Mongolia Gobi National Park

Gurvansaikhan is Mongolia Gobi National Park located in southern Mongolia. The park was established in 1993, and expanded to its current size in 2000. The park, at nearly 27,000 square kilometers, is the largest national park in Mongolia.

The park is named for the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains, which translates to the Three Beauties. The name is derived from three subranges, the East, Middle and West Beauty. The range forms the eastern half of the park.



The park lies on the northern edge of the Gobi desert. The higher elevations contain areas of steppe. A number of rare plants and animals are found in the park, including the elusive snow leopard and the Gobi Camels.



Areas of sand dunes are found, most famously the Khongoryn Els - the Singing Sands. Another major tourist destination is Yolyn Am, a mountain valley that contains a large ice field through most of the year.



Yolyn Am (Mongolian: Lammergeier Valley) is a deep and narrow gorge in the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains of southern Mongolia. The valley is named after the Lammergeier, which is called Yol in Mongolian. The Lammergeier is an Old World vulture, hence the name is often translated to Valley of the Vultures or Valley of the Eagles.



Yolyn Am is found in the Zuun Saikhanii Nuruu (the Eastern Beauty) subrange of the Gurvan Saikhan Mountains. The area, as part of the Gobi Desert, sees little precipitation. However, Yolyn Am is notable for a deep ice field.



The ice field reaches several meters thick by the end of winter, and is several kilometers long. In past years it remained year round, but the modern ice field tends to disappear by September.



The sand dunes at Khongoryn Els were amazing too - they are called duut mankhan locally, which means "singing dunes". They are up to 200m high, 12km wide and stretch over 100km across the Gobi. I tried sliding down but didn't get very far just on my bum - needed to construct a proper sledge but didn't have the time unfortunately.