Mongolian Golden Eagle Festival

For adventuresome travelers, experiencing a Mongolian golden eagle festival is a pinnacle experience. Massive golden eagles perched on the worn leather gloves of mounted horsemen and women dressed in their finest traditional fur-trimmed garb. This trip was my opportunity to see it all in person.

I was introduced to a wonderful and highly reputable outfitter in Mongolia through a great, longtime client. He has strong ties to the international adventure tourism industry, and he made our add-on tour a seamless pleasure. After returning to Ulaanbaatar and overnighting, we met our guide early in the morning and he got us checked into our flight to Ulgi (which the outfitter had arranged as part of the package). Ulgi is near the westernmost corner of Mongolia. This is a four-corners like region where the borders of Russia, China, and Mongolia all touch and the border of Kazakhstan is ever so slightly separated from Mongolia. This area is defined by the snow clad, desert-like Altai Mountains and is culturally distinct from most of Mongolia. It is populated by Kazaks that fled Russian colonization and persecution beginning in the 1840’s. They are casual Muslims, many of whom enjoy drinking, rarely pray towards Meca and have for centuries used eagles to hunt fur bearing animals in winter. As far as I can tell, they are the world’s only eagle hunters, and in recent years they have breathed new life into their cultural traditions by sharing their ancient skills and competitions with the public through eagle festivals. While Mongolia welcomes only 300,000 tourists annually, the hub of Ulgi is the hotspot for seeing eagle hunters and there are multiple festivals held in the region each fall. We visited the one in Sagsai, but there are others, so often different travel dates can sync up with a festival.

The day before the festival our outfitter arranged for us to visit an eagle hunting family in their yurt. There was an overly gracious spread of traditional (and challenging) food waiting for us, with strange, dried cheeses, bland fried breads, yogurts, and dried fruits accompanied by yak-butter tea. There were shy kids hiding behind the curtains of the tidy, vibrantly decorated yurt, and we were able to ask basic questions with the help of our guide, as the Kazaks do not speak Mongolian. We took them up on their offer to let us wear some of their traditional garb, and we could take all the photos we wanted, which was great fun. Then we got to handle the eagles, which was amazing. And later we followed them out into the field, where they did some great ride-byes on horseback that we were able to photograph in private.

We stayed three nights at a semi-funky but comfortable yurt camp on the outskirts of Ulgi and drove 45 minutes to Sagsia on days two and three to visit the festival. Often, with the right number of guests, our outfitter sets up a private yurt camp near the festival and staffs it with excellent chefs, which is the ideal set up, but our schedule was such that we happily accepted and enjoyed alternative accommodations.

Arriving at the festival site was like landing at a mini-Mongolian Burning Man festival. Land Cruisers and Russian 4-wheel drive vans were parked in the middle of nowhere and there were tents, yurts and local crafts people set up with their goods. There was a brilliant mountain backdrop, and the scene was mellow, rather intimate, super friendly and safe. You could order food and drink, but there were no disposable cups or plates, and the locals and competitors were riding around in the crowd on horseback, often with eagles on their arms. They too were very comfortable with photographers, and a good portion of the visitors were very serious photographers with massive lenses.

The competitions spanned two days and were highlighted by timed competitions where the rider/hunter was near the audience and then signaled their eagle to be released from a small peak a quarter mile away. The fastest reunion won. There were also speed competitions for gifted riders where they would slide sideways off their saddles at full-tilt and snatch a parcel off the ground, throwing it triumphantly into the air if they got it. This was particularly impressive. The last day was dominated by endless elimination rounds of tug-of-wars on horseback. But instead of using a rope, two horsemen would face each other, and one would get the front legs of a beheaded goat and the other the hind legs. Then with no hands to guide their horses they would use their strength as well as their horses, to try and rip the goat from the other’s hands. In one such war, two seasoned competitors raced off in full gallop, attached by only a headless goat, and went right through the audience and out of site!  I have no idea which one came out victorious, but it was one heck of a battle! 

The eagle festival was wonderfully exotic, fun and a particularly appealing venue for folks that enjoy photography, horsemanship, and foreign culture.

Beyond Taimen: Golden Eagles, Asiatic Trout and the Soul of Mongolia by Ken Morrish
Read more of Ken Morrish's Mongolia destination recap HERE.

Eg-Ur Taimen Camp - Hosted Trip with Jake Crawford 2026
Join Fly Water Travel's Jake Crawford on a hosted trip that includes taimen and lenok fishing on the Eg-Ur Rivers, followed by a four-star Gobi tour, and an eagle festival next year. Find out more HERE.