Jomsom Muktinath Tour

Overview

The Jomsom Muktinath tour is an 8-day road trip from Kathmandu to one of the few temples that both Hindus and Buddhists hold sacred. Muktinath sits at 3,710 m in Mustang, behind the Annapurna range. Pilgrims come to bathe under its 108 water spouts and to see the flame that burns beside running water at Jwala Mai.

You drive up the Kali Gandaki gorge between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna, sleep in Jomsom, and go up to Muktinath early in the morning. On the way down you walk through the old walled village of Kagbeni and spend a night in Marpha, the apple village. You finish with a sunrise at Sarangkot and a full day in Pokhara.

You travel by road the whole way, so you need no trekking fitness. Our team at Himalayan Social Journey (HSJ) plans the whole trip, from Kathmandu and back.

Do you have to trek?

No, and that is the point of this trip. The road now runs all the way to Muktinath, which puts the temple within reach of pilgrims and families who would never manage a trek to it. The only walking is a climb of ten to fifteen minutes up steps from the car park to the temple gate, and ponies wait at the bottom for anyone who would rather ride. Everything else is done from a vehicle: a tourist coach between Kathmandu and Pokhara, and a shared jeep up the Kali Gandaki. A shared jeep carries other travellers and costs far less than a private one, but it keeps its own times, so on the Muktinath day you may change to a local jeep in Jomsom — your guide arranges that on the spot. If you would rather have the jeep to yourselves, tell us and we will price it.

Is the altitude a problem?

Rarely, because of the way the days are built. Muktinath is at 3,710 m, but you are only there for a few hours in the morning and you sleep much lower — Jomsom is 2,720 m and Marpha is 2,670 m. That is a sensible shape for a short trip: you go up, you come straight back down, and you never sleep high. Walk slowly on the temple steps, drink plenty of water, and most people feel nothing worse than a mild headache. Anyone with a heart or lung condition should speak to their doctor before travelling.

What happens on the Muktinath day?

You leave Jomsom before sunrise and drive up, so you arrive while the courtyard is still quiet. Inside are the 108 water spouts; pilgrims bathe under every one of them in turn, which is cold work at that hour. You pray at the Vishnu shrine, then see Jwala Mai, where a natural flame burns beside running water, and visit the gompa next door. Coming down you stop at Kagbeni, the old walled village at the edge of Upper Mustang, with its mud houses and narrow lanes, and carry on to Marpha for the night — a tidy whitewashed village known across Nepal for its apples, its cider and its apple pie.

When is the best time to go?

March to May and September to November. Mustang lies behind the main Himalaya and stays fairly dry even in the monsoon, but the road below Tatopani often has landslides from June to August, which is the real reason to avoid those months. Winter is cold and windy but very clear, and the temple stays open. Whatever the month, Jomsom gets a hard wind most afternoons, so pack a windproof jacket — and note that this itinerary already does the Muktinath drive in the morning for that reason. If you have spare days in Pokhara at the end, the Ghorepani Poon Hill trek starts and finishes there, and the Annapurna Circuit comes down this same Kali Gandaki valley.