Backpacking Mongolia in Terelj National Park

There were six of us heading out to go backpacking in Mongolia at Terelj National Park. The started out that morning in a small van. The plan was to spend two nights and three days in the park with a nomadic family about three hours outside of Ulan Bator.

Our ride…

Nothing like rockin out some camo car seat clothing…

At over 1.2 million acres in size, Terelj National Park is home to moose, bears and over 250 species of birds.

Just passing through a herd of horses… no worries…

While there you’ll also see plenty of horses and camels roaming about. We arrived late morning and checked out our accommodation which was a large ger tent that slept six. There were two other gers in the camp, one for the family we were staying with and another that slept four more people if needed.

And some camels…

Other than the beds inside, there isn’t much other than an iron oven that sits in the middle of the room which acted as our only source of heat during the night. Surprisingly it was very warm our first day as the sun beat down on us but at night, the temperature dropped dramatically. After meeting our hosts and dropping our bags, they left us to do what we wanted till lunch which gave us about four hours to explore our surroundings which is exactly what we decided to do. And I think today marked the day when I found out just how out of shape I’d become.

Overlook just above our campsite

We hiked around in the mountains behind our campsite for a few hours. The views were amazing and sky was clearer than I’d seen it since leaving Iceland. You could see for miles. It was also deathly quiet. A quick shout in the valley would echo four times before it was no longer heard. And you could actually hear the flapping wings of a bird as it shot across the sky. It was almost surreal. And aside from some snow we came across on the backside of a mountain, we stumbled across quite a few bones just lying on the ground. It’s anyone guess what animals they came from but they seemed to be lying around everywhere.

One of a hundred bones we found littering the valleys…

In these hills, there was everything from horses and camels to yaks, sheep and golden eagles. Actually, we were  pretty sure there was a golden eagle nesting in the rocks behind our camp site but all we could catch was the silhouette of an
extremely large bird flying in front of the sun before disappearing into the rocks.

Just hanging around…. This was the family’s camel they kept in their campsite

We made it back to camp for lunch that day which was a noodle
dish with vegetables and yak meat (at least we were pretty sure). It was
actually quite good as were all the other meals the Mongolian family
had cooked for us.

Our campsite…

Feeding time…

However, today was one of the few days we spent eating outside in the warm weather. That night, the temperature dropped dramatically and we ate dinner in the Ger. There really wasn’t much else going on except a lot of card playing, some Yatzee and some crazy stories. It was a good night. It was also an extremely clear
night and we went outside to check out the sky which I  think was the most starlit sky I’d ever seen before. By the end of the night, I think we’d collectively seen about twenty or more shooting stars.

The next morning we were woken up by the father in the camp. He came into our tent to put more wood on the fire which was much appreciated. We had all agreed the night before that we were going to take ‘shifts’ during the night and wake up every two hours to put more wood in the oven. Ummm, apparently I missed my 4AM shift because it was freezing in the tent that morning and you could easily see your breath. Breakfast was a bit chilly too as we ate at the table outside. Thank god for hot tea… and instant coffee.

Later that morning, the plan was to go horse back riding. Since we
didn’t ride yesterday, we were told the ride would be twice as long
today, about four hours I think. Looking back on it now, I think I’d of been good with about a ten minute ride. Why? Well to put it mildly, my horse had ‘issues’. I
don’t know if it was me or if it was just a bit challenged but I think
everyone I was with would agree…. they were glad not to have my
horse. Our tour guide for that day was actually the little boy from the
family we were with and I’m guessing he was about 11 or 12 years old.
He definitely knew how to ride a horse though.

Even riding standing up was no problem for him.

For the rest of our group however, maybe we
weren’t so skilled. Of course, my horse and I took the podium for
providing the most entertainment for everyone that day.

Just a bunch of city slickers riding in Mongolia…

It wasn’t but about five minutes into riding that my horse started pulling off to
the left from the rest of the group. About 30 seconds later, he decided to just take off and I soon found myself about a quarter mile away from the rest of the group. It would be another four hours from here before I was able to go back and recover my glove that flew off. I did manage to get us back in line
thereafter but since my horse wanted to lead and not follow and always
wanted to go to the left no matter what I did, we were soon another
quarter mile from the group. This time, he wanted to run through the
creek, drink for a while and graze a bit. I was not happy and neither
was the group I was with, especially the boy. For some reason, I got
the impression they all thought I had planned this….however we
did eventually make it to our destination, Turtle Rock.

I just can’t figure out how it got its name…

We hiked around on it for a bit, met some locals and headed back.
Unfortunately, I was stuck with the same horse again and on the way
back, we had it out. After pulling away from the group again and
ignoring everything I was doing I got to the point where I was about to put
my horse in a head lock. He even tried to buck me off of him. I wasn’t having it… we eventually made it back
to camp though I didn’t catch up with the others until we were within a half mile of the stable. When I finally made it back and got off that horse, I think horse riding and I were done for a while.

I can’t find a mirror… is it too big on me?

The next day was a bit of a surprise as we woke up to a heavy snow. Our ride came to pick us up around ten that morning and by then, there was already about two or three inches on the ground. Definitely some crazy weather as we were in short sleeves just a day earlier. After a good snowball fight and creating the best snowman this earth has ever seen, we packed it up and headed back to Ulan Bator….

The gang…