The Shivapuri day hike is a full-day walk from Kathmandu to Shivapuri Peak (2,732m) inside Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park. This Shivapuri peak hike starts at the Panimuhan gate above Budhanilkantha, climbs stone steps through oak and pine forest to the Nagi Gumba nunnery, walks on to Baghdwar, the spring held to be the source of the Bagmati River, and finishes at the top. Plan on 6 to 8 hours of walking with a lunch stop and about 1,200m of climbing. Your driver waits at the gate when you come down.
Shivapuri hiking is steadier than it looks on a map. The Budhanilkantha to Shivapuri hike has three legs. The gate to Nagi Gumba takes about 1.5 hours. Nagi Gumba to Baghdwar takes 1.5 to 2 hours and is the longest stretch. Baghdwar to the peak is 40 minutes to an hour, and it is the part where the steps narrow and the group stops talking. Most of the path is stone steps, up and down. Poles help on the way back. People who expect a dirt track find the steps in their knees by the second hour.
Be ready for the view as it is. The top of Shivapuri is a forest clearing, so there is no panorama from the summit itself. The view is from a lookout rock a few minutes below it, where on a clear morning the Kathmandu Valley opens out and the Ganesh Himal and Langtang ranges stand along the northern horizon, with Manaslu faint beyond. Cloud can move over Langtang by the afternoon, which is why we want you at the rock before the day turns. A statue of the holy man Shivapuri Baba stands near the top, and the shell of an army post left empty after the conflict years is still being taken back by the trees.
This is the bigger hill in the same national park as our Nagarjun Hill Day Hiking trip. Nagarjun reaches 2,128m in 3 to 4 hours with about 600m of climbing, so it suits a free morning. Shivapuri is a full day and twice the climb. If you want the highest point on the valley rim, Phulchowki Hiking tops out at 2,795m from the south, and Nagarkot Hiking is the overnight option for sunrise. All of our short walks around the city sit together on the Day Hiking page.
The best months are March to May and September to November. December and January are clear and cold. In the monsoon the steps are slick and leeches come out, so we suggest other months. For how the seasons compare across Nepal, read when to trek in Nepal. Saturdays are busy with Nepali families, and we pick a weekday for you where the calendar allows. Foreign visitors must walk with a nature guide inside the park, and we arrange it.
Cover photograph: the spring at Baghdwar in Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park, by pratap baniya on Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
