Chiang Mai: Hiking the Forest Trails of Mae Kampong and Chaesorn National Park

Your guide will meet you at the hotel at 0730 for your Chiang Mai: Hiking the Forest Trails of Mae Kampong and Chaesorn National Park. Drive to Mae Kampong, a village in the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai. It’s a beautiful drive of about one hour and 15 minutes.

Upon arrival in Mae Kampong our local community guide will meet us. We will drive up to the ranger station of Chaesorn National Park. Here we will start our trek up to the summit of Doi Mon Lan. It will take about one hour. The trail is not too steep. The area around the summit is covered with pine trees and dipterocarp trees. It’s beautiful mossy forest. First we reach the lower summit and then the higher summit. At the top of the mountain we will rest for a while and enjoy the spectacular view over Lampang and Chiang Mai provinces. If the weather is clear you can see the city of Chiang Mai in the far distance. Also Doi Chiang Dao, Thailand’s third highest mountain, might be visible.

Then we start our descent. We pass several viewpoints on the way down to Mae Kampong. The forest is lush and pristine. Pace will be slow so there is plenty of time for photostops. We enjoy a pick nick lunch along the way. After we have reached Mae Kampong there is time to explore the village and meet some of the villagers. Most of them are engaged in growing bai miang, a kind of plant that can be processed into tea. Apart from bai miang, they also grow coffee and aromatic mushrooms. Other villagers are making handicrafts such as decorated pillows filled with tea leaves, rattan baskets and bamboo furniture. Mae Kampong is also the base of Flight of the Gibbon, the first zip line of Chiang Mai.

Late in the afternoon we return to Chiang Mai. We will drop you off at the hotel. Your Chaesorn National Park trekking ends here.