Get your steppes in

Twice the size of Texas but with less than an eighth of its population, Mongolia is the world's most sparsely populated country. Mostly defined by the wide, flat steppes that top the Mongolian Plateau, its 604,000 square miles are home to just 3.5 million people, about half of whom live in the capital city Ulaanbaatar. Here in Bayan-Ölgii, the westernmost of Mongolia's 21 aimags, we're about as far from the capital as you can get while remaining in the country. Mongolia, China, Russia, and Kazakhstan form a near-quadripoint in this region where the Altai Mountains rise and chilly, clear mountain lakes—like Tolbo Lake here—fill pockets between peaks and foothills.