to visitors, offering a rare glimpse of one of the world's last reindeer-herding cultures. Spend a second night at the tourist ger camp.
Khuvsgul Lake β Amarbayasgalant Monastery
After breakfast, make the long drive of about 690 km (8 hours on a paved road) south and east to Amarbayasgalant Monastery, the 'Monastery of Tranquil Felicity,' set in a quiet valley below Mount Burenkhan. It is one of the largest and best-preserved monasteries in Mongolia. It was commissioned by the Qing Kangxi Emperor in memory of Zanabazar, the first Bogd of Mongolian Buddhism, and completed in 1736. The monastery was sacked in 1937 during the Stalinist purges, but restoration began in 1988 and the complex has gradually regained its former glory. Today it is an active monastery that also works as a museum. Spend the night in a local hotel nearby.
Amarbayasgalant Monastery β Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast, walk around Amarbayasgalant and explore the monastery, its temple halls, and courtyards in the peaceful winter stillness, when you may have the place almost to yourself. After lunch, drive about 330 km (6 hours on a paved road) back to Ulaanbaatar, arriving at your accommodation at around 19:00.