Day 15: Gorkhi-Terelj National Park
We took it easy in Gorkhi-Terelj National Park. Woke up late, made a fire, cooked some food. Then we wandered around the curved yellow hills and gigantic boulders.
Since this national park is very close to Ulaanbaatar, and is very beautiful, it is a crazy tourist destination. There are dozens of Ger camps every few hundred meters or so along the road, and everybody is obsessed with one rock, “Turtle Rock”. I don’t really know why, since all of the other big boulders are equally (if not more) impressive. But PROBABLY because this “Turtle Rock” is advertised as a “must see” location. Pretty stupid reason to admire one rock over the other, don’t you think? :D
Look, this is what “Turtle Rock” looks like:
(Picture from Wikipedia)
And these are two random unnamed rocks that we found somewhere in this park:
Why is Turtle Rock cooler than random unnamed rock?
Luckily it was off season when we were there (November) so most Ger camps were closed and the park was pretty empty. We wandered away from the road and the Ger camps anyway, to check out the natural beauty of the park. We walked off trail, to the highest hilltop we could see. And we found this spot:
I think it’s better than “Turtle Rock” but nobody knows about it 😊.
We also ran into a camel family and fed them some grass :D
I love this baby camel, he looks like Sid from Ice Age :D
We watched the sunset from the top of a hill and spent one more night camping between the giant boulders.
So awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks! :)
I like turtles... and I like rocks. Ha, so I'd probably like Turtle Rock. I know I wasn't there and I didn't see all of the rocks (so if I'm wrong, please correct me), but judging by the picture of the two unnamed rocks, those rocks and the ones around it look a little lumpy, almost of if they were made of dough. Turtle Rock looks smooth and even. So maybe that's why, or maybe just because it's a "must-see location" like you said.
I think Turtle Rock looks nice, but I also like your view from the highest hilltop. Thank you for sharing it.
haha maybe you would like Turtle Rock then. Those two aren't the only other "cool" boulders, the entire park is filled with awesome boulders, but everybody flocks to Turtle Rock because that's what's been advertised to them.