Cycling in the majestic Altai Mountains

Arrive in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, and transfer to a centrally located 4-star hotel. In the evening, join the group for a welcome dinner and tour briefing.

Transfer to the airport for a 3-hour flight to Ulgii, center of Mongolia’s most western province. Your guide and driver will pick you up upon arrival and drive to Tsagaan Nuur village. Here we obtain border area permits. The tour support crew will assemble kitchen, toilet, and shower tents while you set up your individual tent.

Bike to Haichinsar Mountain. Each cycling day will have three main stops: a snack break before midday, a lunch stop, and a camp spot. A support vehicle will always stay close to the group with drinking water. Today we cycle a total of 60 km, the first 40 km is a gentle ascend up to today’s highest point of 2,570 m above sea level at a mountain pass. The road is mostly smooth, hard-packed dirt but there are some rocky sections towards the top of the pass. Then a pleasant downhill will take us to our camping spot.

Challenging cycling days are beginning from today. We cycle a total of 60 km and climb up 3 mountain passes. Most of the way is smooth on hard-packed dirt roads, but rocky sections and loose soil are near mountain passes. Cycling will end at Baga Oigor valley, which has the largest petroglyph gallery in Central Asia. More than 100,000 images spread across a length of 15 km depict life scenes dating from 8000 years ago. This site is registered on the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List.

We continue pedaling, slowly climbing up along the Oigor river basin while passing by herds of grazing livestock, and dome-shaped Kazakh felt homes once in a while. Scenery will dramatically change from hilly grassland valleys to seeing distant snow-capped mountains when we reach the Altai Mountain NP gate. Here we register our permits for a cycling tour to the rangers and erect our tented camp near their home. Our camping spot is a summer location for local Kazakh nomads. You may visit their home and see how Mongolia’s Kazakh nomads are living and get a peek into their lifestyle that has not changed much for hundreds of years.

Our cook will prepare packed lunch for us today. Each group member will carry their lunch and necessary items since it is prohibited to enter the national park with vehicles. Our support vehicle(s) will separate from the group here and rendezvous at the end of the day at White River valley. A slow and continuous ascend will bring us halfway to the camp spot with a panoramic view of Mongolia’s highest peaks: Khuiten (4,374 m), Nairamdal (4,082 m), Snowchurch (4,071 m), Malchin (4,050 m), and Ulgii (4,113 m) as well as the Potanin and Alexander glaciers. After lunch, we ride downhill along the White River. We set up our tented camp near the summer pasture of the Tuvan people, one of the Mongolian ethnic groups.

The landscape consists of wide grassland valleys surrounded by large mountains, rocky ridges and icy streams. For the most part of our way, we will be cycling above 2000 meters, nights can be cold and daytime temperatures are mostly pleasant.

Bike to Khoton, a spectacular alpine lake at 2,073 meters above sea level. The campsite at the lake is idyllic. It has one of the largest petroglyph galleries in Mongolia dating back to the Neolithic period and the Bronze age depicting hunting scenes and figures of various animals. Also, there are some well-preserved burial sites. This evening, you may go swimming, exploring or relaxing at the camp.

We layover here at this camp and do a loop ride up to Baga Turgen, a waterfall in Turgen valley near the western shore of Khoton and Khurgan lakes. The waterfall drains from a 36 m cliff and is divided into 2 separate falls. The bigger waterfall’s height is 23 m while the smaller one is 13 m. This pristine valley is an ideal place for biking and has some historical relics. The waterfall’s isolated location near the country’s border and rough roads helped in maintaining the waterfall and its surroundings remain unspoiled.

We load our bikes onto the support vehicle(s) and drive 7-8 hours back to Ulgii. En route, we stop to visit a Kazakh family and see their golden eagles, used for hunting purposes. In Ulgii, we check into a hostel. Dinner in a local restaurant.

Today we catch a return flight to Ulaanbaatar. Transfer you to the hotel upon arrival. Free afternoon until farewell dinner.

Our guide and driver will transfer you to the airport for your departure flight.