From Montana to Mongolia

By Courtney Lowery, 3-21-06

Jim Robbins, a Helena-based writer and friend of New West has returned to Montana from Mongolia where he was on assignment for Conde Nast Traveler. His piece on Mongolia is in the April issue of Traveler but he's offered us a few photos from his trip that show just how much Mongolia is like Montana. This photo is of a woman watching a horserace in the Dharhat Valley in northern Mongolia, near the Siberian border.

In an excerpt from the piece, Jim writes:

"Driving from the desert lands in the south to the mountains and forests of the north is very much like driving from Nevada to Montana without the paved roads and most of the people and towns. In a country half the size of Europe, there are just 2.7 million people, and half of them live in cities and towns. The rest of the country is home to one of the last great nomadic cultures on Earth, a centuries old horse culture, whose lives are defined by moving with their sheep, goats and yaks from one green pasture to the next. There are precious few places left where you can ride your steed over the far hill, and the next one and the next one, and never encounter a fence, not have to worry about private property or running into anyone who isn’t happy to see you." [End of article]