Fifteen feet of pure white snow

N 47 54.272 E 107 24.944 - 17 October - Terelj

The morning is beautiful. Everything is covered with about an inch of snow, which really does pretty the normal drab browns up quite a bit. We are in a valley, high hills in most directions. Much of it is covered with trees. The larches do a lovely thing, the fresh snow then has a yellow halo around the base of the trees where the needles have fallen off during the night. We were supposed to be somewhere near Turtle Rock, which from the pictures seems pretty recognizable and dominates the valley it is in. We ask, it is right there. Oh yeah, like 200 meters away, we drove past it last night in the dark and it is there, really huge and really does look a lot like a turtle.

Our plan for the day is a long hike. No driving, no horses or anything organized, just a random hike somewhere nice. Might as well head that way, it seems nice over there and maybe we can go up over the mountain there and see what is on the other side. As we leave, we somehow acquire a dog, a big black dog, seems friendly and content to follow us the entire day. Maybe that is a service here, animals to accompany you like dogs and kittens. We nickname him Mega Dog. He wanders off occasionally during the day and spends some time barking at unknown things but generally seems to be somewhere around.

Anyways, the hike, it is a great day. It is really good hiking over the fresh snow, it is a perfect day, sunny and warming. Terelj Park is really a great place, amazing something like that is just a short drive away from UB. We hike among cows and yaks and see lots of eagles overhead. We make it to the high point, up at the top of the mountain and have a nice lunch sitting on our jackets in the snow eating lunch. Turtle Rock is also very nice looking from a whole lot of different angles and distances. I never do figure out which rock formation is Man Reading A Book though. Oh well. The park is mostly deserted too, we see just a few other people all day.

Back at the ger, we go on a shoe drying rampage. Everybody's are a bit damp and are propped up in different places around the ger. Close enough to dry but not too close where they catch on fire. One of mine is really wet, I accidently stepped into a bit of a stream at the end of the day. Gotta love waterproof socks, my feet were dry it just felt a bit squishy walking.