Lady’s Guide to Terelj National Park in Mongolia

Today I want to bring you my guide to visiting Terelj National Park in Mongolia. One of the most popular national parks in the country, it’s near Ulaanbaatar and it’s a great place to get into nature in Asia.

Terelj National Park

Driving out of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian countryside unfolds like a blanket of fields and mountains. The impossibly big sky with its cumulus clouds and cool, fresh air lend the area an unparalleled vastness.

Statue of Genghis Khan

Suddenly a figure appears over the crest of a hill. Tall, bright, and gleaming in the sun, it’s difficult to make out what it is at first.

As the caravan of black SUVs approaches, the figure grows and the hills recede to give us a better view. It’s Genghis Khan. A huge statue of Genghis Khan. All in bright, shiny metal a million miles high.

Stunned, we alight from our convoy to get a better look. The statue sits on a Neoclassical western base, but its subject is pure Mongolian.

It’s Ghenghis on his horse, right where he’s said to have found his golden whip all those years ago. The visitor center has a small museum with artifacts from the area. It also has the world’s largest boot.

The center is slated for additional development in the coming years, including a ger camp and several restaurants. For now, we content ourselves with the museum and the views from the head of Genghis Khan’s horse.

Terelj National Park in Mongolia

Back in the cars, we travel deeper into the Mongolian countryside. Our destination is Terelj National Park.

Glued to the windows, we watch as rivers, mountains, and fake dinosaurs go by. Ger camps dot the valley with their white nomadic huts, and we can’t wait to see which one is ours.

Eventually we pull into Ayanchin Four Seasons Lodge in Terelj National Park, with its neat line of white nomadic tents. We have our pick, so we pile in, four to a ger. It’s all very exciting.

Settled, we decide to hike up to the top of a hill (we call it a mountain to make ourselves feel more adventurous).

Scrambling in flip flops, we follow the resident dog past a half-eaten animal carcass (a fox, perhaps?) and up to the boulders that rest on top. The views of the valley and Terelj National Park are breathtaking.

Back at the camp, we eat dinner and settle in for a long night of waiting for the World Cup. We drink beer. We drink hot chocolate. We take turns napping in the gers.

We approach cardiac arrest when the TV goes blank two minutes before the game starts. We celebrate when it comes back on two minutes after.

We smile when a work crew from the lodge comes in at 2:30am to watch with us, leaves for half time, and comes back to watch the end.

We cheer for Holland, wrapped in our conveniently orange ger blankets. When they win, we use the last of our energy to congratulate our Dutch friend before going back to our gers.

Sleeping in a ger is like being at summer camp, only here the boys and girls share a cabin. The four narrow beds are arranged in a circle around a stove in the center of the tent.

It’s a stove we would have been wise to use, as nights in the Mongolian countryside are very, very cold. Too tired to test our mountaineering skills, we shiver into our beds fully clothed and wrap ourselves tightly in our blankets.

We wake up sweating. The sun is shining through the hole in the top of the ger, and the temperature has risen to shorts-and-T-shirts levels by 10am. It’s hot.

We join the others for breakfast, then head to the nearby river in Terelj National Park. The water is numbingly cold, so I go on a farm-animal photo shoot while the others wade.

The yaks, cows, and horses are busy eating, drinking, and fording the river, and it all feels a bit like Oregon Trail. Thankfully nobody comes down with cholera or dysentery, and Timmy doesn’t break his leg.

In the evening we’re back in Ulaanbaatar, but not for long. The draw of Terelj National Park is too strong for us to not return once more. This time a few of us take a day trip, stopping first at Turtle Rock.

It’s a rock formation in a small valley below the Aryabal Temple, and it’s said to look like a turtle. It does. Kind of.

We hike up to the top, sucking in our stomachs to fit through the world’s smallest rock hole to get to the vista point on the other side. From there we can see farm animals grazing like ants in Terelj National Park.

Climbing back down, we go horseback riding for an hour with our driver. The price is quoted to us, and my first instinct is to negotiate. But when I realize the price is less than 4 US dollars for an hour, I can’t bring myself to haggle.

We ride through Terelj National Park, imagining ourselves a trio of warriors in Genghis Khan’s army. It becomes increasingly difficult, though, as our horses stroll slowly through the grass.

We get somewhat stuck in deep mud at one point, but the horses don’t mind, and neither do we.

The sun is shining and there’s a newborn foal in the distance. The air is the cleanest we’ve ever breathed and there’s a quiet peace in the valley.

The peace might have something to do with the Aryabal Temple in Terelj National Park, which we later visit.

Just up the hill from Turtle Rock, it’s a small square building surrounded by a sea of red prayer wheels. The area is beautiful, as is the interior of the temple.

We’d like to stay, but we’re called by our host and told to meet at Terelj Hotel and Spa, a five-star resort in Terelj National Park.

The Terelj Hotel is impressive, and the manager invites us to use the indoor pool, Tereljmaa Spa, and sauna. We don’t hesitate.

Neither do we refrain from enjoying a cocktail in the upstairs piano bar before dinner. It just so happens that all of us are girls, as the boys have been in Ulaanbaatar all day for business meetings.

One girl suggests we’re like trophy wives enjoying a day at the spa while our husbands work. I throw up a little bit in my mouth. But only a little bit. When I find out the boys have been meeting with Zbigniew Brzezinski, I feel absolutely ill.

We meet the rest of the group for dinner, where we’re introduced to the head chef, a Belgian who cooks us an amazing meal.

While one end of the table discusses the global currency markets, the other plays games like “balance the spoon on your nose”. Maybe this is summer camp after all.

Dinner ends late. Some of the group spends the night in Terelj National Park. The rest of us pile into one of the SUVs to return to Ulaanbaatar.

The next morning is the Naadam Festival, and if we weren’t so tired, we would be too excited to sleep. To be continued…

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