Majestic Altai Mountains

Catch your flight to Ulgii city, Bayan Ulgii province. Ulgii is the center of
Bayan Ulgii Province, which is situated in the far west of the country in a
distance 1700kms from Ulaanbaatar. The Kazakh minority of Mongolia
mainly populates this province, which are with Muslim origin. The flight
takes about a little over 3 hours including a stopover on the way for
refueling. Our guide will accompany you on the flight. On arrival at the local
airport our driver will meet you and have lunch. After lunch we will drive
until we reach the Sogoot River. We will have tented overnight by the side of
the river.

After breakfast we will continue drive to the Park ranger’s station of Altai
Tavan Bogd National Park on the eastern part. Here we will prepare for our
hiking trip, arranging pack horses with a local family. On the way we will
stop by one of the world class petro glyphs gallery, the Tsagaan salaa rock
paintings. Site is inside Altai Tavan Bogd National Park and was approved
as part of a larger Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai World
Heritage Site along with The Upper Tsagaan Gol Complex in 2011. The
place covers 15 square kilometres. We can see about 10000 paintings on the
rocks that scatter the southern part of the white river,”Tsagaan Gol”. This
important collection of pictograms dates back to a large period going from
Neolithic to Bronze Age, and mainly represents hunting and breeding scenes
(with herds or lonely animals). As most of the rock paintings, ibexes are
major depictions.

Today we start of hike to the Tavan Bogd, as Five Saints’ Peaks as referred
in English are a mountain massif in Western Mongolia on the border with
China and Russia. Its highest peak Huiten is the highest point of Mongolia at
4374 meters above sea level. Out of the countries that share the massif, the
largest glaciated area is in Mongolia; it includes the Potanin Glacier
(Mongolia’s longest) and the Alexandra Glacier. In terms of flora and fauna
it’s quite rich in diversity and resembles more of an alpine type. The hiking
trail is rather rough and it’s uphill hiking. Obviously its’ worth your energy
and efforts, on the way you enjoy various kinds of wild flowers commonly
edelweiss. You will also start to see the snow capped tops of the peaks. We
will hike around 18kms in 4-5 hours range with mild hiking speed. We will
set our campsite by the base camp.

Today we will exploration day around the glacier mountains and lakes. An
attempt to climb one of the lower peaks Malchin with nearly 4000m heights,
where there is an amateur climber’s trail. Great opportunities for golden
momentum photography and just feel yourself at the most remote part of the
world.

Today we will head back to Tsagaan Gol – White river area, where main
residents are Tuvan ethnic people. The White river flows out of glacier lakes
therefore color of water is almost milk white.

A free day of cultural exploration. Today you have opportunities to learn and
also take part in daily activities of the nomadic family such as yak milking,
bringing the water, herding the goats and sheep.

Today we will drive towards to Ulaanhus where our eagle master live. On the
way we will see some ancient mostly from Turkic state era burial mounds
and balbals, stone man figures. By staying with an eagle master’s family you
will have opportunities learn about hunting with eagles, way of their training
and other related stories. Unfortunately, summer is off season for hunter due
to shedding of eagle feather. But you will still have chance to dress up as an
eagle hunter and hold the beauty on your arm. Except these, you will also see
and experience Kazakh culture and traditions.