Kudremukh National Park

sanctuary · Mudigere

You need a permit. Every trek inside the park is booked in advance on aranyavihaara.karnataka.gov.in — about ₹475–575 per person depending on the trail, plus a compulsory guide at ₹1,000 per group of ten. No walk-in permits.

Photos: Kousik Nandy, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Vidyadhar Atkore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons · Satya swami kiran bandi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

About 600 sq km of rolling montane grassland and shola forest along the crest of the Western Ghats, one of the largest stretches of that landscape left anywhere. The park protects the source of three rivers and a good population of lion-tailed macaques, tigers and Malabar civets that you will almost certainly not see. What you will see is grass to the horizon, streams every few hundred metres, and cloud moving through the valleys. Kudremukh peak, Gangamoola, Kadambi and Hanuman Gundi falls are all inside it.