Gobi Gurvan Saikhan NP
Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park
Here we introduce everything you need to know about visiting and staying in Gobi Gurvan Saikhan National Park ; the best park in Gobi desert Mongolia.
This is the biggest national park in Mongolia. It covers 2,697,171 hectare land territory of 9 soums of Umnugovi province and Bayankhongor province in southwest of Mongolia. The National Park was first established in 1993 and expanded to the current size later, where all the protected areas are surrounding Gurvan Saikhan Mountain range (Three Beauties of Gobi).
The mountain range comprises three sub ranges, the East, Middle and West mountain range, which will explain its name. Land formations of the national park are mostly inter-montane basins, pediments, and rocky mountain massifs.
Those rocky massifs are the result of Paleozoic coarse-grained with
- dark-colored and intrusive igneous rocks
- sandstones, fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rocks
- tonalites, igneous, plutonic rocks, of felsic composition, with phaneritic texture.
Basalts of cretaceous age occur in small spots. Since the Quaternary, rocky outcrops have been exposed to heavy frost weathering and are developed into wide area of screes and pediments. Sand dunes cover rather small amount of area compared to other terrain formations.
The Best Tourist Attractions
The national park covers the best attractions including Bayanzag Flaming cliffs, Khongor Sand dune, Khavstgait rock paintings and Yol valley – Ice gorge. The clay from the former shores, hills, and soil of the Cretaceous period look like they are on fire during sunrise and sunset. You may feel like you are on a different planet. Really though, you’re in the Mongolian Gobi Desert. Dinosaur fossils from millions of years ago still remain here. Most are small and often hidden by Saxaul forests, which are ubiquitous with the Gobi, so you may pass them by without noticing. Desert plants, dry but capable of coming to life in an overnight rain, are also unique to the Gobi. Though the golden sand won’t remember your steps once the wind blows, the footprint of the Gobi desert will stay in your heart forever.
Tours to the Gobi desert national parks from Ulaanbaatar;
- Gobi Desert & Grassland Tour – 8 days private tour to the Gobi with domestic flight
- Best of Mongolia tour – 11 days tour to the Gobi desert and Central Mongolia
- The Heartlands of Gobi Desert Tour – 4 days short tour to the Gobi