8-Day Horse Trek to the Reindeer Herders
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Fly to Murun β Uushig Deer Stones
We pick you up from your accommodation (the time is confirmed once your flight is booked) and transfer you to the airport for the one-hour flight to Murun, the provincial center of Khuvsgul. Your local guide and driver meet you on landing and drive you about 15 km to the Uushig deer stones. This complex of 30 carved granite monoliths and burial mounds in the Uushig Valley is more than 3,000 years old, dating to the Bronze Age. The tall stones bring together the funeral customs, sacrificial rituals, beliefs, and 'animal style' art of the ancient nomads, with stylized flying deer spiraling up their sides, and they are among the finest examples of their kind anywhere in Central Asia. Take your time exploring the site, then spend the night camping nearby.
Murun β Tsagaannuur Village
After breakfast, set off on a long day's drive of about 265 km (9 hours on dirt roads) to the village of Tsagaannuur, the gateway to the reindeer herders' lands. The village lies in the Darkhad Depression, a wide valley surrounded by mountains 2,000 to 3,000 m high and roughly the same size as the Khuvsgul Lake basin next door. It is a fantastically beautiful place, threaded with countless rivers and dotted with more than 300 small lakes rich in fish, and on the way your vehicle may need to ford a few streams. The valley's isolation has helped preserve the traditions of the Darkhad people and their shamanic heritage. Spend the night in a local ger guesthouse.
Horse Trek to the Reindeer People
After breakfast, load your luggage, camping gear, and food onto the pack horses and begin a full day's ride into the mountains. The trail winds through the northern taiga forest in search of the reindeer herders' summer camp, and because the families move with their animals to find fresh lichen and pasture, it may take some hours longer to reach them, depending on where they are camped. The ride crosses some difficult mountainous stretches, but the scenery of larch forest, high meadows, and distant peaks is spectacular, and the Mongolian ponies are steady and sure-footed. At last you reach the home of the Dukha people, where you pitch your tents near their tepee-like ortz shelters and spend the night.
Life with the Reindeer People
Spend the day with the reindeer herders and learn about a way of life utterly different from your own. The Dukha are a Tuvan Turkic people, numbering only a few hundred, who ride, breed, and milk their reindeer and depend on them for almost everything. Visits like yours give them a chance for cultural exchange and celebration, and for a community struggling to keep its livelihood and traditions alive, they are also a way to share its story, earn some income, and play an active part in preserving its culture. Watch the daily rhythm of the camp, see the reindeer up close, and simply enjoy the calm, beautiful, silent nature of the taiga. Spend the night in your tent at the camp.
Taiga Day with the Reindeer People
A second full day at the camp lets you settle into its slow, quiet pace and get to know your hosts better. There is no fixed program: you might watch the herders tend and milk their reindeer, browse the handmade crafts of antler and wood they make, or walk into the surrounding forest and meadows to enjoy the stillness and fresh mountain air. Take the chance to ask questions through your guide about how the Dukha live through the long, harsh taiga winters and how their community is changing. It is a rare privilege to spend this much time with one of the world's last reindeer-herding peoples. Spend a final night in your tent beside the camp.
Horse Trek Back to Tsagaannuur
After breakfast, say goodbye to the reindeer people and load the pack horses for the full day's ride back down through the forest to Tsagaannuur. With the route now familiar, you can relax into the saddle and take in the views of the taiga and the open Darkhad valley as the trail descends. You arrive in the village in the evening, tired but full of memories, and settle into a local ger guesthouse for a well-earned rest and a hot meal.
Tsagaannuur β Khuvsgul Lake
After breakfast, drive about 360 km (9 hours, mostly on dirt roads) to Khuvsgul Lake. Lying about midway along the border between Mongolia and 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. Known as the 'Blue Pearl of Asia,' the lake is so clear that you can see deep into it from the shore, and it is ringed by forested mountains. Spend the night in a tourist ger camp on the lakeshore. If one night here doesn't feel like enough, an extra night at the lake can be arranged on request.
Khuvsgul Lake β Murun β Fly to Ulaanbaatar
After breakfast, drive about 130 km (3 hours, mostly on a paved road) to the airfield at Murun and take the one-hour flight back to Ulaanbaatar. On landing, our driver meets you at the airport and transfers you to your accommodation. The tour usually ends in the afternoon, depending on the flight schedule.