Nagarkot - Changunarayan Day Hike

About Nagarkot - Changunarayan Day Hike

The Nagarkot Day Hike is the best day outing from Kathmandu, designed especially for a short time, and want to see the Nepalese Himalayan sceneries, lush nature, and typical Nepalese culture. An excellent downhill hike from the hilltop takes you to the small township of Changu Narayan temple-one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Nepal.

One of the best viewpoints situated just thirty-two kilometers from Kathmandu valley, Nagarkot (2195m) offers an astonishing Himalayan panorama from Dhaulagiri (8163m) to the west to Mt. Everest (8848.86m) in the west, eye-popping views of lush greeneries of Shivapuri National Park, wonderful ethnic communities, Kathmandu valley, beautiful terraced farms, rhododendron hills, religious shrines.

Famous as one of the best viewpoints for sunrise in Nepal, Nagarkot offers the mesmerizing view of the first rays of the sun over entire mountain massifs! It looks gleaming when the yellowish rays of the sun kiss the snow-clad peaks. The sunrise and the sun's last rays over the Himalayas also looked glorious.

The journey to Nagarkot-Changu Narayan hike begins and finishes in Kathmandu. Early in the morning, we pick you up from your hotel and drive eastward, following the way to Bhaktapur Durbar Square. Leaving it, we follow the Bhaktapur-Nagarkot road reaching the hilltop of Nagarkot. Our vehicle leaves us just 10m below the prominent vantage spot. From there, we take a short hike to the watchtower.

Viewing the surrounding paradise; lush hills, deep woodlands, entire Kathmandu, different mountain ranges as Dhaulagiri, Annapurna, Langtang, Ganesh, Langtang, Dorge and Lakpa, Rolwaling, Gaurishankar, to the Mt Everest throughout the northern territory, we shall begin our downhill hike following the hiking trail. The villagers seem ever-smiling, welcoming, and quite hospitable throughout the trek; the mountain massifs are still visible until we reach a small junction of Telkot.

We shall take a short uphill hike that ends within 25-30 minutes. Onwards, we will walk for the next 20 minutes following the straightforward way to reach a lunch place. Then, having freshly cooked food (usually a set of Dal Bhat), we hike next an hour to sum up the day hike as we reach Changu Narayan temple.

Change Narayan temple is a two-storied pagoda-styled temple devoted to Lord Vishnu enclosed by ancient temples, carvings, and statues. A beautiful forest nearby the main temple makes the area even more attractive. Survived in the devastative earthquake of 1702 and 2015, Changu Narayan is the eldest Hindu temple of the Kathmandu valley and still has a craze among Hindu and Buddhist devotees.

Nepal has ten world heritages; among them, the Changu Narayan temple is one of the cultural and religious shrines with a long history dating back to the fourth century. Established on the hilltop, seven miles east of Kathmandu, it has shrines dedicated to Lord Shiva, Ashta Matrika, Chhinnamasta, Kileshwor, and Krishna, different forms and incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

After exploring the shrines, statues, arts, and architecture, we drive back to Kathmandu via Bhaktapur – one of the principal towns of the Kathmandu valley.