The wheels carry time, and the valleys carry legends. In a deep and narrow canyon, an off-road vehicle drove past, splashing water, and vanishing into the distance. Seeing such a picture, will your blood boil and yearn? This canyon is the secret place next to the Qinghai-Tibet Highway - the Grand Canyon of Kunlun Mountains.

The Kunlun Mountain Grand Canyon is located in Golmud City, Haixi Prefecture, Qinghai Province, near the 2812 kilometers of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway G109 National Highway. It is a new cross-country crossing net red holy place.

For a long time, the Grand Canyon of Kunlun Mountain has been hidden under Weiwei Kunlun Snow Mountain, about 15 kilometers away from the main road of Qinghai-Tibet Highway. Because it is sparsely populated and undeveloped, few people set foot on it, and it is far less famous than the Kunlun Mountain Gate, Yuzhu Peak, Kunlun Holy Spring, and Hoh Xil Protection Station on both sides of the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. A few years ago, the geological exploration team accidentally discovered this geological wonder during geological exploration, and it became known to the world.


Kunlun Mountain Grand Canyon is a part of Kunlun Mountain World Geopark, which records the landform changes of Kunlun Mountain for hundreds of millions of years. The Grand Canyon is about 12 kilometers long and is most suitable for cross-country surfing; the Antelope Valley is most suitable for hiking; the Snow Mountain Canyon is most suitable for watching snow in Pinghu.


Go southwest along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway out of Golmud. After 70 kilometers, you can see the sign of Kunlun Mountain Grand Canyon on the left side of the road. Get off the national highway and drive onto a dirt road. After driving for 20 minutes, Rainbow Hydropower Station jumped into my eyes. After driving past the Rainbow Hydropower Station, we came to an open land.


In the distance, there are majestic and towering snow-capped mountains, and the grass-free open land extends to the foot of the snow-capped mountains, and the simple dirt road leads to the distance. Vehicles drive by, kicking up billows of dust. Is this the Kunlun Mountains Grand Canyon? Is it wrong? Xiaoyu couldn't help feeling suspicious.


My friend saw my worry and said with a smile, "Don't worry, I didn't go wrong. Don't worry, the best is yet to come."


The car continued to drive forward, bumped for about 20 minutes, and finally stopped. Not far away, a green lake jumped into my eyes. The rock walls of the surrounding mountains are exposed with rough textures, and the snow-capped mountains in the distance are shining with silver light. My friend told me that this is the Snow Mountain Canyon, one of the three major attractions in the Kunlun Mountain Grand Canyon Scenic Area. The road ahead has not been repaired, we can only look at it from a distance.

Fly the drone over the lake. On the other side of the lake, the lake water has washed out a narrow gap in the calm and open land, which is best described as a crack in the earth. That crack is our other destination today - the Grand Canyon.


The Grand Canyon is almost hidden under the grassland, so it is easily overlooked. Therefore, no one would have thought that there would be a canyon 12 kilometers long and tens of meters deep hidden in the vast wasteland.


There is such a saying about the formation of the Grand Canyon. The melted snow water of Kunlun Snow Mountain formed the Shuergan River (the source of the Golmud River), cut the jagged boulders, and formed this canyon alive at the foot of Kunlun Mountain.


This is the green mulberry carved by the erosion of hundreds of millions of years of snow-capped mountains, and this is the annual rings carved by Kunlun Mountain. Its landscape is peculiar and shocking. From the perspective of the air, it is a very inconspicuous distance, but when you really walk in it, you will know how steep, rough and tossing the road is.

Then, we left the snow mountain canyon, and then drove along the Gobi above the canyon to the mountains on the left. At the beginning, there was a simple dirt road, but after running for a while, the road was gone, and the front was desolate, even the snow-capped mountains in the distance disappeared, and the mountains in front were bare without a trace of life. The altitude here is about 3500 meters.

We carefully followed the sound of water and slowly descended to the bottom of the valley. Standing under the canyon and looking up at the steep cliffs, the friends all felt the magnificence and magic of nature.


The valley is a dry riverbed, and there are ripple marks washed by the water flow, which are the imprints left by the torrents when it rains. The bare stone mountain has no vegetation, and the rainwater will flow away in an instant. Rather than saying it is the Grand Canyon, it is actually a crack formed by the erosion of the Surgan River. It is not so much a river bed, but a rocky beach.

The concave and convex Grand Canyon is wide and narrow. The widest part is about ten meters, and the total length is about 12 kilometers. There are towering cliffs on both sides. It is said that the deepest drop is nearly 50 meters.

The large and small pebbles at the bottom of the river have been scoured by snow water for hundreds of millions of years, showing various colors and shapes, which are wonderful. It is very quiet here, as if you can hear the whispers of the earth, gently telling the changes of hundreds of millions of years. Looking up at the blue sky, I feel my soul has been purified.



The off-road vehicles went up the valley, sometimes rolling over rocky beaches and sometimes crossing streams. The off-road vehicle drove by and splashed high water, we were like a few beetles wriggling in the Grand Canyon, crawling in this lonely world, only the roar of the engine echoed in the valley.



This is a new experience unique in the world, whose mystery and shock make the expression of language poor and pale. This is a miracle bestowed by nature, and this is the worship of Kunlun standing in the sky. The thrill of crossing the river is too exciting and enjoyable!

The further you drive, the narrower the canyon becomes, the deeper the wading road, and there are sharp pebbles everywhere, and you will fall into danger if you don't pay attention. After bending several river valleys, the bottom of the valley narrows, and it becomes more and more difficult to walk. You stop and go, and gradually there are no traces of human activities.

Going forward, a boulder stopped in the middle of the valley, so I stopped immediately. However, the friends became more and more excited, and they drove back and forth in the canyon several times, feeling the excitement of hundreds of millions of years of snow rushing.

We turned around and drove for a while, and came to the branch next to the Grand Canyon-Antelope Canyon.





The Antelope Valley is somewhat similar to the Antelope Valley in the United States, the Wave Valley in Jingbian, Shaanxi, and the Tianshan Grand Canyon in Kuqa, Xinjiang. They are all formed by the erosion of flowing water. The total length of Antelope Canyon is about 800 meters, more than twice the length of Antelope Canyon in the United States, and it is more unique and spectacular, but the local development is not as mature as Antelope Valley.



Our friends told us not to enter the valley when it rains. The mountain where Antelope Valley is located is extremely dry and hard, with poor water absorption. The rushing water and the sand and gravel that are carried down all the way are almost indestructible, and there is no place to hide, so it is very dangerous.





The entire Antelope Valley is just me and my friends, so quiet that there is only the sound of walking. Only one person can pass through the narrowest place, and it can transform into strange colors under the sun. Suddenly, I feel extremely exciting.



At present, the Kunlun Mountain Grand Canyon Scenic Spot is under development. The Antelope Valley and the Grand Canyon are the first phase. In the near future, you can experience off-road motorcycles, self-driving four-wheel off-road, horseback riding, hiking, canyon rafting, starry sky camping, etc. It is said that the scenic spot will also be equipped with the most personalized coffee house in the world, with a glass sightseeing platform and trails, a tea bar for drinking tea and reading snow mountains, leisure drinks and barbecues, etc. The snow mountain canyon is the second phase. In the future, individual tourists will not be accepted, and it is only open to professional hiking teams.

文图/纳兰小鱼 小午