Sunday, 14 January 2024
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep to Khun Chang Khian

The Chiang Mai Hiking Club is an informal group of mostly Chiang Mai residents who hike in the area every Sunday. The only way to connect with them is to show up at one of their hikes, the details of which are posted on Friday on their website for the upcoming Sunday hike. The goal of this hike was Khun Chang Khian where the sakura (cherry blossoms) might be in bloom. The sakura is the flower of trees in the genus Prunus or subgenus Cerasus. “Sakura” usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, not trees grown for their fruit. The sakura at Khun Chang Khian are only starting to boom, so we only saw a hint of what is to come in a week or two.

The Hike Information

Here is a map and some statistics from the hike from the Samsung Health app on my phone & watch.

The hike from Wat Phra That Doi Suthep to Khun Chang Khian and back was 18.2 kilometers.

Walking time was 4 hours 37 minutes for an average speed of 3.9 km/hour, a decent pace.

According to the app, I completed 27,343 steps.

The elevation gain was 870 meters (2850 feet).

The Hike Itself

Rudy and I met the group at a car parking area by the Chiang Mai University arboretum, close to the base of the long uphill road to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We rode to the parking area at the temple with a British fellow named Steve. The hike started at the entrance to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We did not enter the temple grounds but took a small side road just past the temple entrance officially starting our hike.

Very soon we were climbing this fairly steep, rustic stairway and entering the forest.

The forest was fairly dense, and there were fallen trees across the trail (I wonder if they made a sound when they fell?).

We came upon this interesting and large tree. The trunk seems to be a collection of many small trunks. Being so large, it has been here a long, long time.

We continued on in the forest, sometimes uphill, sometimes slightly downhill. The uphill sections always seemed much longer than the downhill sections.

No shortage of fallen trees to negotiate, mostly over and sometimes under.

The dense forest was beautiful and cooler than a hike in the sunlight.

The group had done this hike many times in the past and knew a good place in a clearing to stop for a break and have some snacks and water.

A good bit farther the path became wider as if it were an access road for firefighting or the like. And then we were in a clearing, close to an area being farmed (so I was told).

Khun Chang Khian

Khun Chang Khian is a very small village in the forest to which people come to see the sakura when they are blooming. In the U.S. we often think of the cherry blossoms on the east coast, Washington DC in particular, as blooming in early April. The climate is different here, and they typically bloom here in mid-January. We arrived at Khun Chang Khian and saw that the sakura were just starting to boom – not yet in their full glory. Still there were many people taking photos, selfies, and videos.

Also at Khun Chang Khian were a few of these striking red flower bushes.

After a stop for coffee and a rest, we headed back down the mountain. Rudy was ahead of me then behind me and took a couple of photos of me on the trail.

The total time for the hike was over 6 hours including stops. A long day of hiking, and a beautiful day in the forest above Chiang Mai.

Next: Temples along Tha Phae Road