travel guide

The Khopra Danda trek, popularly known as the Khopra Ridge trek is one of the best, newly opened short treks in the Annapurna region. It is off the beaten trail providing you the stunning mountain views, pastoral villages, and terraced farmland with the impression of heaven.

The craggy trail passes through beautiful rhododendron, pine, and oak forest and some ethnic villages of Gurung, Magar, and Kshetri giving you the opportunities to learn the lifestyle, traditions, and cultural facts of the locals. If you are luckily choosing the spring season for trekking on the Khopra Danda trail, the blooming rhododendron along the trail gives you deep satisfaction and probably makes you fall in love with nature in the Himalayas.

One of the most important attractions of this trek is to explore the three best viewpoints in a single trip. Mulde viewpoint, Khopra Ridge viewpoint, and Poonhill viewpoint offer you spectacular sunrise views over the snowcapped mountains and awe-inspiring landscapes. Mulde viewpoint is 25 minutes walk from Deurali which bestows the fabulous views of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, Nilgiri, Fishtail, Hiunchuli, Boudha Himal, Ganesh Himal, and many more.

Another alluring viewpoint, Poonhill Peak is located at an altitude of 3210 meters which needs a nearly 45 minutes hike from one of the popular villages of the Annapurna region, Ghorepani. Poonhill Peak is famous for its 360-degree astonishing mountain views and vistas, especially at sunrise.

Khopra Danda or Khopra Ridge is the best viewpoint, especially for Mount Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest mountain peak in the world. Along with the wonderful views of Mount Dhaulagiri, the superb views of Annapurna I, II, III and the South, Machhapuchhre, Hiunchuli, Nilgiri, and Lamjung Himal make your trip really meaningful and mesmerizing.

Although it is an optional hike from Khopra Danda to Kayer Lake, we suggest you not miss being amused by the panorama of towering mountains and delightful landscapes. In addition, Kayer Lake is famous for Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimages as they believe the water of Kayer Lake to be sacred.

Nearby the lake there is Kayer Barahi temple. The temple and the Lake hold the firm belief of millions of religious people around the world. They have the faith that taking bath or just dipping their hands into the lake and praying to the idol of Barahi temple helps them to get rid of all kinds of diseases and eventually take their souls to Nirvana (heaven) after death.

The day to hike Kayer Lake will be one of the challenging days of your trip as it gains more altitude (nearly 1000m) and needs to walk 7 to 8 hours for ascending up to the lake and descending to Khopra Danda overnight.