Miles driven: 60 miles
Time in Car: 3 hours
Borders crossed: 0
Our sixth and final full day in Mongolia started slow in the comfort of our downtown Ulaanbaatar Airbnb. After checking out, we went on the search for a breakfast of a substantial breakfast, but soon found ourselves back at the time tested BK lounge after we couldn’t find anything that met our standards. After some more delicious fried food, we went grocery shopping for the night deciding that grilled cheese was to be the main course tonight. Then we planned we head just a short drive west of Ulaanbaatar to the massive Genghis Khan statue and the Gorkhi-Terejl National Park.
The drive out of Ulaanbaatar was painfully slow. Terrible traffic followed by detours across unpaved road made for a slow drive to traverse only 30 or so miles to the Equestrian Genghis Khan Statue. The stainless steel statue itself is quite a marvel and definitely seemed a little out of place considering the surrounding landscape. It stands 40 m tall making it the biggest equestrian statue in the world. Symbolically, the statue sits atop an architecturally European building representing the great Mongol’s conquering of Europe. Genghis faces east to the place of his birth. While to many Genghis Khan is considered as a brutal conqueror known for slaughtering his enemies, Mongolians revere the man as the unifier and first great ruler of Mongolia and this statue definitely displays him in that light. We arrived, took a walk around the complex marveling at the size of the statue before climbing to the top of the horse’s head to get some photos of the surrounding landscape. It was a worthwhile visit.
Turtle Rock
Next, we drove to Gorki-Terejl National Park, a Park only 40 km west from Ulaanbaatar. We were hoping we could do a hike before setting up camp and making dinner. Upon driving into the park however, we noticed that this place wasn’t one many Americans would consider a National Park as much as a collection of built up hotels and resort yurt camps. This was kind of a bummer because the surrounding area of mountains, valleys, and rivers seemed awesome to explore but it was definitely spoiled by the over development of the area. We didn’t want to pay for a short stay in a tourist camp or hotel so we decided to try to scope out a spot on the outskirts of the park to wild camp. After some driving, we found a dirt road that branched off the main highway that led to a small encampment in the foothills of the western part of the park. We weren’t that far from the road but felt completely isolated in the dense forest and hills. We did a quick hike up one of the hills and climbed some huge rock formations that sat atop. The views were definitely different than any other we had seen since being in Mongolia. The surrounding scenery looked that of early autumn in the Northeastern Appalachians. The leaves were already turning orange, red, and yellow and they painted amazing views across the landscape.
Gorki-Terejl National Park
We started a sizeable bonfire to fend off mosquitoes and keep warm. For dinner, we eagerly prepared our grilled cheeses. After sautésing some peppers and caramelizing some onions, we opened our three cheeses we had bought that morning in Ulaanbaatar - Monterrey jack, a cheddar, and a mozzarella. Upon inspecting these cheeses, we immediately realized that these grilled cheeses would be subpar. The cheddar smelled funky and tasted terrible too. The mozzarella was straight up inedible - worst cheese I’ve ever eaten. The Monterrey Jack was passable as it melted nicely and didn’t taste like garbage, so we made do with that. After an extremely disappointing dinner, we washed down the last remnants of vodka we had as we incinerated the rest of our burn pile. Tomorrow, we head to Russia and our last border crossing. -FWY
