Khaptad National Park

Khaptad is a plateau of rolling grassland at about three thousand metres in the far west, cut by streams, surrounded by oak and rhododendron forest, and grazed in summer. It looks like nowhere else in Nepal, no terraces, no ridges dropping away, just open meadow going over the horizon.

It is also a religious site, and the two facts are connected: the plateau is protected in part because a hermit lived there for half a century and asked that it be left alone.

Khaptad Baba

A sadhu who arrived in the 1940s, lived on the plateau until his death in 1996, and became one of the most widely respected religious figures in Nepal. His ashram is still there and still visited. Around it is a designated religious area where meat, alcohol and leather are not allowed, and where the rule is kept.

Tribeni, the confluence of three streams within the park, draws pilgrims at the full moon of Janai Purnima in August, when several thousand people come up for a few days and the empty plateau is briefly a town.

Sahasralinga, at 3,276 metres, is the highest point and the viewpoint: the Api and Saipal Himal to the north on a clear day, and the plateau spread out beneath.

Khaptad Daha is a small lake in the north of the park, a few hours’ walk from the ashram.

Walking here

This is the appeal and it is unusual. Almost all trekking in Nepal is up and down a valley; Khaptad is level open ground you can walk across in any direction. Days are gentle, distances are what you make them, and the ground is meadow rather than stone staircase.

The park is 225 square kilometres, rising from about 1,400 metres on its edges to the plateau. There are said to be well over two hundred medicinal plant species growing on it, and the meadows in September are full of flowers.

Wildlife is present and shy: Himalayan black bear, leopard, musk deer, barking deer, and around 270 bird species including impeyan pheasant.

There are no lodges. Accommodation on the plateau is a park guesthouse, a small army-run facility and camping. Anyone coming here needs a tent, a cook or a very simple diet, and to be told this before booking rather than after.

Getting there

Two flights and a walk, like Rara, and just as weather-dependent.

Via Doti. Fly to Dhangadhi, drive four or five hours to Silgadhi, then walk up from Jhingrana over one long day or two easy ones, gaining about 1,500 metres.

Via Bajhang. Fly to Dhangadhi or Nepalgunj, drive to Chainpur, and walk in from the north.

Either way, the last stretch is on foot; there is no road onto the plateau.

What to expect of the region

Sudurpashchim is among the least developed provinces in Nepal. Roads are rough and seasonal, health facilities are thin, and there is no tourism infrastructure of the kind that exists in Annapurna or Everest. Guides who know Khaptad are not numerous and are worth insisting on.

That is the reason it is empty and it is also the reason it needs planning that a teahouse trek does not.

Practical things

• Water. Streams on the plateau are clean by Nepali standards but treat everything.
• Cold and exposure. Three thousand metres of open grassland with no shelter. Weather turns fast, and the plateau is a bad place to be caught out in a storm.
• Fog. The plateau fogs in regularly and navigation across featureless meadow becomes genuinely difficult. Do not walk off alone.
• No power, no signal, no ATMs. Carry cash from Dhangadhi.
• Leeches on the forested approach in the wetter months.