Dalanzadgad (DZ) airport

Town square

Dream Gobi Camp lodge

Dream Gobi Camp gers

Dream Gobi Camp - modern kitchen

Dream Gobi Camp - modern kitchen

Dream Gobi Camp - dining area

      Our camp, Dream Gobi, is in the middle of nowhere in the steppe countryside of eastern Mongolia.  Our ger is new and very simple - two beds, a table, and two stools - but it has an attached toilet, sink, and shower.  It is very hot and no air gets into the ger.

Dream Gobi Camp - our ger

Dream Gobi Camp - ger interior with hanging sandbag to prevent the wind from blowing the roof off and no stove

Demoiselle Cranes in the far distance

Demoiselle Cranes - they wouldn't stay put for a closer picture!

View from the camp

Sunset

Wed., 7/3/13 - Gobi Desert
       Today we drove across the steppes to the Vulture Valley in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains.  Our 4-wheel drive SUV (8 seats for three of us and a driver) drove over the washboard graded roads, or wherever they wanted to drive, and the ride was very jarring.  We wonder how they know where they are going but we are beginning to see some landmarks and they also seem to follow the electric poles that crisscross the wide-open space.
       One of the landmarks is a camp with a well that provides water for the camp and any locals and all of the herds of sheep and goats in the area. While we were there two herds of sheep and goats were being watered when four horses came in for a drink.  Another herder held his animals away until these animals left.  The herds get a drink each morning and it is a very orderly process.  The animals spend the rest of the day nibbling on the sparse low grass of the steppe.

Driving across the steppes

Steppe and mountains

The watering hole

A goat disagreement

A goat disagreement

A goat disagreement - someone is going to have a headache

Steppe and mountains

Nomad's gers

          We drove on to the top of a hill for a panoramic view of the desert and the Three Beauty Mountains to the west.  Vulture Valley (Yolyn Am – a deep gorge in the Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park) is in the Left Beauty Mountains. 
      At the park entrance we had a pit stop - using a pit in a tin shed.  Since there are no trees, it was a necessity but I now have a new definition of "pit stop!"
      Our hike into Vulture Valley was beautiful.  The first kilometer was along a flat wide grassy valley and then we entered the narrow canyon with a small stream cutting through.  We kept crossing the water by rock hopping as the canyon walls got steeper.  Locals come here to pray so there were many ovoos along the way.  One ovoo had a mountain sheep horn, another had a horse's skull, and another a cow's skull.  They are put there if a prized animal dies. Around every bend was another picturesque cliff or drainage.  Marge and I really enjoyed this hike even though it dripped some rain.   At least it wasn't hot.  We would have liked to have spent more time in the canyon.

Yolyn Am gorge or the Valley of the Vultures

Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park

"Pit stop"

Ovoo with animal skull

Pika

Two pikas

Vulture Valley hike

Vulture Valley hike

Vulture Valley hike

Vulture Valley hike

Vulture Valley hike - pretty bird

Vulture Valley hike - pretty bird on the wing

Vulture Valley hike - snake in the grass

      We stopped at the small Nature Museum and looked at a variety of stuffed animals.  We had seen pica, two small snakes, and wild gerbils on our hike and several vultures high above the crags.   They have mountain goats and sheep here but we didn't see any. 

Impressive horns!

Museum signs

Branch of the South Gobi Nature Museum

Manual park gate