Upper Mustang Trek

Upper Mustang is Nepal’s last forbidden kingdom — a high-altitude desert wedged between the Annapurna and Dhaulagiri ranges, sealed off from foreign visitors until 1992 and still tightly restricted today. Walking here feels less like Nepal and more like crossing into Tibet: wind-carved canyons, ochre and red cliffs riddled with centuries-old sky caves, whitewashed chortens and the walled medieval city of Lo Manthang, once the seat of an independent Buddhist kingdom.

Because the region sits in the rain shadow of the Himalaya, trails here stay dry even during monsoon, making Upper Mustang one of the only treks in Nepal that is genuinely rewarding outside the usual spring and autumn windows. The trek is graded moderate — there are no technical sections or high mountain passes, just long days on rough, dusty trails through some of the starkest, most otherworldly landscape in the country.