If you’ve explored the U.S. national parks and are craving something wilder, Mongolia might be the adventure you’re looking for. 

From glacier-carved valleys to flame-colored cliffs, Mongolia’s national park alternatives to US parks offer breathtaking landscapes without the crowds. Whether you’re into alpine lakes, desert canyons, or untouched wilderness, this country rivals America’s best in raw beauty and solitude.

In this guide, we’ll compare top U.S. parks with their Mongolian counterparts to show why Mongolia is a top national park destination you shouldn’t overlook.

Why Mongolia Is the Ultimate Nature Destination

When most travelers think of epic landscapes, their minds often wander to the U.S. National Parks. Yosemite’s sheer cliffs, Yellowstone’s volcanic craters, or the orange hoodoos of Bryce Canyon. Mongolia is a land that rewrites your sense of scale, silence, and soul-stirring beauty.

Imagine a country with no fences, few paved roads, and skies so wide you forget where the earth ends. Mongolia’s landscapes are just as diverse and dramatic as anything you’d find in the U.S., except here, the crowds are gone, the wilderness is real, and the experience feels like time-traveling into a world that modern tourism forgot.

1. Mongolia’s Yosemite National Park → Yolyn Am (Yol Valley)

If Yosemite is California’s lush valley jewel, Yolyn Am is Mongolia’s quiet, frozen cousin, tucked away in the southern Gobi Desert, of all places.

Surrounded by the towering cliffs of the Gobi Gurvansaikhan Mountains, Yolyn Am is a dramatic gorge that remains icy well into summer. Yes, ice in the desert, a fact that surprises nearly every visitor. It’s a surreal contrast: green grass underfoot, towering canyon walls above, and a glacier-like ribbon of ice stretching deep into the gorge.

You won’t find any roads through the canyon, only a narrow hiking trail that follows the icy stream, flanked by chirping birds and curious wild ibex. Compared to Yosemite’s crowds, this place feels like your own private cathedral of stone and sky.

Travel Tip: Come early in the day to see the light filter into the narrow canyon walls. Bring layers, even in July.

2. Mongolia’s Grand Canyon → Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa)

The Grand Canyon stuns with its vast scale and painted cliffs—but in Mongolia, 차간 수바르가또는 하얀 사리탑, gives you the same jaw-dropping, color-streaked cliffs with far fewer footprints.

Located in the Dundgovi Province, this natural formation was carved by ancient seas and millennia of erosion. The landscape appears out of nowhere: a cascading series of ochre, pink, white, and rust-colored cliffs, crumbling into a desert below. It’s one of those places where you just stand still and soak in the silence. It’s spiritual, surreal, and alien all at once.

Why Go: It’s the perfect sunrise or sunset stop. The shadows on the cliffs shift every few seconds, creating new layers and textures. It’s also a photographer’s dream.

3. Mongolia’s Bryce Canyon → Bayanzag (The Flaming Cliffs)

If you love the fire-colored hoodoos of Bryce Canyon, you’ll be completely awestruck by Bayanzag또는 Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia.

Unlike Bryce, Bayanzag isn’t filled with towering spires, but its fiery red sandstone cliffs glow with an almost supernatural intensity, especially at sunset. This is also a paleontological goldmine: in 1923, Roy Chapman Andrews (the real-life inspiration for Indiana Jones) discovered the first dinosaur eggs ever found in the world right here.

Much like Bryce Canyon, most travelers just come here for a quick sunset stop and viewpoint. 

전문가 팁: Camp nearby for the night and watch the cliffs turn from orange to deep red to purple under a starlit sky. There are few better stargazing spots on Earth.

4. Mongolia’s Yellowstone National Park → Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur National Park

Yellowstone is known for its geothermal wonders, but Khorgo-Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur delivers a wild volcanic landscape of its own, complete with an extinct volcano you can hike and a pristine lake. 

Located in central Mongolia, this national park surrounds Terkhiin Tsagaan Nuur, a sapphire-blue lake created by lava flows. Right next to it is Mount Khorgo, an extinct volcano with a 200-meter-deep crater that you can walk around and peer into.

Why It’s Special: This park combines volcanoes, lakes, caves, and ancient lava fields—all in a tranquil alpine setting. It’s perfect for camping, kayaking, and even soaking in nearby hot springs.

While it’s most definitely not as large as Yellowstone, you do get many volcanic elements as well as the forests. 

5. Mongolia’s Everglades National Park → Uvs Lake Basin

Everglades fans appreciate wild wetlands, birdlife, and ecological variety. In Mongolia, that spirit lives on in the Uvs Lake Basin, a UNESCO World Heritage Site at the crossroads of multiple ecosystems.

Uvs Lake is Mongolia’s largest lake and a crucial stopover for migratory birds. The surrounding landscape includes sand dunes, snowcapped mountains, salty marshes, and freshwater rivers, all within driving distance of each other. So, a little more diverse than the Everglades. 

What makes it magical is the stillness: the call of a bird echoing across still waters, a herder on horseback reflected in the glassy lake, the wind rustling through reeds.

When to Go: Spring and autumn migrations bring an incredible variety of birds—including rare cranes, eagles, and swans.

6. Mongolia’s Rocky Mountain National Park → Altai Tavan Bogd National Park

This might be the most dramatic comparison on the list.

If the Rockies are your benchmark for mountain beauty, prepare to have your expectations shattered by 알타이 타반 보그드, Mongolia’s crown jewel of the west.

Home to Khüiten Peak, Mongolia’s tallest mountain, and massive glaciers like Potanin, this park offers high alpine meadows, ice fields, and untouched snowcaps. It’s also home to the Kazakh eagle hunters, whose centuries-old traditions live on in remote villages.

Trekking here is not just a physical journey, it’s a cultural and spiritual expedition into one of Asia’s least-explored corners.

Must-Do: Hike to the base of the Potanin Glacier and camp under the stars. Bring a guide and prepare for no cell service—just pure, high-altitude wilderness.

7. Mongolia’s Zion National Park → Ikh Gazriin Chuluu

Zion’s beauty lies in its towering rock formations and sacred-feeling canyons. Mongolia’s Ikh Gazriin Chuluu delivers a similar atmosphere with its maze of granite formations rising from the steppe.

This lesser-known gem in Dundgovi Province is filled with hidden springs, sacred stones, and narrow canyons ideal for hiking and exploring. It’s also steeped in legend—some locals believe it’s a spiritual center of the earth.

8. Mongolia’s Acadia National Park → Lake Khövsgöl National Park

If you love Acadia for its lakes, forests, and cool breezes, Lake Khövsgöl will feel like a magical twin on the opposite side of the world.

Known as the “Blue Pearl of Mongolia,” Lake Khövsgöl holds over 70% of the country’s freshwater and is estimated to be over 2 million years old. The surrounding mountains are perfect for hiking, and the lake itself is ideal for kayaking, fishing, or simply relaxing beside the shimmering blue water.

You’ll also meet Dukha reindeer herders, Mongolian shamans, and experience a slice of life deeply connected to nature and spirit.

Best Time to Visit: June to August. You’ll get wildflowers, mild temperatures, and long daylight hours.

9. Mongolia’s Great Smoky Mountains National Park → Bogd Khan Uul National Park

If the misty ridgelines and forested trails of the Great Smoky Mountains speak to your soul, then Bogd Khan Uul will feel like a spiritual sibling, just one that happens to overlook Mongolia’s capital city. As one of the oldest protected areas on Earth (designated in 1778), Bogd Khan Uul blends natural beauty, sacred history, and surprising biodiversity in a compact but powerful package. 

Hike up through pine and birch forests to reach Tsetsee Gun peak, and you’ll be rewarded with sweeping views of Ulaanbaatar and the vast steppe beyond. Like the Smokies, the mountain is wrapped in cultural reverence, with ancient monasteries tucked into its folds and legends whispered in the wind. 

It’s a place where nature and spirituality meet, and the best part? You can go from city streets to mountain trails in under an hour.

Experience Mongolia’s Greatest Natural Wonders With Us! 

For travelers who’ve explored the iconic national parks of the United States, Mongolia offers a wild and worthy rival. Its dramatic canyons, volcanic landscapes, alpine lakes, and desert cliffs echo the beauty of places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon—but with a twist: here, nature remains raw, untamed, and largely untouched by mass tourism. 

There are no entry gates, no paved trails, and no crowds—just you, the land, and a deep, humbling silence. Whether you’re chasing adventure, solitude, or cultural depth, Mongolia stands shoulder to shoulder with the world’s greatest wilderness destinations. 

We offer plenty of tours to help guide you into the Mongolian national parks of your choosing.