Mongolia's Wild Cats Quest

Day 1|Arrive in Ulaanbaatar — Summer in the Capital

Airport transfer, 1 hr

Arrival, hotel, and a welcome dinner with your guide — the route west, the two massifs, and what the rangers report from both territories.

Day 2|Altai Mountains via Hovd — The Massif Above the Lakes

Fly 2 hrs, then drive 2–3 hrs

Fly to Hovd and drive into the Altai Mountains — snow leopard country rising straight from the shores of Khar Us Lake. Camp sits between water thick with birds and slopes where the cats den.

Day 3|Altai Mountains — First Days on the Mountain

Summer tracking is a different craft: dawn and dusk vigils around known den areas, midday spent on sign — scrapes, scat, ibex nurseries on the crags. The mountain hums with life from lake to summit.

Day 4|Altai Mountains — Cats With Kittens

In high summer, females with cubs move between den sites and kills — the season's great prize for the patient watcher. The spotters know the likely basins; the long light gives the watches every chance.

Day 5|Altai Mountains — Mountain and Lake

A day working the massif's full height, with time at the lakeshore below — Dalmatian pelicans and relict gulls in season, herders moving summer flocks, and the strange pleasure of watching snow leopard country reflected in warm water.

Day 6|Altai Mountains — Last Day in the Altai

A final dawn on the vantage points, then an afternoon with the community rangers whose patrols keep this isolated population safe — one of Mongolian conservation's quiet triumphs.

Day 7|Khomyn Tal National Park — The Plain of Wild Horses

Drive 3–4 hrs

Cross the lakes basin to Khomyn Tal, where takhi run free between the dunes and the Zavkhan river. An afternoon among the harems — and a comfortable bed at the park lodge.

Day 8|Margaz Mountains — The Second Massif

Drive 2–3 hrs

On to the Margaz Mountains, our most intensively watched cat territory. Summer camp sits among flowering steppe; Pallas's cats hunt the outcrops below while snow leopards keep to the cool heights.

Day 9|Margaz Mountains — Two Cats, One Valley

Days here split naturally: dawn and dusk on the crags for snow leopard, the warm hours among the rocks and marmot towns for Pallas's cat. Few places on earth offer both in a single view.

Day 10|Margaz Mountains — The Rangers' Round

Join the rangers on their camera-trap circuit — fresh portraits of the valley's cats collected as you walk — then settle into the evening watch at the territory's best summer vantage.

Day 11|Margaz Mountains — Final Field Day

One last dawn among the outcrops, one last dusk below the crags, and the farewell feast under a steppe sky loud with larks.

Day 12|Ulaanbaatar via Ulaangom — Return East

Drive 2–3 hrs, then fly 1 hr

Drive to Ulaangom and fly back to Ulaanbaatar for a farewell dinner in the capital.

Day 13|Fly Home — Departure

Airport transfer, 1 hr

Breakfast, transfer, and home — two massifs and a plain of wild horses later.