Back in Ulaan Baatar, our guide Deegii promised that during our caravan we’d get a glimpse of a “Frozen Waterfall.” Sounded great, but following our experiences with other areas possessing lofty titles, (i.e “The Place with Trees,” that turned out to be low-lying shrubs) we weren’t sure what to expect.

Unloading from the van, we saw an icy stream in the midst of an otherwise flat area; nothing resembling a waterfall in sight.

Our doubts mounted, but Deegii assured us that there was a waterfall just a short walk down the stream.

And man, she wasn’t kidding. The flatland and stream suddenly gave-way to a gapping hole in the Earth.

And there before us was the waterfall, frozen as promised.  It was massive and went far beyond what any of us had imagined to be possible.

The Gobi is a desert, right?

The waterfall was truly frozen solid – something I’ve never seen before! It was a stunning sight of ice and rock.

We took turns hurling rocksboulders over the side of the 25 meter cliff, thinking that we might break the ice below.

No dice – those boulders did nothing but bounce on the surface without even leaving dents.

Gawking at the waterfall, we were shocked to turn around and see our Ger for the evening off in the distance.

Fifteen minutes of walking through the golden countryside – past yaks and horses – and we found all of our gear already unloaded from the van and deposited in our Ger.

We settled in, looked out our front door and got a view of what our evening had in store…