July 15, Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs)

Escape plan from our ger :)

Our gear camp was completely full last night, so it was hopeless to try to get to the shower. I woke up at 5:30am to try to get my spot, and yes—I got lucky. There was one shower left. The others were already occupied. The water was refreshingly cold, but I didn't mind, knowing how much heat was coming later in the day.

After that, I sat on the deck outside of the dining hall, working on the blog while waiting for breakfast. Around 7:00, Dan joined me.

With the camp being full of French tourists, breakfast turned into quite the spectacle. They attacked the instant coffee as if it were the last coffee on Earth. It disappeared in record time, followed by the food. We managed to rescue a couple of things for ourselves, and then we waited for Mo, our fearless leader.

Today's itinerary was another one of those days where it looked like the only planned activity was a three-hour drive, a couple of hours at the Flaming Cliffs, and then... nothing. We had already asked for a more active itinerary a few times, but today still wasn't one of those days. 

While driving, whenever we briefly had internet access, we looked at flights and found an earlier one back to Ulaanbaatar. We really enjoyed the Gobi, but we were simply running out of things to do. Originally, Friday was supposed to be an eight-hour drive back to Ulaanbaatar before the travel company wisely changed it to a one-hour flight. Since Friday no longer had any sightseeing planned, we decided to move to the earliest flight and give ourselves almost a full extra day in Ulaanbaatar before the final leg of our journey to the Altai.

We made a couple of stops along the way.

The first was at a beautiful ovoo perched on a hill. It was covered with blue khadag scarves, decorated with animal skulls, horns, old tires, a speedometer, and various other offerings people had left behind. From there, we could already see the distant strip of the Khongoryn Els dunes with the mountains behind them. It was a memorable place to mark our transition from one part of the Gobi to another.

Our second stop was another rocky hill with several small petroglyphs. The rocks themselves were fascinating—jet black, almost as if they had fallen from space. We also found what appeared to be an ancient grave: a circle of carefully arranged stones very similar to what we had seen near the deer stones. Whether it was actually a burial or not, it certainly looked intentional and old.

Eventually, we reached our ger camp. This one was nice. The showers and bathrooms were still in separate buildings, but were modern and really pleasant - it felt like a larger personal bathroom with really modern appliances. Lunch, however, was probably the least memorable meal of the trip: microwave pizza and a pumpkin soup with very little character. We used the time to finalize our updated itinerary with the tour company before heading out again.

The destination this afternoon was Bayanzag, also known as the Flaming Cliffs.

The Flaming Cliffs are one of Mongolia's most famous paleontological sites. The reddish sandstone formations were created about 70–80 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous, when this part of the Gobi was a landscape of rivers and sand dunes rather than today's desert. Their deep orange-red color glows spectacularly at sunrise and sunset, giving them the name "Flaming Cliffs."

Before reaching the cliffs themselves, Mo insisted that we watch the introductory film at the visitor center. We're glad we did.

The film told the story of the famous 1923 Central Asiatic Expedition led by American explorer and paleontologist Roy Chapman Andrews. Their goals were incredibly ambitious: map large portions of Central Asia, search for evidence of early human ancestors from whom they believed humanity had originated, and collect fossils. They never found humanity's origins here, but they did make one of the greatest paleontological discoveries in history—the world's first scientifically documented dinosaur eggs, along with fossils of Velociraptor, Protoceratops, Oviraptor, and many other dinosaurs.

Watching the film was also interesting for another reason.

It was fairly racist by modern standards. It documented the American expedition, which partnered with the Chinese authorities who controlled the region at the time. Whenever the local population appeared, they were almost never referred to by name, just as "the Mongols." "A Mongol showed us how to hunt," "the Mongols brought supplies," and so on. It was fascinating historical footage, but it also reflected the era's attitudes. It was also interesting that Americans decided to proudly roll into the desert in cars. 100 years ago, they did not have some of the nice things like suspension or gas stations. So people carried the cars over particularly bad spots, and camels brought the gas. It did look pretty dramatic on film :) We do now have to check out the Museum of Natural History in NYC - most of the artifacts found made their oway over there.

After the movie—and an habitual ice cream—we headed out to the cliffs.

They are fascinating.

From a distance, the formations almost look like the ruins of an ancient city. The colors reminded us a little of Arizona, while the shapes brought back memories of the Edge of the World in Saudi Arabia. We walked around the various viewpoints, taking far too many pictures. As usual, the photos really don't do the place justice.

On the way back, we made one last stop at a monument marking one branch of the ancient Silk Road. A long chain of bronze camels stretched across the landscape, reminding visitors that caravans once crossed these deserts carrying silk, spices, tea, and countless other goods between China, Central Asia, and Europe.

As we sat there having cold drinks, Dan suddenly proposed what we both considered a brilliant business idea: build a large maze attraction somewhere near the Flaming Cliffs or the Singing Dune.

As Dan kept going into the design of the maze, construction costs, sponsorships to cover the investment, and potential revenue opportunities, Mo did not resonate.  He asked us what we actually do for work :). While we don't currently see a way in the digital realm, Mongolia has a ton of opportunities in the physical one - people need nice attractions and good souvenirs, and with lower labor costs, China next door, and a growing number of tourists, I honestly think it's only a matter of four or five years before things like that start appearing somewhere in the Gobi. It was fun to contemplate different ideas, even if Mo shut down and went back to his thing in the front seat.

We enjoyed our time at the Flaming Cliffs and were back at camp around 6:30pm, waiting for dinner.

No big plans for the evening. We will take one last walk in the desert camp and watch the sun start to set over the desert.