Lake Khövsgöl
A lake 136 km long at 1,645 metres, close to the Russian border, holding almost seventy per cent of Mongolia’s fresh water.
- Arrival
- Mörön · MXV
- To the lake
- About 100 km by road from Mörön
- Private jets
- Mörön, about 2,400 m of asphalt
- Best time
- June to August
The city
Taiga on the shore, grayling in the water.
Khövsgöl is old, more than two million years by the usual count, and big: 2,760 km² of water, up to 36.5 km wide and more than 260 metres deep, with 0.4 per cent of all the fresh water on earth. Khatgal, at the southern tip, is where most visitors start. Perch, burbot and lenok live in the lake, and so does the Hovsgol grayling, found nowhere else. Out in the taiga, Tsaatan families still herd reindeer.
The ice covers everything in winter, and in March the Ice Festival brings games and sculptures out onto it. Summer is brief and cool, rarely above 19 °C by day. From June to August the camps along the shore open, and people ride, kayak or walk up into the hills.
- Khatgal The small town at the southern end of the lake, where the road from Mörön arrives and most camps are found.
- The reindeer herders Tsaatan families in the taiga, who take in guests at their reindeer camps.
- Uran Togoo An extinct volcano on the way up from Mörön, a short climb for the view.
Arriving
Fly to Mörön, then north by road.
Mörön, the provincial centre, has the nearest paved runway, 5.3 km outside town. The lake is about 100 km further north by road; Khatgal has an airfield of its own, but its runway is gravel.
- Beijing 2 h 35
- Almaty 2 h 50
- Tashkent 3 h 45
- London 8 h 35 long-range jet
- Nairobi 11 h 00 long-range jet
When to go
June to August.
Long winters freeze the lake from shore to shore, with January highs near minus 20 °C. June to August is the open season, between 17 and 19 °C by day; July is the wettest month at 93 mm, and by October daytime highs are down to 3 °C.
- -20° J 2
- -15° F 2
- -5° M 3
- 4° A 11
- 13° M 24
- 18° J 60
- 19° J 93
- 17° A 77
- 12° S 36
- 3° O 13
- -9° N 5
- -18° D 2
Flying to Lake Khövsgöl?
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