Upper Dolpo Trek

Nepal Intrepid Treks will be your dedicated travel companion until you return to your home country. Once you arrive at Kathmandu airport, we will be there to pick you up and take you to your hotel. Accommodation for our valued customers includes room and breakfast in a three star hotel in Kathmandu.

Take in the impressions of Nepal as we drive you from the airport to your hotel. We will assist you with the check-in and provide you with further information regarding your Everest Base Camp Trek. You may then have a rest or stroll through the bustling, colorful streets and alleys of Kathmandu.

Prepare for a day of immersion into the Nepalese culture, while visiting the most important landmarks of this fascinating city and its outskirts. Our experienced guide will take you to Kathmandu Durbar Square, a UNESCO heritage site which represents the political and historical values of Nepalese civilization.

We then proceed to Swayambhu Nath Temple, also known as ‘Monkey Temple’ thanks to its adorable colony of monkeys that run free. This temple is the symbol of harmony between Buddhists and Hindus. At the top of the stupa you will have a splendid birds-eye view of Kathmandu Valley and its surroundings.

We continue to the sacred Pashupatinath Temple, a holy place for Hindu devotees. Especially interesting is the holy cremation area where preparations and daily cremation ceremonies take place. From here we return to the hotel.

We take a flight to Nepalgunj from the domestic terminal at Kathmandu airport. After an hour flight above the clouds with scenic landscape beneath, we arrive at the airport in Nepalgunj. You will be transferred to a hotel for check in. Being a border city with India, Nepalgunj is a crowded busy city and is the hottest place in Nepal. We stay at a hotel in Nepalgunj for the night. (Breakfast included)

We start our day with a flight to Juphal. A flight from Nepalgunj to Juphal is of 35 minutes and you will be pleased with the journey as you can get beautiful views of snow caped mountains from your set inside. Upon arrival, you will be glad to see the drastic change in climate, atmosphere and landscape in just 35 minutes. From a hot plain land you will find yourself amidst the mountainous villages with cool air. We initiate our trekking journey from Juphal with a walk down the fields to Thuli Bheri river. We cross a long suspension bridge over Dhim Bridge and enter Shey Phoksundo National Park (SPNP). We pass Suligad and follow Suli Khola River. In the way, we can get a glimpse of Dhaulagiri Range. We further pass villages like Kageni and Sangta. We pass through forest of wild flowers, pine tree, spruce, fir, juniper and small bamboo forests. We cross other side of river and climb up high rocky slope and continue until we reach Chhepka. We set our tents at a small beautiful village in Chhepka for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

We continue walking through lush pine forests with some bushes and birches. Our trail follows a river for most of the time and the path goes easy and flat. Some ups and downs may be encountered in between. As we move ahead, valley gets narrower at some point with rocky towering walls on both sides. We may encounter dzokpas hauled up with goods and traders on the way. We walk for around four hours to Rechi village from where our trail continue to other side of river to Chunuwar. We visit Amchi hospital on the way where Tibetan medicines and local herds are prescribed to patients. The popular Tibetan acupuncture treatment is provided here and many local rely on the treatment of this hospital. We set up our tent near the hospital for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Today we take a long and steep climb up to Rigmo and then to Phoksundo lake. It takes around two hours to reach there. We will encounter a stunning waterfall before reaching the Phoksundo lake. It is the highest waterfall in Nepal and is also popularly known as Phoksundo Waterfall or Suligad Waterfall. As we cross the pass, we will get a glimpse of beautiful Phoksundo Lake. As we continue along our trail, we reach Ringmo. Rigmo is a beautiful village where we will find traditional people who practice Bonpo religion and preserve their culture that goes thousands of year back. The religion holds a history marked 18000 years back and was founded by Buddha Tonpa Shenrab Miwo. In ancient time, Dolpo being a Bon kingdom, there were people who practiced this religion. Today we stay at a tented camp in Ringmo for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

As we move higher, we need to adapt ourselves with the rising elevation. Therefore, today, we spend our day in Ringmo for acclimatization. We spend our day wandering around the azure high altitude Phoksundo lake in the backdrop of beautiful mountains. After that, we explore the Ringmo village, interact with the locals and get some insights on unique Bon religion practiced in this area. We spend another day at Ringo in our camps. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Leaving the Phoksundo lake and Ringmo village, we continue our trail towards a restricted area in Dolpo. Our journey for the day is exciting as we move in the popular demon trail i.e. the same trail that was flimed in the movie Caravan. This beautiful yet challenging trail goes all the way above the lake. As we climb up a ridge, we can get some fabulous views of the Phoksundo lake and Ringmo village. The beautiful and lush yet wild pine forests beneath the ridge looks fascinating. The beautiful peak of Norbung Kang to the south adds to the mind blowing views that we can get from the top of the ridge. From here, we descend down to the north side of the lake. Our trail further climbs up through a wide valley from where we can get some splendid view of Kanjirowa Himal. Finally, we arrive at an alpine area full of junipers which would be our halting spot for night. We set up our tents at Chunemba. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included).

As we move ahead, the valley gets narrower will high rocky walls on both sides. We cross few streams on the way and walk for around half an hour when we leave the valley behind and enter into a narrow gorge. We climb up the gorge which is quite long and steep until we reach our campsite i.e. Snowfields Camp. We stay at the camp for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Today’s walk is quite long and hectic. We initiate our journey with strenuous climb for about two and half hours and continue walking through dusty path till we reach Kang La that lies at an elevation of 5350 metres. As we reach the pass, we can see colourful prayer flags and cairns that mark the pass. From here, we descend down steep for around 45 minutes and then descend gradually for around three hours until we reach Shey Gompa. As we reach near the village, we can see the village adorned with colourful chortens and mani walls. Shey Gompa is a beautiful village with few houses and a monastery. Here, we visit a popular gompas that holds a history of 11th century. The gompa is mystical and lies beneath the Crystal Peak on a small grassy plain at the confluence of two rivers. As per a Buddhist myth, a Tibetan Buddhist came to this place flying on a snow lion and built the gompa. It is a highly auspicious place and many pilgrims visit this place every year for performing kora. We stay at a tented camp in Shey gompa for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

We spend our day in Shey gompa by visiting Tsakang Gompa. It is popular monastery from the Buddhist Kagyupa sect. The glory of this gompa is filmed in the documentary- Himalaya too. Placed at a spectacular located on the top of red rocky slope, Tsakang Gompa follows the same trail used by the pilgrims to perform Kora of the Crystal Peak. If lucky, we can see flocks of blue sheep or snow leopard in this area. We stay at our camps in Shey gompa for the nght. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Today we have to cross a pass called Shey La/ Geu La at an elevation of 5000 metres. At first, we ascend up and pass a narrow valley to the pass. We can get some fascinating views of Tibetan plateau from the pass that stretches endlessly. The whole landscape looks quaint and wild. We can also see the beautiful Mustang to the east. After beholding the beautiful glory of mountainous region, we descend down to the pastures of Namgung where we set up our camp for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Our trail goes above Namgug khola and descends down to Saldang which is probably the largest settlement area in inner Dolpo. The traditional villages have traditionally built houses with crop fields. The barley, potatoes and buckwheat are the crops generally grown here. People live a simple life and are engaged in farming for livelihood. People also rear yaks and sheep for cheese, wool and meat. Saldang is somewhat close to the Tibetan border and we can see Tibetan traders trading salt across Saldang. We stay at a guesthouse in Saldang for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

We walk through an easy trail to Sibu today. We follow the Nagung khola to south and pass small villages like Namdo on our way. We also pass the fields in the villages followed by mani walls, chotens and gompas. The prayer flags, gompas and chortens that we pass depicts the influence of Buddhism in Dolpo. We continue walking along our trial until we reach Sibu. We stay inside our tented camps in Sibu for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

We start our journey with an easy walk along the river to the last village in Dolpo i.e. Raka. We leave the village and enter a large valley which is popular for sight of blue sheep or snow leopard. We walk for around two hours after which our path continues away from the river and climbs steeply up to a meadow. The meadow is generally used by the yaks for grazing. This meadow acts as a base camp for climbing Jeng La and is known as Lagmo Che. We set up our tents here for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Our trial for today climbs up steep for around two hours to Jang La at an elevation of 5110 metres. From here, we will be blessed with the splendour of Mt. Dhaulagiri and other neighbouring snow-capped mountains. We cross the pass and descend down to Tarap valley. As we enter Tarap valley, we come across Tokyu village which would be the first settlement area after Raka village. There is a beautiful gompa in Tokyu with a statue of Maitreya -the Future Buddha which is worth visiting. We stay at tented camps in Tokyu for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Spend this day at your leisure in or around Kathmandu. You can take one of our optional day trips, relax or roam around Kathmandu city. Perhaps go for a massage – you deserve it – or do some last-minute shopping. Take a leisurely lunch in one of the many tea gardens or dine on one of the rooftop terraces. Overnight stay at the hotel (breakfast included).

In the morning, we explore around the village and move along the chortens and mani walls to Tarap Khola. As we mone ahead, we can feel the change in landscape. From barren land, we can find ourselves traversing into a lush environment. On the way, we climb us a small pass from where the valley gets narrower. We finally make a short descend to Sisaul where we will set our tents for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Today, we leave Sisaul and climb up a pass with beautiful chorten. As we cross the pass, we will be able to see lush trees again. We will walk in the river valley with high rock walls towering on both sides. We walk through an easy path for around three to four hours to Nawarpani. From here our trail descends down until we reach a three sided tunnel. We further walk through an easy path with more lush in the environment until we reach Laina Odar. We set up our camps here for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Our trail further descends down to Laisicap. At first, we walk through forests until you find yourselves surrounded by steep cliffs full of pine,spruce, fir, juniper and Cyprus trees.We can see a river far below from here. We walk for around 3 hours to Laisicap where we cross a suspension bridge over Thuli Bheri river. We further descend down steep for around 45 minutes along an easy path until we open up into a lush ad impressive landscape. Moving ahead, we continue walking towards Lingdo in the backdrop of beautiful snow-capped peak of Kang Tokal. We continue our journey until we reach Lingdo where we set up our camp for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Leaving Lingdo, we initiateour journey with a walk along rough landscape. We walk through a challenging path for two and half hours until we reach a village of bazaar. From here, our trail goes up slightly and then again comes down. We follow the Thuli Bheri river and pass few houses along the trail. We further walk until we reach Dunai which is the headquarter of Dolpa district. It is a large village in Dolpo with 2500 people living amongst whom more than half are Buddhist and remaining are Hindu. At a top of a hill near Dunai lies a monastery called the Dolpa Kendriya Gompa. We visit the gompa in Dunai and set up our camp at Dunai for overnight stay. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Leaving Dunai, we take a short walk to Juphal. We walk around forty five minutes and reach a stupa gate which marks the entrance gate of Dunai VDC. Thebeautiful Buddhist painting i.e. mandala is a beautiful craftwork found here. We pass a big iron suspension bridge and walk for around three hours to reach Juphal. Taking about our journey, at first we walk through wide path and pass village of Kalagaonda. From here, we leave the main road and take a small path that goes through crop fields. We further climb up steep until we reach Juphales. It’s a pretty steep climb to reach Juphal. We set our camps at Juphal where we stay for the night. (Breakfast, lunch and dinner included)

Today we take an early flight from Juphal to Nepalgunj. This thirty five minutes flight over the clouds is full of wonderful views of Himalayas including Mt. Annapurna and Mt. Dhaulagiri to the north. Upon arrival, we take another flight to Kathmandu as per the availability of tickets and flight schedules. In the evening, we will find ourselves in our hotel in Kathmandu. We stay at our hotel in Kathmandu for the night. (Breakfast included)

Spend this day at your leisure in or around Kathmandu. You can take one of our optional day trips, relax or roam around Kathmandu city. Perhaps go for a massage – you deserve it – or do some last-minute shopping. Take a leisurely lunch in one of the many tea gardens or dine on one of the rooftop terraces. Overnight stay at the hotel (breakfast included).

After this wonderful adventure, it’s finally time to bid you a farewell. We will pick you up from the hotel and escort you to the airport for your journey home! We hope with all our hearts that we served you well and look forward to seeing you or your friends again someday.