Ice and Chives in the Gobi! -- 8/4

Pica

Today we went to Yolyn Am (Vulture Valley) in the Gurvan Saikan Mountains about two hours southwest of our camp. After what seemed like a perilous drive on a 10km track to the trail head, we walked 2+ miles into the ever narrowing canyon. We didn't see any of the vultures it is named for, but on the way out we saw a large bird that a couple German tourists assured us was a Steppe Eagle. We also saw lots of little ground-based birds and picas. The picas look like baby bunnies with mouse ears and were really quick. We felt very lucky to get several photos of them. We also found some new wildflowers.

Little waterfalls

The trail was kind of dull to start out, but as it narrowed, it got rockier and steeper and we started criss-crossing a small creek that had a couple of nice waterfalls. At the end of our walk back in, we came upon the remains of last year's glacial advance and retreat in the form of 3 smallish but noticeable chunks of glacial ice. It was comfortably cool and often shady in the canyon, but about 90 everywhere else. We ate our lunch on a rocky hillside, which was quite breezy. The breeze was great til I tried to re-secure the lid on my lunch and the whole thing went flying away.

The biggest ice chunk we saw

Back at the entry to the park, we stopped at a museum which had stuffed versions of the animals we might have seen, but didn't and then visited a half dozen gift shop gers. I ended up getting a red suede cloth jacket, which I had been eyeing since I first saw them. All the others were either too big, too small, or bad colors, so this was a happy find.

Back at camp, we waited out the heat of the day before taking another walk. There is really nothing much to walk to, but we saw a small shed and went out to investigate. On the way we took a closer look at the vegetation available for the livestock....it is chives!!  I wonder if it affects the taste of the meat or the milk. Could be a good thing . The shed turned out to be an outhouse in very good condition....hard to understand who is using it. The nearest gers are too far away as is the camp where there are flush toilets in any case. Plus the nomads appear to prefer fertilizing the desert.

After all  this time away, it is strange to think we will be back in the states in 4 days. The time has really flown!