Bayanzag (Flaming Cliffs) — Gobi Red Sandstone Dinosaur Fossil Beds

Bayanzag — the Flaming Cliffs — is the anchor POI on the southern Mongolian desert circuit and one of the most recognizable landscapes in all of overlanding. The eroded red sandstone badlands drop sharply into a wide basin where American Museum of Natural History expeditions in the 1920s first found Protoceratops and Velociraptor eggs. The cliffs are real, massive, and genuinely dramatic — especially at golden hour when the red stone lights up like embers. You can walk the rim freely, peer down into the gullies, and spot bone fragments without a guide. No fences, no roped-off zones. That’s the Gobi.

This is roughly 100 km northwest of Dalanzadgad on a well-tracked dirt road. Most groups running the Bayanzag–Khongoryn Els circuit overnight here or nearby on the flat ground above the rim. A small ger camp operates seasonally near the site — worth checking for water and basic supplies. Permit technically falls under Gobi Gurvansaikhan National Park entry fees paid at the park gate or Dalanzadgad. Dry, dusty, and stunning from May through October.

Where dinosaurs died. The Gobi's iconic red cliffs.