My Visual Travel Experience: Corbett National Park

My wife, my 4 year old son, my wife's niece, and I visited Corbett National Park in June 2019. It was a 3 day outing. I drove throughout the 300 km long journey, and it took a little over 7 hours from Gurgaon, the route being Gurgaon - Delhi - Ghaziabad - Hapur - Garh Mukteshwar - Gajraula - Moradabad - Kashipur - Ramnagar - Corbett National Park. There were stretches of the journey where the road was excellent, and it was easy to drive at speeds of 100 kmph, but there were other stretches where the road was bad and congested. Overall, it was a fairly painless drive, though I must admit I was quite exhausted by the end of it!

Open Jeep

We stayed at a place called Pratiksha River Retreat, just off the main road to the east of Corbett National Park. The road has a large number of resorts, eateries and other attractions. The hotel was certainly not grand or luxurious, but it was very comfortable. We got a good deal, paying just around Rs 7,000 per night for the four of us, including all our meals. The resort was close to the Kosi River, it was green and had an outdoor pool. The staff was exceptionally helpful and friendly, and the levels of service were exemplary!

Rooms, Pratiksha River Retreat

Map of Corbett National Park at
Pratiksha River Retreat

I read up a bit about the place. Corbett National Park is India's oldest national park, and was founded in 1936 to protect the endangered Bengal tigers. The park is in Nainital District of the state of Uttarakhand. The park covers a total area of over 1,300 sq km. It has about 110 tree species, 50 mammal species, 580 bird species and 25 reptile species. Soon after the park was established by the British, hunting was prohibited in it. In 1974, it was chosen as the location for launching Project Tiger, a conservation project that has been successful over the years.

On the second day of our trip, we set out at 5 am for an open jeep safari, for which we paid about Rs 5,000. We entered the park from the Durgadevi Gate, which also has a small Durga Temple after which the gate is named. The jeep took us a distance of 12 km into the park, up to the river, before turning back. We stopped at will, every time we saw some wildlife or anything of interest. We also stopped at the Watch Tower, and climbed up in order to get a good view.

Durgadevi Temple

Watch Tower

View of the River

Corbett National Park is hilly, and has a fairly dense forest cover. All this means it isn't easy spotting animals. We saw sambar deer, spotted deer, barking deer, langoors, monkeys, and jungle fowls. We were hoping to see tigers, as that's the main reason why people go to Corbett National Park. We weren't lucky enough to see tigers, though we did see tiger pug marks. We also saw elephant dung. The park was full of termite hills, and it was incredible to see how tall some of them were! We got back to our hotel after being out for 4 hours during our morning safari.

Barking Deer

Langoor

Monkey

Fig Tree

After we returned from our safari, I took my son to Devbhoomi Outdoor Adventure, a place that has numerous adventure activities like bungee jumping. He was quite thrilled with the camel ride we took.

Camel at Devbhoomi Outdoor Adventure

Later that day, we went to the Corbett Museum. The small museum has a collection of stuffed animals from the national park, including tigers, leopards, elephants, deer and crocodiles. There is also a bust outside of Jim Corbett, the British hunter and naturalist after whom the park is named.

Bust of Jim Corbett,
Corbett Museum

Tiger, Corbett Museum

Elephant, Corbett Museum

Crocodile, Corbett Museum

We also stopped at Taj Corbett Resort, which was just next to our hotel. Taj Corbett was a beautiful property, with lovely cottages, an outdoor pool, a bar and restaurant with a thatched roof called Jim's Grill, a restaurant called Treetop, and a nice view of Kosi River and the hills beyond it.

Entrance, Taj Corbett Resort

Jim's Grill, Taj Corbett Resort

Pool, Taj Corbett Resort

On the last day, we visited the famous Garjiya Devi Temple in the morning before heading back home. The temple is by the side of the Kosi River. To get to it, one has to cross a bridge and then climb the steps up a hill, at the summit of which the temple lies. We got a good view of the temple from below, but decided not to go up because of the long queue. On the way back, we stopped at KFC at Gajraula for a snack. The highway near Gajraula has a large number of eateries on both sides, including McDonalds, Bikanerwala, Burger King, Subway, Sagar Ratna and Karim's. It's very convenient because Gajraula is approximately halfway between Delhi and Corbett National Park.

Garjiya Devi Temple

The River Kosi near Garjiya Devi Temple

All in all, it was an enjoyable visit. We certainly weren't happy about not having seen tigers or leopards or elephants, but then only the lucky few manage that. It's not like the Kenyan savannas, where everything is out in the open and it is very easy to spot animals. Despite that, the experience was a fun one and all of us came back pleased with our trip!