Hailuogou Glacier Park Hiking Guide

Hiking in Hailuogou Glacier Park is a popular way and at some locations an inevitable way of visiting thie place. The hiking inside the park is well-paved and marked path. There are total three sections of hiking one can do inside Hailuogou Park.

The usual way to visit Hailuoguo Park is to use the tourist bus to get to Camp 3 (or Ganheba) then use cable car to Camp 4 to see the great icefall and then come back to the base. The main sites are at camp 3 and camp 4 inside Hailuogou. At camp 1 there is nothing, at camp 2 there is only a deserted hot spring resort.

There are four sections of hiking.

Grass Pond to Camp 3 is about 3.3km walking in the primitive forest where in spring time you can see the Rhododendra flowers and the forest itself is old and quiet. Often this section has few people doing the walking. The path is well-paved and marked.

Camp 3 to Glacier Cave is about 2km single way. At the Galcier Cave is the only place in Hailuogou where you can get down to Glacier and see the glacier at a very close range. The Cave is also where the lowest glacier at the whole Gongga Area with the lowest glacier at below 3000 meters. Coming back from the cave will use the same way. This part can be replaced by tourist van if one doesn't walk.

Camp 3 to Ganheba (Cable Car Lower Station) is around 1.5km walking on the boardwalk. This part was open only until recent years to give another option to get from Camp 3 and Cable Car Station aside from using tourist bus.

Ganheba to Glacier View Point is about 1.6km single way and coming back will use the same trail. This trial used to take you all the way down to the glacier but not it's cut off due to the frequent landslide. In a clear day, the view spot gives excellent views.

To go to Camp 4 one needs to use the cable car. Cable car is the only way to get to Camp 4. At Camp 4 there is a total of around 500 meters where you can walk around to see the great ice fall of Gongga.

A recommended hiking trip to Hailuogou is as follows:

1.use the tourist bus all the way to the terminal to get to Ganheba then switch to cable car and go to Camp 4 to see the great ice fall and walk around Camp 4 for about 20-30 minutes before using the cable car back to Ganhe ba, then walk the 1.6km*2 for 1 hour to the Glacier view spot. Then walk the 1.5km to Camp 3 and then either walk of use tourist van to see the Glacier Cave. Then walk downwards to Grass Pond for 3.3km then get on the bus and come back to the base at Moxi. To do this you will need about a minimum of 6-7 hours total from and back to Tourist Center at Moxi Town. Although you can skip one or two of the hikings if you have limited time. At times when the weather is not so good, you can also do the hiking first and then go to Camp 4 after worth.

Erchengshan Hiking

Note there is another hiking inside the park of Hailuogou that basically no one notices. It is called Erchengshan Hiking that starts by Camp 1 and use very rough trail to get to mountain top at over 4000 meters in more than one days to get good views of the glaciers including the great icefall of Gongga. But this hiking involves camping and carrying heavy loads of things to get to over 4000 meters from below 2000 meters in 2 days. If you are interested in this hike, please contact us to get details.