From a Wall Street Journal online article:

A will to avoid traveling absurd distances had informed our itinerary, but in Mongolia, it seems, you can’t get anywhere without one hell of a journey. The arena for this particular expedition was the Khar Us Nuur National Park. Accessible by road from the dusty town of Khovd, itself a two-hour flight from the capital, Ulaanbaatar, the park spans a transitional zone between the Altai highlands and the Gobi Desert. In the company of our driver, Gala, my friend Marcus and I had set out to experience three of Mongolia’s predominant habitats—steppe, mountains and desert—in the space of one drivable circuit.

WE HAD already been driving for three hours when the lake appeared in the heat-shimmer and the pink smear behind it resolved into sand dunes. I guessed it would be around 10 minutes until we reached the shore. Fifteen tops. We arrived at the water’s edge two hours later. On the empty plains of Western Mongolia, perspective is illusory, patience a necessity.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-road-trip-in-mongolia-bizarre-in-the-best-way-11572520659