CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
It goes by way of Upper Tsagaan Gol, Aral Tolgoi and back through Upper Tsagaan Gol. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 2,950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Russia into Mongolia - carry ID and check the toll rules. Open plateau country, wide and exposed.
The Ukok Plateau is where Russia runs out of room. At around two thousand meters, in the far south of the Altai Republic, a wide cold steppe lies pinned between the borders of Kazakhstan, China and Mongolia, with snow peaks on the horizon and permafrost under the grass. It is part of the Golden Mountains of Altai, a UNESCO site listed in 1998, and the Russian authorities named it a Quiet Zone to protect the landscape and the traditions of the people who live and herd animals here.
Read the complete Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau is where the day begins. Next is Upper Tsagaan Gol.
Far out in Mongolia's westernmost corner, where the country wedges itself between Russia, China and Kazakhstan, the Altai mountains rise to the glaciated crown of Tavan Bogd. Below them the Tsagaan Gol, the White River, runs through valleys of larch and bare rock, and on the walls above the water prehistoric hunters carved some of the finest petroglyphs in Central Asia. They are part of the Petroglyphic Complexes of the Mongolian Altai, a UNESCO listing that spans thousands of years, from around the end of the Ice Age through the Bronze Age to the early Turkic era. The images show ibex, aurochs, deer, camels, hunters with bows, and in the later layers horsemen and chariots.
Read the complete Upper Tsagaan Gol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Upper Tsagaan Gol comes up about 85 km into the recorded legs. Next is Aral Tolgoi.
Aral Tolgoi sits on a bend of open ground in the Altai of western Mongolia, in the province of Bayan-Ulgii, where the land climbs steadily toward the borders with China and Russia. The name has the sound of a place: tolgoi means a hill or head, and aral an island, so think of a rise standing out in flat, braided ground, perhaps once surrounded by channels of the river nearby. It is part of the same ancient story as the petroglyph sites that lie along these valleys.
Read the complete Aral Tolgoi write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 139 km into the recorded legs you reach Aral Tolgoi. Next is back through Upper Tsagaan Gol.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Upper Tsagaan Gol write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Upper Tsagaan Gol, late in the day. Next is Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau. That is the ride.
Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau → Upper Tsagaan Gol is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Upper Tsagaan Gol → Aral Tolgoi is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Aral Tolgoi → back through Upper Tsagaan Gol is 54 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Upper Tsagaan Gol → Ukok Quiet Zone on the Ukok Plateau is 85 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.