Overview
Shivapuri National park is a quick hot dish in the menu of Jungle safari if you are in Kathmandu. If you want to explore Shivapuri National park, extended in 144 sq. km offers the only jungle safari possible in the Hilly region of Nepal.
Shivapuri is the second highest hill bounding Kathmandu valley after Phulchowki. In the national park, you will see a mid-hill subtropical and temperate climatic zones. This protected area is a habitat of a wide range of plants, birds, and animals. If you want to explore the wildlife around Kathmandu valley, opt for the Shivapuri Jungle Safari tour.
During the Jungle safari, you will see the beautiful vegetation and exotic wildlife in the park. The park houses 19 species of mammals, 177 species of birds, 129 species of wild mushroom, and over 100 species of Butterflies. If you got lucky enough, you can also see endangered animals, birds, and butterflies.
During the jungle safari, you will be walking through lush jungles, clean and green. There are different forest types inside the park. At places, you will see Sal, hardwoods, chir pine, and oaks. Shivapuri National park promotes ecological tourism. It offers many activities like cycling, ultra Running, rock climbing, hiking, sightseeing, and several others.
Shivapuri National park receives a regular western wind. The park, even in winter remains fog-free. You can see clear views and warm sun during winter safaris. This means you can go on a jungle safari in Shivapuri at any time of the year. This is one of the reasons why Shivapuri is chosen for hiking, trekking, and several recreational activities throughout the year.
Shivapuri Jungle Safari: Different Routes
Changu Narayan to Budhanilkantha
We will begin hiking from Changu Narayan to Sundarijal. We will walk through the flat cultivated lands. People cultivate Rice and Potatoes mostly. Crossing the Manohara river, we will walk through the villages to Sundarijal.
Sundarijal is a beautiful place where the Shivapuri National Park starts. We will check into the national park and will walk into the lush jungles. There is a lovely waterfall where you will see lots of people enjoying. From there, we will walk to Mulkharka village.
We will walk into the beautiful lush jungles. The forests are wild and damp at places. At some places, you will see small meadows basking in bright sunshine. Walking into the forests, there are chances of seeing wildlife like deer, bear, wild pig, monkeys, and other wild animals.
We walk through the amazing trails inside the forest. After hours of walking, we will descend through a vertical stone stair to Budhanilakantha. At Budhanilkantha the safari ends. We will drive to your hotel from there in a private or a public vehicle.
Fulbari to Jamacho
This is the second route that is equally popular for Shivapuri Jungle Safari. Starting from the Fulbari gate, we will drive to the Jamacho monastery. It will take us one or one and a half hours to reach the monastery. Jamacho monastery is a beautiful monastery situated atop the Nagarjuna hill.
At the top of Jamacho hill, there is a beautiful monastery with an amazing Buddha stupa. Also several other Buddhist gods and goddesses there. This place is also famous for sightseeing. You can see amazing views of the Annapurna Himalayan Range, Manaslu Himalayan Range, and Langtang Himalayan Range.
From the monastery, we will hike back to Fulbari gate. We will walk through the jungles in Shivapuri national park. The trail takes us into the wilderness. We will be walking over the brown leaves watching the trees, birds, and the animals.
Walking from Jamacho down to Fulbari gate will take us around 4 to 5 hours. In this period of time, we will explore the Shivapuri National park. If we go Shivapuri jungle safari in Spring, you will see different floral species. The jungle safari will be amazing with bright colors and aroma of wildflowers including Rhododendron.