Rara National Park
Nepal's smallest national park, established in 1976 to protect Rara Lake and its ring of pine, spruce and juniper forest — red panda and musk deer country in remote Mugu.
- Altitude
- 2,990 m
- Coordinates
- 29.517°, 82.067°
Current Weather
Rara National Park is Nepal's smallest — just 106 square kilometres, established in 1976 with a single purpose: to protect Rara Lake and the amphitheatre of forested ridges that drain into it. What it lacks in size it makes up in concentration; few protected areas anywhere hold a great lake, old-growth conifer forest and 4,000-metre viewpoints in so small a compass.
The forests are blue pine, spruce, fir and juniper, flushed with rhododendron in late spring. They shelter red panda, musk deer, Himalayan black bear, ghoral and over 200 recorded bird species, with coots and migratory waterfowl rafting on the lake in winter. The lake itself holds the park's most particular treasure — snow trout found nowhere else.
The southern rim rises to Chuchemara Danda (4,039m), the park's highest point, while the shorter climb to Murma Top has become the classic half-day for the lake-and-peaks panorama. A gentle trail circles the entire lake in about four hours of walking.
Access keeps the park wild: a flight from Nepalgunj to Talcha airstrip and a couple of hours on foot, or long road days through the Karnali hills. Simple lodges cluster near park headquarters at Hutu and around Rara village. The foreigner entry fee is NPR 3,000 — and on most days you will share the whole park with more musk deer than visitors.
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