Naadam Tour
한국어English日本語

Ömnögovi (Өмнөговь)· Ёлын ам

Yolyn Am (Vulture's Gorge, often 'Eagle Valley')

Yolyn Am is a narrow gorge cut into the Zuun Saikhan range inside Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, and it is the one place in the South Gobi where the desert stops feeling like desert. The walls close to a few metres apart, a stream runs along the floor, and for much of the year a sheet of ice sits in the shaded narrows. It is named after the yol, the bearded vulture that nests on the cliffs above. Visitors park at the mouth, pass a small natural history museum, and walk or ride a horse a few kilometres up the valley to the ice.

From Ulaanbaatar
624 km
Drive time
9-11 hours driving, normally split over two days
Altitude
2,281 m
Typical stay
1-2 nights at a camp in or near the Gurvan Saikhan valleys
Best months
May–Sep
  • Jan: not a best month
  • Feb: not a best month
  • Mar: not a best month
  • Apr: not a best month
  • May: a best month
  • Jun: a best month
  • Jul: a best month
  • Aug: a best month
  • Sep: a best month
  • Oct: not a best month
  • Nov: not a best month
  • Dec: not a best month
Yolyn Am Canyon, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Mongolia
Photo: CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Highlights

  • The ice field in the narrows, sometimes metres thick, surviving into midsummer at 2,200-2,400 m
  • The walk up the gorge from the car park to where the walls squeeze together
  • Bearded vultures (yol) and other raptors riding the thermals above the cliffs
  • Siberian ibex and argali sheep on the slopes, often visible with binoculars
  • Small natural history museum at the valley mouth with local fossils and stuffed fauna
  • Pika and marmot colonies along the stream banks
  • Horse riding from the car park up the valley
  • Mukhar Shivert, a side valley a few kilometres east, usually visited on the same day

Season notes

If the ice is the point, come May to early July - it now usually melts out by late July or August, and September snow cover has become unreliable as the climate warms. July and August are the greenest and busiest. At over 2,200 m the gorge is cold and windy even in summer, and there can be snow showers in May and September. Winter visits are spectacular but need real cold-weather gear.

From Ulaanbaatar

Paved highway the whole way from Ulaanbaatar via Mandalgovi to Dalanzadgad, then a paved road from Dalanzadgad towards the park, with the last few kilometres to the car park on gravel. This is one of the easiest deep-Gobi sites to reach by road.

By air
Dalanzadgad Airport (DLZ) has scheduled domestic flights from Ulaanbaatar and the only paved runway in Ömnögovi; from the airport the gorge is roughly a 1-hour drive. Flying in and driving out is a common way to cut a day of road time.

Where to stay

  • Ger camps in the Dund Saikhan and Mukhar Shivert valleys, 5-20 km from the gorge mouth (several mapped in OpenStreetMap, including a Mukhar Shivert camp)
  • Standard tourist ger camp: roughly USD 40-70 per person per night including three meals (2026)
  • En-suite or deluxe ger camp: roughly USD 80-150 per person per night including meals (2026)
  • Hotels and guesthouses in Dalanzadgad (population about 32,700 in 2024) for anyone wanting a solid building and a hot shower

Be aware

Cold: at 2,200 m plus, the gorge holds shade and wind, and people regularly underdress for it
The ice is often gone by August, so do not promise it to a late-summer traveller
The path is stony and crosses the stream repeatedly; wet feet are normal
It is the single busiest spot in the South Gobi in July and August - go early or late for quiet
Horses at the car park are working animals with variable temperament
Altitude is mild but noticeable on the walk back up
Yolyn Am Canyon, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Mongolia
Photo: CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Ice field of Yolyn Am Canyon, Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park, Mongolia
Photo: CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Sources (7)

Often combined with

Khongoryn Els in Ömnögovi Aimag, Mongolia (Gobi Desert)

Khongoryn Els (the Singing Dunes)

Ömnögovi · 838 km

Khongoryn Els is the largest dune field in Mongolia, a band of sand running along the back of the Sevrei and Zöölön ranges with crests that rise as much as 300 m above the plain. Its nickname comes from the low droning hum the sand makes as grains slide and rub against each other on a windy day. The contrast is what makes it: bare rock mountains to the south, a wall of sand in the middle, and on the north side a green ribbon of oasis where the Khongoryn Gol stream surfaces and nomad families graze camels. Climbing the high dune for sunset is the standard reason people come, and it is much harder work than it looks.

Best months
Jun–Sep
Bayanzag

Bayanzag (the Flaming Cliffs)

Ömnögovi · 667 km

Bayanzag is a line of orange sandstone cliffs and badlands on the edge of a saxaul woodland, and it is the single most important site in the history of dinosaur palaeontology in Asia. Roy Chapman Andrews of the American Museum of Natural History named it the Flaming Cliffs in the 1920s for the colour the rock turns at sunset, and it was here that the first scientifically recognised dinosaur eggs were found. The rock belongs to the Djadochta Formation, which has also produced Velociraptor, Protoceratops, Oviraptor and some of the earliest known placental mammals. Visiting means walking the rim and the gullies below, which is a short and easy stop, and it is almost always timed for late afternoon.

Best months
May–Sep
Khermen Tsav - Shambala gate

Khermen Tsav

Ömnögovi · 1,029 km

Khermen Tsav is a deep red canyon system cut into the far western Gobi, a maze of eroded sandstone walls, towers and spurs that Russian-speaking visitors nicknamed the Mongolian sphinxes. It is one of the richest Late Cretaceous fossil localities anywhere, the reference area for the Hermiin Tsav beds of the Barun Goyot Formation, and the sandstone preserves an ancient landscape that was itself a dune field. Almost nobody gets here: it is hundreds of kilometres of desert track from the nearest paved road, with no settlement, no fuel and no mobile signal. That remoteness is exactly why serious photographers and expedition travellers make the effort.

Best months
May–Jun, Sep
Tsagaan Suvraga

Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa)

Dundgovi · 445 km

Tsagaan Suvarga is the eroded edge of an old lake-bed plateau in the south of Dundgovi, where the ground simply stops and drops away into a wall of banded sediment. Seen from the plain below, the columns and buttresses look like a row of pale stupas, which is where the Mongolian name comes from. The colours run from chalk white through pink and ochre to rust, and they shift completely between morning and late afternoon light, so most visitors time their stop for one end of the day. It is usually a half-day stop rather than a destination in itself, on the overland route between the Dundgovi sites and the deep Gobi.

Best months
May–Sep