We had the pleasure of going on a couple of short camping trips this last summer–once just our family and the second time with another foreign family. Although Eric grew up hiking and camping, my family didn’t really do that so this has been a new-ish experience for me, especially as one of the persons coordinating the trip. Let me tell you, as folks who typically are in UB, getting out of the city, especially during the short summer season, is amazing. We are truly blessed to live in such a beautiful country!

On to the camping experience!

For us, we went car camping–not hiking in and out–because we have 3 young kids and don’t hate ourselves that much. We acquired a good chunk of our camping gear from friends who moved and supplemented with a couple of trips to local outdoor stores. We packed our SUV, followed a friend’s directions to a recommended camping spot, and hit the proverbial trail, which followed paved roads, dirt roads, then criss-crossing tire tracks across the open countryside.

We got stuck on a log in a mud pit right next to the suggested campsite and then had to schlep all our camping stuff in next to the climbing rock and set up camp. There was no way we were going anywhere without help, and it was late enough to know that we needed to eat dinner and try to get some sleep before tackling the issue further. (Additional attempts to get out only spun us deeper in the mud until we were high centered.)

Although there are official campgrounds and ger camps available in Mongolia, I will say there is something freeing about going camping just…out in nature. Of course, we cleaned up after ourselves and made sure to pack everything out that we packed in. More importantly, we were able to call in a friend who helped pull us out of the mud, and overall camping was a success! A little sunburn, a few bug bites, lots of dirt and playing in the creek made for great memories.

We are back in the US for the next year, so we are looking at the possibility of going camping as a family while here as well as upgrading and expanding our camping gear. Since we got our feet wet, we definitely want to do it more often. Again, Mongolia’s countryside is gorgeous and vast–so much to see and explore!