Binsar

Binsar is a place to disappear into the forest. Once the summer capital of the Chand kings who ruled Kumaon, the area is now protected as the Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, a swathe of old-growth oak, rhododendron and pine cloaking a ridge at around 2,412 metres. The dense canopy shelters leopards, barking deer, Himalayan langurs and more than 200 species of birds, and the only way to experience it is slowly, on foot, along quiet forest trails.

Crowning the sanctuary is its famous Zero Point, a short walk to a viewing platform that opens onto one of the grandest mountain vistas in Uttarakhand — an immense, unbroken sweep of peaks including Kedarnath, Chaukhamba, Trishul, Nanda Devi and the Panchachuli, stretching across some 300 kilometres of horizon.

Because development inside the sanctuary is tightly limited, Binsar has none of the noise of a typical hill station; a handful of forest estates and rest houses offer the rare luxury of a night spent surrounded by nothing but trees, birdsong and starlight. The ancient Binsar Mahadev temple and the gateway town of Almora are close at hand.

March–June and September–November for clear views and forest walks.