Upper Dolpo Trekking

Upon arrival through the great city of Kathmandu, you will also be received by the hardworking representative at the airport and transferred to the assigned hotel during your stay. After you take a break and get refreshed, you can join members of the group heading for Upper Dolpo with you for a briefing on the journey.  You can put forward your queries to the trek leader during this time. A fun dinner program awaits you at an authentic restaurant alongside the cultural show.

You will depart from your hotel in the morning for the Kathmandu sightseeing tour around the places which have significant cultural, religious and historical importance like the major stupas, temples, monasteries all included in the World Heritage Sites list of UNESCO.  You will get time to prepare for Upper Dolpo trek in the afternoon.

On this day, we take a flight to Nepalgunj (50 minutes) as we relish the scenic views of snowy peaks from the plane. We will stay overnight at a hotel located in the city area.

After early morning breakfast, we head to Jhupal (35-40 minutes) via flight and then reach Dunai(two hours)  via drive.  Dunai is an important administrative zone for the whole Dolpo area and is the main headquarter. Overnight stay at Dunai. 

Our morning walk takes us to a ridge to Phoksumdo river valley as we cross the bridge of Thulo Bheri river. We reach the stream of Dhera, a summer settlement of cattle herders and then to the Rahagaon village. We descend to Chhepka, a tiny farm village.

Our destination of the day is Samdua village; we reach there as we climb and then descend through the jungle to reach the river bank and then move to a ridge to get to the Ryajik village from where we trek to Samdua for an overnight stay.

Our morning walk will take us to the Phoksundo lake as we walk over the valley named Pungmo Kholas and cross streams following the Pungmo river as we ascend pine and birch forests to reach Upper region of Phoksumdo Khola. 

As we walk to the interesting Ringmo village; a short walk from here takes us to turquoise Phoksundo lake where we stay overnight by the shore.

We will take some time and savor the beauty of the natural environment of Phoksundo exploring its varied landscape, watching the snowy peaks of Kagmara, strolling around the Ringmo village, studying the local lifestyle and culture along with the important heritage. 

On this day, we head to the Upper Dolpo which is the main destination of our thrilling adventure; we ascend rocky ledge high alongside river bank with several ups and downs.

As our walk takes us to the end of the lake past the summer settlements which then takes us to the Phoksundo Khola where we stay overnight camping beside the banks.

In the morning, we head to Phoksundo Bhanjyang as we walk past Phoksundo Khola and ascend hilly slopes to reach a high edge with majestic views of the lush green valley to Kang La pass en route Shey Gompa. We stay overnight camping in the green pasture land.

We start our trek by climbing uphill to reach Kang La pass from Phoksundo Bhanjyang, this is one of the highest elevations of our adventure.  We will see the scenic view of mountains including Mt. Dhaulagiri. We move towards Shey Gompa which is located at the bottom of the Crystal Mountain known as the Holy Mountain with the old monastery at close proximity.

We will get some rest on this day; we will visit the Shey Monastery or Crystal Monastery. We will get to savor the natural surroundings of this place.

We continue to move to Sela or Gela La (5094 meters) which has to offer an amazing view of landscapes and the Mt. Dhaulagiri peak.  We then head to Namgung Gaon which is our final destination for the day.

We head to our overnight camp at Saldang; we move across the dusty terrain and ascend uphill to reach Saldang.

We make our way to Chagaon village as we follow the Nang Chu river with several ups and downs as we pass through Dechen Laparan and Sugugaon, a summer settlement for cattle herders. Then we head to Chagaon village which has Old Rapa Gompa and the historic Bon Pa culture.

We move south to the Tarap valley which is around Dho Tarap and Tokyu village, we then head to Dachu Khola and walk beyond. We take the same route following farm fields and then camp at the summer settlement nearby.

On this day, we walk through summer pastures for some time and then from the base of Jyanta La, we ascend to the top of the Mt. Dhaulagiri range. We then descend to the base of the pass en route Tokyu village.

We will have an easy walk to Tokyu Gaon today and stay there overnight as we reach there moving through Jeng La (5090 meters).  Tokyu Gaon is an interesting village of Dolpo region with more than 10 villages and beautiful farms and historic monasteries. 

We move downhill to Tarap Chu as we head to our overnight camp at DHo tarap which is an intriguing village with tribes from Tibetan origin as well as the regional Magar tribe. 

We descend to Tarap valley which stretched to Tarap Chu river to join Thuli Bheri river close to the Tarakot village. We trek past Langa observing beautiful waterfalls as we cross Sisaul and Kesila. Overnight stay at Ghymagar.

On this day, we walk on the Tara valley and the route takes us through the narrow gorge. We walk past Toltol which has a big cave; we may get lucky and see the wild animals like the Blue Sheep, Naur and so on. 

After a long walk of six hours, we will stay overnight at a camp at the union of Lang Khola and the river Tarap Chu. 

We walk past small villages, and forests following pristine rivers to reach Tarakot which is one of the largest villages in Dolpo. Tarakot has a historic Sandul Gomba at the junction of Tarap Chu river and Barbung Khola.  Overnight stay here at camp.

After having a good time in Tarakot, we head to Jhupal en route Dunai. We walk till Dunai and then take a short drive to Jhupal. We will have lunch at Dunai and then via jeep, we drive back to Jhupal where we take a morning flight for Nepalgunj and then Kathmandu.

On this day, we will take an early flight to Nepalgunj and take a break; after this, we take another flight to return Kathmandu. Upon reaching Kathmandu, we will leave you to your hotel; you can spend your afternoon as per your preference.

This is a free day for you to do any activity of your preference. You can go shopping or stroll around the streets of Kathmandu-Patan-Bhaktapur.

This is your last day in Nepal. You will be transferred to the airport so you can leave for your home country or for your next destination.