Western mountains trip day 5: tagong

This was one of the coolest days ever.  I was a bit hesitant when we first started talking about it, because it involved a good bit of driving.  And the previous roads were so terrible I just ... ugh.... didn't want to do it.  But I am so glad that we did!  For one, the roads were incredible! Surprisingly well maintained.  And the scenery just unbelievable.  And the experiences were one of a kind.  

We left our hostel early, headed for a destination north and west.  This is sparsely inhabited territory.  Only a few "large" towns between here and Lhasa.  And Lhasa is a three or four day drive west.  These high elevation grasslands make North Dakota look crowded :) 

Right out of town the road started climbing.  The highest pass we would cross that day came within the first 90 minutes - 14,050 feet.  Not too far on the other side of the pass we decided to stop and visit a nomadic yak herding family.  [The road was very lightly travelled!  We just left the van parked there on the side and let cars pass as needed.]

We were hoping they'd be up for visitors, and were thrilled when this little girl started waving at us as soon as we stopped the engine.  She was 13, gregarious and out going and talkative.  Perfect.

Together with her mom and older sister (her father died) she lives in this tent, up in the grasslands, for the summer months. In the winter they move to lower elevation and she attends school.  Her big sister was laying in the grass, working on her summer studies.

Her mom was busy milking, and very welcoming.  She offered Luke a sip of yak milk, but he declined.

After enough yak-watching we headed down hill.... about another hour on the road and we were in Tagong.  This was the most cars we'd seen in hours.

We were feeling pretty tough - and so was our van :)  It might only have a 1.6 L engine but it served us well and handled everything we asked of it!

The kids were fired up to ride horses on the grasslands and this was the perfect spot.  Matt and the big kids are reading The Horse and His Boy so Isaac was feeling especially excited about these horses!

The peak in the distance is 19,000 feet!

Everyone had a great time.  Except maybe Luke, who had a marginally great time.  He rode for a while, but eventually decided he'd rather Dad carry him :)

Next time we are in this area we hope to stay a few nights out here.

There is so much to explore.  The skies are wide open, big and blue.

We drove a different route back to the hostel and got in about 8pm.  It was just an incredible day.  Definitely one of the highlights of our entire trip.