Bach Ma National Park 2026: Open Again, but the Road Stops at Km12

Everyone who has driven Hội An to Huế has passed the turn. About 40 km short of Huế, where the highway runs along đầm Cầu Hai and the mountains crowd in from the left, a round green sign points inland to Vườn quốc gia Bạch Mã. Almost nobody takes it, and for most of 2025 nobody could.

The rain at the end of October 2025 was historic even by the standards of a mountain that collects more water than almost anywhere in Vietnam. It tore the park's patrol tracks apart and it cut the single road to the summit. Bạch Mã closed. It reopened to visitors from 1 January 2026, with the first groups back on the mountain from 3 January.

What has not reopened is the road. That is the whole of what you need to know before you ask a driver to take you there.

What actually happened to the road?

The summit road is 19 km long and it is the only one. The French built it: M. Girard surveyed the mountain in 1932, and by 1942 there was a hill station up there — nearly 139 villas, a market, a post office, restaurants and shops — with that 19 km of tarmac running from the highway up to the Morin hotel.

Two things broke in October 2025. At Km9+500, a section about 25 m long washed out from underneath, leaving the surface hanging over a void. At Km12, the embankment and the road foundation went together, and that is the one that severs the route. The park cut a temporary footpath around the slide so rangers could still get up for patrols and fire response, and that path is what visitors now walk.

Repair is not imminent. The work went onto the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment's 2026–2030 public investment list and, as of reporting in June 2026, was still waiting on capital to be allocated. In December 2025 there was even a serious proposal to string a ròng rọc, a pulley line, across the slide as a stopgap. Treat the Km12 gap as the condition of this mountain for the foreseeable future rather than a temporary inconvenience.

So what does a day at Bạch Mã look like now?

The park's transfer vehicle takes you from the visitor centre up to Km12. From there: roughly 500 to 600 m on foot across the temporary path, then about 7 km of climbing on the old road to Vọng Hải Đài, the lookout at 1,450 m. Vietnamese reporting puts the walk at two to three hours each way.

That is a hiking day with a drive attached, not a viewpoint you are dropped at. It is a good day for people who wanted to walk anyway. It is the wrong day for anyone expecting to step out of a car into a view.

What are the park's own rules?

Two times matter, and the park states both plainly.

Be at the Trung tâm Du khách — the visitor centre, just inside the gate — before 09:00. Groups are combined there and a guide is assigned; arrive at 10:30 and you have missed the day, not just the start of it. And be back at the visitor centre before 17:00.

If you want to stay overnight at the summit, register at least one day in advance so the park can staff it.

How far is it, and when do you leave?

The gate is at xã Lộc Trì, on the Cầu Hai stretch of the old Phú Lộc district — Huế's commune boundaries were redrawn on 1 July 2025, so a phone may name it differently than the paperwork does. You leave the highway onto đường Trần Đình Túc. There is an earlier sign for Thiền viện Trúc Lâm Bạch Mã, the monastery on the reservoir, and it is not the same turn.

From the driver's seat:

• Hội An to the gate: about 90 to 95 km, a little over two hours through the hầm Hải Vân.
• Đà Nẵng city centre: about 60 to 65 km, 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30.
• Đà Nẵng airport: about 65 km, roughly 1 hour 25.
• Huế: about 40 km, 50 minutes.
• Lăng Cô: about 25 km, half an hour.

To clear the 09:00 gate: leave Hội An by 06:30, Đà Nẵng by 07:15, Huế by 07:45. Add fifteen minutes in the wet — the tunnel approach backs up and the last kilometres inland are narrow.

The drop-off reality is unusual for this coast, and worth saying out loud. Your car cannot go up. The 19 km road belongs to the park and private cars and motorbikes are not allowed on it. Your driver parks at the visitor centre and waits — six, seven, eight hours — or runs down to Lăng Cô and comes back for your call. Either way the day is built around the car being at the bottom, which is why Bạch Mã works far better as a private-car day than as a bus one.

What does it cost?

Entry is around 60,000 VND for an adult and 20,000 to 30,000 VND for a child — roughly 2.50 and 1 USD. A guide is about 300,000 VND per group. The park's transfer up to Km12 is quoted at roughly 900,000 to 1,000,000 VND per round for a twelve-seater, which is why solo walkers are grouped at the visitor centre rather than sent up alone. Prices move; confirm them with the park when you fix the date.

What is up there worth walking to?

Bạch Mã became a national park on 15 July 1991 by decision 214/QĐ-HĐBT, at 22,031 hectares, and was expanded in 2008 to 37,487 hectares. It sits on the Trường Sơn spur that runs all the way down to the sea at Hải Vân, which is why the biology is unusual: it is the meeting point of the northern and southern Vietnamese floras.

The counts: around 2,373 plant species and some 1,715 animal species, including 132 mammals, 358 bird species — close to a third of Vietnam's entire bird list, with fifteen endemics — 57 reptiles, 31 amphibians and nearly 900 insects.

On the ground that becomes four things. Vọng Hải Đài, the lookout, which on a clear morning holds Lăng Cô, đầm Cầu Hai and the coast running south. Ngũ Hồ, five pools linked by a stream. Đường mòn Trĩ Sao, named for the crested argus. And the Đỗ Quyên trail out to the waterfall, named for the rhododendrons that flower red along it in spring.

Should you go in October or November?

This is the honest part. Bạch Mã catches something close to 8,000 mm of rain a year at the summit, among the heaviest anywhere in Vietnam, and the wet season runs roughly September to January. The rain that cut the road came at the end of October.

So from late September the mountain becomes a day you confirm rather than a day you book. On a clear morning in that window it is superb — cool, empty, the cloud sitting below you. On a wet one the walk above Km12 is not a reasonable ask. Check with the park the morning you travel, and keep the alternative ready: Lăng Cô and đầm Lập An are 25 km back down the highway, the Hải Vân Pass is the road you came over, and Huế is 50 minutes north. None of those need a dry mountain.

March to August is the straightforward season. Late September onward, go with a plan B in the car.

If you want this one driven — gate by 09:00, the car waiting at the bottom, Lăng Cô held in reserve — tell us the day at hoiandriver.com/quote. A real driver prices it, and 10% books it.