Journey in Mongolia, Terelj National Park, Summer 2009

The Terelj National Park (also know as « Gorkhi-Terelj » – click here to see the map) is located at 80km north east from Ulaan Baatar. It is the main place for Mongolia quick trips like we did in july 2009 : after spending more than 10 days in Russia, we stopped over only for two full days in this country before going on to China for two weeks.

It takes about two hours to get to the park by car, on a very bad road. It’s not really difficult to find a local driver and a place to stay in Terelj : tourism tends to grow up years after years in Mongolia, and the south part of the park has a lot of ger camps to stay for a night or more. Just go to any local agency in Ulaan Baatar (but don’t worry, if you come from Russia by train, they’ll be waiting for you at the train station anyway, they know how to find you!), and you will find opportunities to go to Gorkhi-Terelj. Just be careful with the price you pay : prices can double from one agency to another… And don’t forget to ask twice about what is included or not in what you’ve booked (driving, ger’s night, horse riding…) or you could have a bad surprise on your way back…

If you have more time, you can also find a local bus and/or do your trip by yourself for a few days. The southern part is getting more and more touristic – but still wild-looking for most western people – but the park is huge and high, with some really great parts where you can do wild camping and everything. And there are wildlife protected areas with animals like bears, mooses and a lot of different birds species.

Anyway, the Terelj National Park is a very beautiful place to stay, and it’s a great place to go when you don’t have much time to spend in Mongolia and yet get a good glimps of Mongolian wild landscapes. Locals can be cold with foreigners at first, but it really seems to be just a « first impression ». Here are some pictures we took in the southern part, around the Tuul river (except the last one, taken from the train on our way accross the Gobi desert). We hope to go back there one day for more than these two shorts days!