Ban Khao Yai Favorites

Favorite thing: To get across the river to Gong Gheo waterfall trail you will have to cross this suspension bridge. My son was having a little too much fun jumping up and down on it and scaring his friends Ooy and Gop.He was laughing but they wanted to throw him in the river. From this bridge is where we spotted the Monitor Lizard swimming in the river.

Favorite thing: There is a short but interesting hike to take right behind the Visitor Center. It ended up being alot more interesting than I thought it was going to be. We ended up seeing a 5-6 foot Monitor Lizard right in the beginning and later on we spotted the huge Green Scorpion. At the water fall I spotted some sort of big Turtle but it scurried off over the rocks before I could get a photo of it. There wasn't much water at these falls though.

Favorite thing: At the visitor center you can find any information that you want about the park. Hiking trails, safefy concerns etc... There are some interesting displays too. My son enjoyed the stuffed Tiger. It had to be killed as it attacked and killed a child a few years back. so now it it's on permanent display.

Favorite thing: I'm pretty sure this is the Sambar Deer. But I could be wrong... We saw well over 100 of them in our 3 days in the park. This shot is taken right near a parking lot near the Nam Tok Hew Suwat waterfall. There were a couple others hiding under the trees too. The reason I got to see these is that it started raining so we were leaving the falls and we noticed these guys hanging out on the edge of the parking lot.

Favorite thing: It had rained most of the night. So I loved seeing the early morning fog breaking up that was holding over the river and seeing the sun cast it's morning rays over the freshly soaked fields and the bugs where humming with joy!! I wish I had carried some sort of sound recording device as the locusts and other field bugs where sure loud!!

Fondest memory: If you are the lead hiker in the morning you will remember this!! There are spider webs across the trail at about every 20 feet or so and they seemed to be built at the level of my face! I finally picked up a stick and waved it in front of me to keep the webs out of my eyes and mouth!! This seemed to work very well.

Favorite thing: There are various grades of hiking trails to be found in Khao Yai. From wide dirt trails to narrow paths through dense jungle to slippery rocks to get to some of the water falls. Some of the wide paths are just little more than a casual walk without much difficulty. In the photo you can see one of the wide paths. This one leads to the game viewing platform near th KM 35 turnout. You will want to pack drinking water as there aren't any places along the way to refill your bottles.

Fondest memory: The Red Dirt of Khao Yai is pretty cool. We don't have that were I'm from in Alaska so I found it to be quite interesting.

Favorite thing: There are some great hiking to be done in the park. After the elephant viewing didn't happen we continued along the path down past the watering hole. As you can see from the picture my sons shoes aren't what most people would consider hiking apparel. But that's what our whole group hiked in...Flip Flops. We could have had some major problems because of this but every turned out ok....only a few leeches!

Favorite thing: We didn't view the waterfall from below the area so, I just thought I have to take a small water falling. so, here it is from the stagnant water just beside the viewing deck!