The wilderness always makes you eager to run to her next time 

Sven Hedin

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2018.7.24 Sunny Delingha

I would like to post this to commemorate our trip to Lake Harrah in 2018

Hara Lake, which means Black Sea in Mongolian, is known as "Sky Lake".

Hala Lake is located in the north of Delingha, hidden deep in the hinterland of Qilian Mountains.

It is the second largest saltwater lake in the province after Qinghai Lake.

It is little known, but in the eyes of self-driving travelers,

The drop of "crystal clear tears" on the earth.

Like all travel enthusiasts who have heard of Lake Harrah,

We also determined to visit without hesitation.

From any paper or Internet map, the specific driving route to Hara Lake cannot be found, and the online travel notes are also vague.

What is certain is that the road conditions around Lake Hara are complex and changeable.

There is basically no mobile phone signal in the surrounding area of ​​the lake area, and incidents such as people losing contact and emergency rescue often occur in bad weather.

I arrived in Delingha from Qaidam last night and learned that the weather has remained fine in the past week. Our trip to explore the secrets doubles our confidence.

A Lincoln SUV, a Chevrolet Cruze, 6 teammates,

That's our team.

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It was past 9 am, an hour later than planned.

Delingha is a small city, so go straight north along Kunlun Road for a few kilometers.

Then enter the Cypress Mountain Scenic Area.

Before the first checkpoint, there are signs along the road:

Lake Hara 127 km.

After registering the license plate, phone number and personal information,

We drive into Cypress Hill Free Open Area.

After entering the mountain, I didn't go far, and all my mobile phones lost signal.

The road also gradually turned into a mixture of sand, gravel and mud.

At present, the Hara Lake area is the training area of ​​the Rocket Force, and military signs can be clearly seen along the road.

After driving for more than an hour, it began to encounter multiple geological disaster sections without interruption.

We crossed the first four ditches of different lengths and depths relatively easily, and finally got off the car collectively at the fifth puddle road.

Through careful investigation back and forth, the pits are filled to remove sharp stones,

The vehicle finally drove safely through this most complex disaster road section.

The average altitude of the Hala Lake area is above 4,000 meters, and the vehicle crosses many mountain passes, with an altitude of 4,700 meters.

Lake Hara is in a primitive ecological environment, and the surrounding area is inaccessible.

There are many swamps in the lake area, and the largest river in the basin is the Bayin River.

There are many snow-capped mountains and glaciers around Lake Hara.

The north shore of the lake area is close to the Tuanjie Peak at an altitude of 5826 meters.

It is the main peak of Qilian Mountains.

There are many kinds of wetland birds living and breeding in the lake area, and it is also the habitat of wild animals such as wild donkeys, wild yaks, Tibetan gazelles, wild wolves and brown bears.

Mercedes-Benz on the rough and gravel road, passing through the vast and desolate no-man's land, in front of you is the snow peak of Shule Nanshan in the oil painting world.

After passing the second checkpoint, there is still 72 kilometers away from Lake Hara.

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Finally, you can see the clear jade-like lake under Xuefeng, and everything will attract your eyes and reach your heart.

At 13:30 in the afternoon, we stood on the south bank of Lake Hara.

The lake area covers an area of ​​about 600 square kilometers and is 4,000 meters above sea level, mainly relying on glacial meltwater for recharge.

There were dozens of vehicles and dozens of people who arrived at the south bank of Lake Hara that day.

The Qilian Mountains surround the lake, and the ice and snow mountains are continuous, like a thousand layers of snow, sprinkled with dark brown chocolate.

Facing the lake and overlooking the Tuanjie Peak on the opposite bank, the sky and the lake are beautifully reflected.

The mountain lake is quiet.

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Stop for about 2 hours, in order to avoid unexpected weather in the lake area,

The road was complicated and changed, and all the vehicles evacuated one after another, embarking on the return journey.

Although we didn't encounter wild wolves or brown bears along the way, we saw yaks and Tibetan antelopes from a distance, and saw vultures preying on small field mice.

The low-flying vultures fly in formation before our eyes;

Qi Qi landed on the low hills to the left, scanning the vast wilderness ahead of them ferociously...

Overcome all kinds of rough and dangerous sections on the road again;

On the way, we changed a tire that was punctured by stones. Before sunset, we drove out of Cypress Mountain and returned to Delingha.

On the return trip of the Hara Lake Quest, there were unexpected episodes in other teams that met unexpectedly:

The Kopaqi encountered a malfunction and stalled; in the picture, the Wrangler stood up in the wetland and could not be rescued. Instead, he fell into the swamp with his teammates' two off-road vehicles...

Fortunately, on that night in Delingha, I saw that they had emerged from the rescue.

It is not perfect to go back and forth in a hurry to explore Lake Hara.

But I was lucky enough to travel through and see the lakes and mountains, and my wish is fulfilled.

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I would like to use this post to record the teammates who visited Hara Lake together.

Lake Hara, the most memorable part of the 2018 Silk Road trip.

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If you like my text, please read other travel notes, thank you for your attention.