The 72 km that needs a 4x4
Dharchula to Adi Kailash and Om Parvat by 4x4
For travellers who reach Dharchula under their own steam and want transport only for the hard section above it.
Quick answer
If you can reach Dharchula yourself, you only need a vehicle for the hard part. Dharchula to Gunji is 72 km and takes 5 to 6 hours in a 4x4. From a Gunji base it is 36 km to Jolingkong for Adi Kailash and Parvati Kund, and about 44 km return to Nabhidhang for Om Parvat. Your Inner Line Permit is obtained at Dharchula, in person, from the SDM’s office. This is often the sensible way to do the trip — and we say below when it is not.
Inner Line Permits were suspended on 2 July 2026 and we have not confirmed that they have resumed.
Pithoragarh district administration stopped issuing Inner Line Permits on 2 July 2026 because of continuous rainfall. On 18 August 2026 the Tawaghat-Gunji road was closed by boulder falls at Malghat and Kulagad, cutting off the Vyas Valley. District officials have indicated permits may restart in September, but we have not seen that confirmed. Do not book non-refundable travel for this route until you have spoken to the SDM Dharchula office.
Last verified by us on 22 August 2026. Our dated route status page carries the full 2026 timeline and the district control room numbers, so you can check it yourself rather than take our word for it.
Who this page is for
Three kinds of traveller, and the arithmetic is different for each.
- You are driving your own car up. You want to leave it somewhere sensible at Dharchula and take a proper 4x4 with a driver who knows the road for the section above Tawaghat.
- You are coming by bus or shared vehicle, from Tanakpur, Pithoragarh or Haldwani, and arriving at Dharchula with no onward transport arranged.
- You are flying or training into the region and starting high, and you do not want to pay for two paved days you could do more cheaply another way.
If instead you want the whole thing handled from the railhead, that is our Kathgodam to Adi Kailash charter, and the two paved days before Dharchula are essentially our Kathgodam to Pithoragarh and Kathgodam to Dharchula runs.
The distances, from a Dharchula start
| Leg | Distance | Time | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dharchula → Tawaghat | ~19–20 km | Short but slow | The Baluwakot to Tawaghat stretch has been under BRO widening for four years. As of February 2026, 29 of 35.6 km were done, deadline June 2026. |
| Dharchula → Gunji | 72 km | 5–6 hours | The hard section. 4x4 territory: five named slide points, 27 hairpins on the Budhi to Chhiyalekh climb, and about 2,300 m of altitude gained. |
| Gunji → Jolingkong | 36 km | Under an hour | Adi Kailash and Parvati Sarovar. Fully blacktopped by the BRO, 3.75 m wide, at around 14,000 ft. |
| Gunji → Nabhidhang → Gunji | About 44 km return | Half a day | Om Parvat, via Kalapani. A separate excursion on a separate day — see the Om Parvat page. |
Distances and journey times on this page are drawn from published sources and from our own driving, and are given as ranges because that is what they honestly are. A figure quoted to the kilometre on a Himalayan road is usually a figure someone made up.
The whole reason this page exists is visible in that first row. Roughly 400 km of this journey is ordinary road and 72 km of it is not. Hiring for the 72 km, and only the 72 km, is a perfectly rational thing to do.
Why a 4x4 above Dharchula
The District Magistrate of Pithoragarh publicly recommended four-wheel-drive vehicles for this route at the start of the 2026 season. That is a recommendation rather than a legal mandate, and we are not going to inflate it into one — but the local working fleet above Dharchula is Bolero, Bolero Camper, Thar and Sumo class, and there is a reason for that.
One claim we will not repeat: several sites state that private vehicles are not permitted between Dharchula and Gunji. We could not verify it, and there are first-hand accounts of self-drive travellers reaching Gunji, Kuti and Jolingkong in their own cars with permits checked at multiple points. What is documented is a timed traffic schedule controlling movement between Dharchula and Tawaghat, and a 4 PM cut-off after which no traveller is permitted onward into the Vyas Valley. Both were documented for the 2025 season and both are the kind of rule that is reissued annually. Detail on the 4x4 page.
The 4 PM cut-off is the thing that quietly decides your day. 72 km at 5 to 6 hours, plus the roadworks on the Baluwakot–Tawaghat stretch, means a late start from Dharchula does not reach Gunji. Plan to leave in the morning, with the permit already in hand from the day before. This was documented for the 2025 season — confirm the current timing at the counter, because it moves.
The permit: at Dharchula, in person
The Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Dharchula is the issuing authority for the Inner Line Permit. Since 2024 the District Magistrate’s office at Pithoragarh has also issued them, giving two counters — which matters if you are coming up through Pithoragarh anyway.
Bring photo ID (Aadhaar is named most often), a passport-size photograph, a medical fitness certificate from a government hospital doctor or a private MBBS doctor, police verification, and two mobile numbers. The permit attaches to you personally, on your own documents. We cannot get it for you and no honest operator can.
We do not publish an ILP fee. We could not verify one from any government source, any mainstream news report or any operator page we checked — and we equally do not tell you it is free, because that is just as unverified. Ask the SDM Dharchula’s office directly. The full treatment, including the two competing online portal addresses and the position for foreign nationals, is on our Inner Line Permit page.
Our operational advice: reach Dharchula the night before you need the permit, not the same morning. In 2025 there was a cap of 500 permits a day, and the 4 PM onward cut-off means a permit obtained at lunchtime may still cost you a day. Arrive, sleep, apply early, leave the following morning.
Where to leave your own vehicle
Our own advice, and we would rather be honest about its limits than sound authoritative. There is no official long-stay car park for tourists at Dharchula that we can point you at, and we are not going to invent one.
What works in practice is to arrange it with wherever you are staying. Dharchula has hotels, guesthouses and a KMVN Tourist Rest House, and a vehicle left with a property you are a guest of — with the arrangement agreed and paid for, and someone’s name and phone number attached to it — is a better bet than a roadside space. Do this at the booking stage rather than on arrival. If you are hiring the 4x4 from us we will help settle it, but we would be overstating our position if we called it a guaranteed service.
Two practical points either way: take everything of value out of the car, and remember that you will be uncontactable for several days, so leave a phone number with whoever is holding the keys that reaches someone who is not in the Vyas Valley.
Where you sleep
| Place | What exists | Reality |
|---|---|---|
| Dharchula | Hotels, guesthouses and a KMVN Tourist Rest House. | The last town with a full range of services — ATM, pharmacy, dependable signal. Described in sources as a few budget guesthouses and lodges rather than a hotel strip. This is where you draw cash for the whole trip. |
| Gunji | KMVN Tourist Rest House, village homestays, private guesthouses, administration tent colonies. | Basic rooms, vegetarian meals, blankets. Limited electricity and limited mobile connectivity. This is your base for both excursions. |
| Nabi and Kuti | Family-run homestays. | Home-cooked meals, shared washrooms, limited electricity. |
| Nabhidhang and Jolingkong | Day-trip destinations. | Not night halts for tourists. You go up and you come back to Gunji. |
As of February 2025 the then District Magistrate said more than 100 homestays were operating across the seven Vyas Valley villages. That is the practical answer to where you sleep at 3,200 m: a homestay economy, not a hotel one. What to bring for it is on our packing page.
A workable shape for a Dharchula start
| Day | Roughly | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Arrive Dharchula, 940 m | Permit paperwork, cash from the ATM, vehicle handover, an early night. Do not treat this as a spare day you can cut. |
| 1 | Dharchula to Gunji, 72 km | 5–6 hours, and about 2,300 m of altitude gained. Leave in the morning because of the onward cut-off. |
| 2 | Gunji to Jolingkong and back, 36 km each way | Adi Kailash and Parvati Kund. The highest point of the trip, around 4,500 m. |
| 3 | Gunji to Nabhidhang and back, about 44 km | Om Parvat, via Kalapani. Whether the Om is visible is weather, not itinerary. |
| 4 | Gunji to Dharchula | Coming down is not automatically faster. |
| Spare | One day, unallocated | Not a luxury on this road. It is the difference between a delay and a cancelled onward journey. |
This is fast, and we would rather say so than sell it. Dharchula at 940 m to Gunji at about 3,200 m to Jolingkong at about 4,500 m inside roughly 72 hours is a steep gain by any mountaineering standard, and the road is what makes it possible — a vehicle does in hours what used to take days of walking. If anyone in your party is older, or has not been at altitude before, add nights lower down and read our guide to travelling with elders. We are a taxi operator and we do not give medical advice; that conversation belongs with a doctor, and you will be seeing one anyway for the permit certificate.
When a Dharchula start is the right call — and when it is not
| Your situation | Our honest view |
|---|---|
| You have your own car and are comfortable driving to Dharchula | Do this. There is no sense paying for a chauffeured vehicle on 400 km of paved highway you are happy to drive, and every sense in handing over the 72 km that needs a 4x4 and local knowledge. |
| You are already in the region — Pithoragarh, Champawat, Tanakpur | Do this. Getting to Dharchula is a normal Kumaon drive and we run it as an ordinary route. |
| You are a small group, budget-conscious, and flexible on comfort | Probably this. Reaching Dharchula by bus is genuinely cheap; the 4x4 leg is where the money has to go anyway. |
| You are arriving on an overnight train at Kathgodam with a fixed return flight | Probably not. Two paved days plus a vehicle changeover you have to organise yourself, at the exact moment you are also handling permits, is a lot of moving parts. Take the full charter instead. |
| You are travelling with elders or anyone nervous about the road | Not this. The value of one operator across the whole trip is that somebody is responsible when a plan has to change at Budhi. Split the trip and that responsibility splits too. |
| You are a group of nine or more | Not straightforwardly. You will need several 4x4s above Dharchula and the coordination is real work. See the Tempo Traveller page for how the transfer model works. |
| Your dates are fixed and non-refundable | Reconsider the dates, not the vehicle. Permits were stopped outright on 2 July 2026 and the road was cut on 18 August 2026. See when to go. |
Hiring the Vyas Valley leg from us
We do not publish a fixed rate card for this route, and we would rather explain why than show you a number that changes the moment you ask about it. A hill-route fare is not one number — it moves with the vehicle, the season, whether the driver returns empty, and how long the car is held.
| Vehicle | Passengers | Suits | One way / round trip fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4x4 | 4–6 | Rough and high-altitude sections beyond Dharchula | Ask on WhatsApp |
| SUV | 6–7 | Families, groups, or anyone who wants more room on a long climb | Ask on WhatsApp |
The enquiry links above are templated for our Kathgodam base, because that is where we are. Say in the message that you are joining at Dharchula and we will quote the Vyas Valley leg only.
What moves the price on a leg like this is not really the kilometres. It is the number of days the vehicle and driver are committed — including the days the car sits at Gunji while you are at Jolingkong — the driver’s food and bed on the road, the return running whether or not you are in the car, and the real possibility of weather adding days at the far end. Ask us, or anyone else, what happens to the price if the road shuts for two days. The answer is informative.
What moves the price
- One way versus round trip. This is the single biggest factor and the one most quoted prices hide. On a hill route a one-way drop usually means the driver returns empty. You are paying for a vehicle and a driver's day, not only for the kilometres you sit in the car. That is why a one-way fare is often closer to a return fare than people expect.
- Vehicle class. A hatchback and a seven-seat SUV are different costs to run on a continuous climb.
- Season. Peak weeks — roughly late April to mid-June, and around major festivals and the Kainchi Dham anniversary in June — are busier and dearer than a quiet week in September.
- Waiting and sightseeing. A straight drop is not the same as holding the car while you spend three hours at a temple or a lake.
- Night travel and pre-dawn pickups. Overnight trains reach Kathgodam before first light. We do run those pickups; they cost more than a mid-morning one.
- Tolls, parking and entry charges. Nainital levies a toll on vehicles entering the town, and parking at Nainital and Kainchi Dham can be a real cost in season.
What we tell you before you book
When we quote you, we say plainly whether the figure includes fuel, driver, tolls, parking and state taxes, and what is charged separately. If something is likely to be extra — a long wait, an added stop, an early start — we say so before you commit, not at the end of the journey.
If you would rather hand the whole thing to the state corporation, KMVN runs a Dharchula-to-Dharchula package of its own and we have set out where that is the better buy on our KMVN comparison page. We would rather you chose correctly than chose us.
Ask for a Dharchula-start quote
Tell us when you expect to reach Dharchula, how many of you there are, and whether you are arriving in your own vehicle. We will come back with a vehicle plan for the Vyas Valley leg, what is included, and a straight view on whether your dates are sensible.
Common questions
How far is Adi Kailash from Dharchula?
Dharchula to Gunji is 72 km and takes 5 to 6 hours in a 4x4. From Gunji it is a further 36 km to Jolingkong, the Adi Kailash and Parvati Kund point, on blacktopped road that now takes under an hour. Om Parvat is the other spur, about 44 km return from Gunji to Nabhidhang.
Can I get a taxi from Dharchula to Adi Kailash?
Yes, and for many travellers it is the sensible way to do it. Roughly 400 km of this journey is ordinary road and 72 km of it is not, so hiring a 4x4 with a driver for the hard section only is a rational choice — particularly if you have driven your own car up or come by bus.
Where do I get the Inner Line Permit if I start at Dharchula?
From the Sub-Divisional Magistrate’s office at Dharchula, in person, on your own documents. Since 2024 the District Magistrate’s office at Pithoragarh has also issued them. Bring photo ID, a photograph, a medical fitness certificate from an MBBS doctor, police verification and two mobile numbers. No operator can obtain it for you.
Where can I leave my own car at Dharchula?
Honestly, there is no official long-stay tourist car park we can point you at, so we will not invent one. What works is arranging it with the hotel, guesthouse or rest house you stay at, agreed and paid for at the booking stage with a name and phone number attached. Empty the car, and leave contact details for someone outside the Vyas Valley.
How long should I allow from Dharchula?
Allow a night at Dharchula for the permit, a day up to Gunji, a day to Jolingkong and back, a day to Nabhidhang and back, a day down, and one spare day. That spare day is not a luxury — on this road it is the difference between a delay and a missed onward journey.
Is there a cut-off time for going up from Dharchula?
In the 2025 season no traveller was permitted onward into the Vyas Valley after 4 PM, and a timed traffic schedule controlled movement between Dharchula and Tawaghat. Both are volatile season to season. Since Dharchula to Gunji takes 5 to 6 hours, plan a morning start with the permit already in hand.
Do I need a 4x4 above Dharchula, or will a normal car do?
The District Magistrate of Pithoragarh publicly recommended four-wheel drive for this route at the start of the 2026 season, and the local working fleet is Bolero, Thar and Sumo class. That is a recommendation rather than a legal mandate. The claim that private vehicles are banned on this stretch is one we could not verify and do not repeat.
Where do I stay at Gunji?
A KMVN Tourist Rest House, village homestays, private guesthouses or administration tent colonies. Basic rooms, vegetarian meals, blankets, limited electricity and limited connectivity. More than 100 homestays were reported operating across the seven Vyas Valley villages as of February 2025.
Is it cheaper to start from Dharchula than from Kathgodam?
It removes two paved days of chauffeured driving from the bill, which is real money. But it adds coordination at the exact moment you are also handling permits, and it splits responsibility if a plan has to change on the road. We think it suits self-drivers and flexible small groups, and suits families with elders less well.
Sources and further reading
Where this page states a fact about roads, permits or public information, these are the sources it relies on. Anything we could not verify, we have said so.
- Amar Ujala - the 72 km road from Dharchula to Gunji
- Amar Ujala - Adi Kailash and Om Parvat yatra begins, 4x4 recommendation, 1 May 2026
- Amar Ujala - Inner Line Permits from today: documents, daily cap and 4 PM cut-off, 29 April 2025
- Amar Ujala - Baluwakot to Tawaghat widening, 25 February 2026
- Northern Gazette - dual permit counters and 100-plus homestays, 20 February 2025
- Wikipedia - Dharchula (92 km north of Pithoragarh, 940 m, services)
- Pithoragarh district administration - Chota Kailash route stages
- Kumaon Mandal Vikas Nigam - packages including Dharchula to Dharchula