The best known of the many isolated high Himalayan valeys across northern Nepal, Dolpo preserves one of the last remnants of traditional Tibetan Culture. Legends sayit's a bayul, one of the "hidden valleys" created by Guru Rimpoche as a refuge for devout Buddhists in troubled times. Surrounded by high mountains including the Dhaulagiri massif to the southeast and cut off by high passes closed by snow half the year, Dolpo's easiest access is from Tibet, where people emigrated from perhaps 1,000 years ago.

Upper Dolpo sherlters aroun 5,000 people, whose lives revolve around Buddhism, barley, and yaks; their villages (over 4,260 m) are among the highest settlements on earch. A large protion of the region is set aside by Shey Phoksundo National Park established to secure trans-himalayan ecosystem. This includes animals such as blue sheep, Himalayan black bear, leopards, wolves, and the ellusive snow-leopard. The Park conserves the largest lake of Nepal, Shey Phoksundo, and the reedeeming feature of the trek would be the lake itself, considered one of the most beautiful places in Nepal.