Horton Plains National Park is located in the central highland of Sri Lanka. The park’s elevation ranges from 1,200–2,300 meters, and it’s about 10Km trekking route. It is advisable to visit Horton Plains early in the morning because the weather usually changes quickly. Rain falls throughout the year. Mist can persist in the most of the day during the wet season.
It was a cold and misty morning when we left to Horton Plains from Ohiya. We chose to stay at Hill Safari Eco Lodge the day before, an accommodation that is close to Horton Plains so that we reach there early. The road to Horton Plains is narrow and full of bends. The mist makes the road wet, so we needed to drive carefully.
The Entrance
We reached the entrance gate quite early. It was a bit rainy. At the entrance gate, there is one ticket counter. As it is not a drive-thru counter, we had to get out from our car to reach there. The ticket cost LKR 4350 per foreign adult.
From the entrance gate, we need to continue driving until we find a car park. Well, it’s not really a car park with the parking lots and so on. It’s just an empty land dedicated for parking. As we arrived early, the parking lot was not too crowded yet.
Upon entering the national park, there is one screening gate. All of the visitors’ belongings were checked to make sure no one brings plastic inside the protected area. Plastics are thrown away at the gate and were replaced with paper. We think this is a very good approach to make sure there will be no non-biodegradable litter in the area. At this gate, we should be able to show our ticket too.
The Track
After passing the screening gate, there is about 500m path that leads to a fork before the loop begins.
The loop track inside the Horton Plans is about 10Km. During our walk, the weather indeed changed very quickly. It was raining at the beginning, sunny, misty, raining again, windy and so on. It’s fortunate that we were prepared for the weather changes: sunblock, disposable raincoat, sunglasses, jacket, all checked!
Besides the varied elevation, the terrains inside the park are varied too. Mostly, the track is a soil path. There is some flat path, a path with steep stairs and some path with a lot of stones. The stony terrain was a bit slippery to pass in a wet weather. The track is ok for those who have a certain level of fitness. We love to walk and used to walk a long distance. However, we think it might be a real challenge for those who didn’t get use to walk a long distance.
The Attractions
There are mainly 3 well-known beautiful spots inside the park: Baker’s falls, World’s End and Mini World’s End. Walking down the trekking path, we were spoiled with beautiful nature along the way.
The path toward Baker’s falls includes steep stairs that lead to a beautiful view of the waterfall. Unfortunately, there is only limited space for visitors there, so we need to take turns to be able to enjoy the waterfall as well as taking pictures.
From the Baker’s Falls, we continued our walk to World’s End. The view is magical, but we had to race with the fog as it travels fast covering the view. It was too bad we couldn’t snap the amazing view of it without the fog.
After World’s End, we walked for several Kilometers to read Mini World’s End. By the time we reached there, it was a bit cloudy. We were able to enjoy the view for a while. But then again, fog covers the view quickly.
Finally, we have reached all of the attractions at Horton Plains. We walked for another 2.3 Km from Mini World’s End to the checkpoint gate. Overall, it was a nice trekking experience with unpredictable weather along the way. But hey, that’s the art of traveling, right?
