Largest National Park of Kaeng Krachan National Park at Thailand
Kaeng Krachan is Thailand’s largest national park and is on the border of the Tanintharyi Nature Reserve in Burma. The park is mostly rainforest, and is famous for the dense morning mist covering the park with hilltops sticking above mist cloud around December-March, creating a spectacular view. The park is also well known for its diverse wildlife, especially birds and butterflies.
The name Kaeng Krachan comes from a large reservoir stretching to a dam and park headquarters on the park’s eastern rim. Park-run campgrounds and private resorts are available in this scenic area, though wildlife spotters should head deeper into the park and camp at Ban Krang or near the 1,207-metre peak of Khao Phanoen Thung. Quite a few Thai travellers flock up here at dawn to watch sheets of fog drape over the valleys.
More than 400 species of birds have been identified here, including rare species such as giant pitta, great argus and whooly-necked storks. There are also many mammals, such as leopards, wild dogs, bears and elephants.The only humans to permanently inhabit the park are Karen and Kariang people who have struggled to stay put in their ancestral home. In 2016, Thai judges controversially ruled that park officials had done nothing wrong when, five years earlier, they torched a village where a small number of Karen appeared to be living in harmony with nature. Among the shocked members of this mountain tribe, labeled “encroachers” by Thai authorities, was a 105-year-old man who was born in the forest long before it became a national park.
You can take boat rides on one of the parks two rivers or large lake. Kaeng Krachan National Park is an exciting destination for a variety of activities, including hiking through forests, bird watching, boating or scaling one of the park’s tall peaks.