Khao Sok National Park protects one of the oldest rainforests on Earth — estimated at more than 160 million years, older than the Amazon and predating the split of the supercontinent Gondwana. Walking beneath its closed canopy, past towering dipterocarp trees and giant Rafflesia flowers in bloom season, gives this trek a genuinely primeval feel that’s distinct from anywhere else Tripcamps operates in Thailand.
The trek builds toward Cheow Lan Lake, a reservoir created by the Ratchaprapha Dam whose flooded valley left hundreds of limestone karst towers rising dramatically straight out of the water — a landscape often compared to a jungle version of Halong Bay. A longtail-boat crossing threads between these formations to reach an overnight stay in a floating raft house, one of the more memorable overnight experiences on any Tripcamps itinerary, with the sound of gibbons calling across the water at dawn.
Wildlife here includes gibbons, hornbills, Asian elephants, and, very rarely, clouded leopards, though the dense canopy makes sightings a matter of patience and luck. The best trekking window runs from December through March, avoiding both the heaviest monsoon rains and the most humid pre-monsoon months, when lake levels and trail conditions are both at their most manageable.
