Gangtey-Phobji Nature Trail

The Gangtey nature trail runs about 4 km downhill from the mani wall just north of Gangtey Goenpa to Khewang Lhakhang on the floor of the Phobjikha valley. It takes about an hour and a half, it is one-way — the car meets you at the end — and it is the easiest real walk in western Bhutan.

The one thing to know: it doesn’t come back

Most descriptions of this trail forget to say that it is a point-to-point walk, not a loop. You are dropped at the monastery on the ridge and collected 4 km away at Khewang Lhakhang, and the two ends are 3 km apart in a straight line. Nobody is walking back up.

Which is what makes it good. The walk gives you the whole descent from the goenpa’s ridge to the valley floor — the view opening out in front of you the entire way — without asking for a single climb.

What the walk is like

You start at the mani stone wall north of Gangtey Goenpa, drop off the ridge through blue pine forest and dwarf bamboo, pass the village of Semchubara, and come out onto meadow and farmland on the floor of the valley. The finish is Khewang Lhakhang, the temple on the eastern side.

The forest section is the shaded part and the meadow section is the open one; seasonal flowers come through the pines in spring. The goenpa stays on the skyline behind you for most of it, which is a better view of the monastery than you get standing in its courtyard.

Grade: easy. It is a path, not a staircase, and it is downhill. The only real difficulty is that all of it happens at about 3,000 m, and thin air makes 4 km feel like more than 4 km on your first day at that altitude.

When to walk it

March to May and September to November are the best walking months — dry underfoot, long light, comfortable temperatures.

Late October to mid-February is a different proposition: the walk finishes where the black-necked cranes are, which is the best ending a 4 km walk can have. It is properly cold at 3,000 m and the light goes early, so do it in the morning.

The monsoon is green and wet and the path is a forest path — mud is what you would expect. Ask us how it is running on your dates.

Fitting it into the day

The standard Phobjikha day runs goenpa, trail, valley floor — the monastery in the morning, the walk down, and the Black-Necked Crane Information Centre in the afternoon, with the telescopes and the day’s report on where the birds are.

If someone in the group would rather ride than walk, the valley floor is also the easiest cycling in Bhutan.

The trail’s official name — Gangtey–Phobji — comes from the two gewogs it runs between. Almost everyone else calls it the Gangtey nature trail. See things to do in Wangdue Phodrang for how it compares with the rest of the district.