A Guide to the Triund Trek, A Stunning Day Hike in the Himalayas
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I’m always looking for an excuse to go for a long walk, no matter where I happen to be in the world. India was no exception, and when we found ourselves in Mcleodganj for a few days late last year, the sight of stunning mountain peaks in every direction had me frantically searching for nearby hikes.
That’s when I first came across the Triund Trek, the most popular trail in the area. There wasn’t a lot of information about it online, but the few reviews and blog posts I could find convinced me it was a good idea, and so off I set one sunny Tuesday morning.
What a great decision that turned out to be. Several hours of fresh air, epic views, and peaceful surroundings was exactly what I’d hoped for, and by and large, that’s exactly what I got!
Still, by the time I got back to my hotel late that afternoon, I’d realised that more tips and detail from someone who’d recently walked this route would have made my experience even better. I guess that now, that someone is me.
What Is the Triund Trek?
The Triund Trek is a hiking trail in the foothills of the Himalayas, in the Himachal Pradesh region of northern India. The nearest major city is Dharamshala, although if you’re like most visitors to the area, you’ll be staying in one of the small towns nearby. Mcleodganj and Dharamkot are the two most popular.
Although it’s quite steep, especially if you tackle it the way I did as a loop track rather than an out-and-back, it’s relatively short and can be easily done in a day. Generally well-maintained and signposted, with tea houses dotted along the route, it’s one of the most straightforward walks you can do in the area.
For that reason, the Triund Trek is ideal for anyone looking to do some independent hiking in the mountains in this part of the world. You don’t need much in the way of gear, and as long as you have a decent amount of fitness and good weather, it’s a bit of a challenge but not super-difficult.
The views, both along the way and from the top, are breathtaking. That’s not just because you’re at altitude and won’t have much breath to spare anyway; they’re genuinely beautiful, especially on a clear day.
You can tackle the trek either as a day walk or an overnight hike where you stay in a campsite with pre-erected tents at the top. I’ve written this guide with day walks in mind, since that’s what I did, but briefly mention the camping option as well.
What’s the Best Route?
Although you end up in the same place, there are two places you can start the Triund Trek, and your experience will be quite different depending on which one you choose.
The most popular approach is to walk or take a taxi from Mcleodganj or Dharamkot to Gallu Devi temple, walk up to the campsite at the top, and return the same way. This is the easiest route (map) and the most popular: expect the trail to be busy, especially at weekends. From the temple, it’s about 9.5 km (5.9 miles) return.
If you’re staying in Mcleodganj like I was, the main alternative is to take the path from Bhagsu instead, past the waterfall and up to the top. This is the way I went: it’s much steeper than coming up from Gallu Devi temple, but I’d recommend it.
There were hardly any other people going up this way, so I mostly had the trail to myself, and the views were much more open and expansive. Calm and peaceful the whole way, the only sounds were my laboured breathing and the occasional bong of a cowbell.
From the top, I followed the main trail back down towards the temple, before branching off onto a side trail to head back to Bhagsu. This turned the walk into a loop, with a total distance of a little under 11km (6.8 miles).
From there it’s another 2.5km each way to/from Mcleodganj: it’s relatively flat, at least compared to the Triund Trek itself, and along a paved road so it’s easy walking. If you’d rather take a taxi or rickshaw between the two, though, there are no shortage of drivers at either end.
You can, of course, mix and match these two approaches. I met people who were doing the same loop as me in the opposite direction, tacking the steeper section downhill instead of uphill. My knees would have hated it, but if you’re happier going down than up, it’s an option!
This is the AllTrails map I was following. I’d recommend downloading it, as while it’s hard to get lost on the path between Gallu Devi temple and the top, I wouldn’t say the same for the other parts of the route. I definitely took a few wrong turns on the exposed mountainside section!
A Note on the Snowline and Laka Glacier
Although the vast majority of people stop at “Triund Top”, where the main campsite is if you’re staying overnight, the trail continues on. Add another couple of hours and you’ll find yourself first at Snowline and then Laka Glacier.
If you start very early, have good weather, and are sufficiently fit, it’s possible to extend the walk to one or both of these and still get back down the mountain to your accommodation by sunset. It’d be a long and exhausting day, though: most people choose to stay overnight at one of the campsites instead.
I’d planned to try and get up to Snowline on my walk, but a sudden thunderstorm rolling in as I got to the top put paid to that idea. In reality I probably didn’t have enough time anyway: it’d have been cutting things pretty fine to try and get back to Mcleodganj before dark.
Much beyond here, you’re getting into real multi-day alpine hiking territory where you’ll need a guide, proper equipment, and a good amount of experience in the mountains.
How Long Does It Take?
I walked out of Mcleodganj at 8.15am, reaching the start point in Bhagsu half an hour later. It took 3:15 hours to reach the top, with only a few short breaks on the side of the trail to eat, drink, and mostly catch my breath.
I’d planned on taking a rest at the top, but with rain starting to fall and thunder all around, I decided to do that further down the mountain! It took around 2.5 hours to get back to Bhagsu, including a bit of time spent sheltering from the rain, admiring cute goats, and chatting to random strangers.
By the time I got back to Mcleodganj it was 4pm, for a total of about eight hours out of the house. I’d suggest allowing yourself about 6-7 hours to walk the loop trail, with a few decent breaks for food, drink, and rest along the way.
If you’re planning to take the route out and back from Gallu Devi temple instead, it won’t take quite as long: around 5-6 hours of walking time should be enough for this.
One thing I would say, though, based both on my experience and a few of the reviews that I should have read beforehand: start early! That’s for two reasons: the sun gets pretty brutal later in the day, especially on that exposed mountain section, and also it’s pretty common for clouds to roll in around lunchtime.
That’s definitely what happened to me: after perfect blue skies all the way up, a storm blew in as I got towards the top, and I ended up in a thick layer of cloud with thunder rolling around the nearby valleys. That meant that I mostly missed out on the spectacular mountain views that the route is most famous for!
An hour earlier and it would have been a different story, so I’d really suggest being on the trail by 7:30am if you possibly can.
How Hard Is It?
I do quite a lot of hiking, and it’s fair to say that I underestimated the difficulty of the route I took. The reports I’d read made the Triund Trek sound easy: it would have been if I’d walked the same out-and-back route from the temple that most people do, but going up from Bhagsu was quite a bit harder.
That’s mostly because once you get past the waterfall near the start of the track, the climb is pretty relentless. There’s an elevation gain of over 1000m (3300 feet) in just 5.5km (3.4 miles), on rocky paths and with very little in the way of flat sections until you get to the top.
You’re at altitude, too: the top is at 2875m (9400 feet), and it felt like it. I’m not sure I’ve ever stopped to catch my breath as often as I did on the way up that trail! The altitude does at least keep the temperature down a bit, but if the sun’s out, you’ll still definitely want a hat and sunscreen.
All of that said, while the route I took was quite tiring, it’s well worth the effort and still manageable for most people with a reasonable amount of fitness. If you’re not sure about that steep ascent (or descent, if you’re going the other way), then just take the easier route out and back from the temple instead.
How Much Does It Cost?
There used to be no cost associated with independently day-hiking the Triund Trek, but sadly that’s no longer the case.
If you start from Gallu Devi temple, you’ll immediately come across a police checkpoint where you need to show ID and register your details. That used to be all you needed to do, but from December 2023, you’re now charged an entry fee of 200 rupees per person as well.
The fee was discounted to 100 rupees soon afterward, but reports seem to suggest that foreign tourists are still often charged the full amount. Is that legitimate? Hard to say.
Coming in from the Bhagsu waterfall side, however, there was no checkpoint that I could see, or anywhere else to pay a fee. To be honest I didn’t even know there was meant to be an entry fee, and only discovered it when I was reading recent reviews of the trek the next day!
There was nobody checking for tickets on the trail or at the top, but I’m not sure what would have happened if I’d walked past the Gallu checkpoint on my way back down. There’s apparently a 500 rupee fine if you’re caught without having paid the fee, but as I say, there’d been nowhere I could see to do so.
Because I branched off early from the main trail to head back towards Bhagsu, I never got to find out!
Other than food and drink, these are the only costs you’ll face to do this as a day hike. If you want to stay in one of the tents overnight, they’re around 500-600 rupees for a two-person tent. Book in advance through your guesthouse or a travel agent during peak times, otherwise you can likely just show up and get one.
Note that the campsite at the top isn’t your only option: I passed at least one other collection of tents on the way up on the Bhagsu side, shown in the photo above.
What Gear Do You Need?
You don’t need much in the way of gear to tackle the Triund Trek.
I wore the following:
- Long hiking pants
- Merino t-shirt, which dries quickly and doesn’t smell when you sweat through it like I did
- Cap, to keep the sun and rain off my face
- Woollen socks, for avoiding blisters
- Lightweight hiking shoes: having firm, grippy soles was useful on the uneven rocky path, which got quite slippery as soon as the rain arrived.
Other than that, I just took a very small foldup backpack, with the following things inside:
- snacks, mostly fruit, plus a small plastic bag to store banana skins etc afterward
- a 1.5 litre bottle of water
- a power bank and cable in case my phone ran out of charge
- a long-sleeved top in case it got cold at the top
- a lightweight rain jacket, which I wore most of the way down
- sunscreen
If you go in from the Gallu Devi temple side and plan to return the same way, you can also rent hiking sticks from the store beside the checkpoint at the start. They cost 100 rupees, and you get half of that back when you return them afterwards.
If they’d also been available on the Bhagsu side, I’d have rented them: they’d have made the ascent much less tiring! If you’re thinking about walking in from the temple and going down the other side to the waterfall, I’d definitely recommend hiking sticks: they’ll help your knees and stability on the descent.
What’s the Trail Like?
The first 15-20 minutes of the route I took, from Bhagsu village to the top of the waterfall, is deceptively easy. It’s not all that steep, and the path is paved concrete basically the entire way, with steps anywhere you might need them.
That all changes after you cross the river beside Shiva Cafe, where rough steps immediately head up the side of the mountain and through the trees. It’s noticeably steeper, and there aren’t a lot of views on this part, but it’s nice to be in the quiet of the forest for the next 20-30 minutes.
As soon as you get above the tree line, though, the landscape opens up dramatically. You’re working your way up and along the southern side of the mountain at this point, with epic views back towards Dharamkot, Bhagsu, and beyond.
The track stays mostly dirt and rocks all the rest of the way up the mountain: sometimes all dirt, sometimes entirely rocks, but usually some mix of the two. It was generally easy to follow, although there were a couple of places on this part of the mountain where the main trail wasn’t obvious and I wandered off course for a minute or two.
That’s where that AllTrails map came in useful, to see where I should have been and work my way back up or down the mountain to the right path!
The climb is consistently steep the whole way up, but flattens out a bit along the ridgeline as you approach the top. You can see roughly where you’re trying to get to, at least if the cloud isn’t super-thick, but the right path through the rocks isn’t always clear. Again, just keep an eye on the map on your phone and you’ll be fine.
Taking the more popular section of the trail for my descent, the difference was immediately obvious: while the part at the very top was still rocky, steep, and a bit slippery in the rain, the track was in better condition and very easy to follow.
After a few minutes it got less steep, and more sheltered from the rain. The walking was pretty easy going downhill, and wouldn’t have been much harder going up. There was the occasional rocky section that was still slippery, but it wasn’t something to worry about it as long as I was paying attention.
Turning off that main trail about three-quarters of the way back towards the temple, the path got steeper and more slippery again as it dropped down the hill. This was also the only part where I encountered any mud, but there wasn’t much of it.
This side track split a few times: it wasn’t always totally apparent which way I should be going, but the general answer was “downhill”. I didn’t love this section, but fortunately it doesn’t last all that long: soon enough, you join back up with a paved road near a small cluster of hostels and guesthouses.
From there, it’s pretty much plain sailing back to the start point in Bhagsu. You can either follow the road, which is easier but takes longer, or take the shortcuts shown on the AllTrails map. I ended up doing a bit of both, after missing the first turnoff! Either way, I ended up back in the same place.
What’s the Best Time to Walk It?
By the standards of hiking in the Himalayas, the Triund Trek is accessible much of the year. Other than the peak monsoon months of July/August, and the depths of winter in January and February, you should be able to tackle this hike the rest of the time.
That said, obviously keep an eye on the weather forecast, and ask locals if you’re not sure about the conditions: better safe than sorry!
I walked the trail in October, shortly after the end of the monsoon season. It was reasonably cool in the morning when I started out, but the rising sun and steep climb had me sweating before long. Even so, it never got super hot, since the altitude gain helped keep temperatures down.
With the clouds and rain that rolled in, it was chillier at the top: if I’d stopped moving for more than a few minutes, I’d have wanted to put on an extra layer.
Regardless of the time of year, you’re more likely to have clear, sunny conditions in the morning than the afternoon. Even if there’s no rain, clouds often roll in around lunchtime, obscuring all those beautiful views. Like I mentioned up top, start early if you want the best photos!
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Cafes and Tea Shops
There’s no need to worry about going hungry on the Triund Trek: there are close to a dozen little tea shops and cafes dotted along the trail. Three or four of them are on the main trail between Gallu Devi temple and the top, with several more on the Bhagsu side.
That’s not even including the ones before and at Bhagsu waterfall, in Bhagsu village, or alongside the Gallu Devi temple. Basically, what I’m saying is that you’re going to be able to buy food and drink pretty much anywhere you want it!
As well as packaged snacks, water, and soft drinks, most of the ones I saw also offered hot drinks like tea and coffee.
As you’d expect, the more remote the tea shop was, the more limited the hot food options generally were. There was everything from burgers to pizzas on the menu at Shiva Cafe beside Bhagsu waterfall, for instance, but close to the top, you’d get Maggi (instant noodles) and not much else.
Prices were higher than what you’d pay in town, but still very affordable by Western standards. Note that other than the cafes and tea shops, there are no other places to get water along the trail.
So there you have it, my thoughts and experience of hiking the Triund Trek! I really enjoyed this walk, and if you’re in the area and are looking for a great way to get plenty of exercise and some epic views, I’d highly recommend it.
If you’ve got any questions that I haven’t answered, just leave them in the comments below!
All images via author
