Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park

Khao Sam Roi Yot () is a marine national park in Sam Roi Yot district, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, Thailand. It covers 98.08 km², of which 20.88 km² are marine areas. The park was established in 1966, and was the first coastal national park of Thailand.

Geography

The name Khao Sam Roi Yot means Mountains with 300 peaks, which describes the landscape of the park quite well. The limestone hills rise directly at the shore of the Gulf of Thailand, with the highest elevation Khao Krachom 605m above sea level. Between the hills are freshwater marshes. However several of these marshes were converted into shrimp farms, as only 36 km² of the total 69 km² of marshes are part of the national park. 18 km² of these marshes are scheduled to be declared a Ramsar site.

Two white sand beaches are located within the park namely Hat Laem Sala and Hat Sam Phraya. Hat Laem Sala is 17 km away from the park's head quarters and can be reached from the village Ban Pu either by boat or by climbing up and down over a hill for nearly 30 minutes.

Rare animals in the park include the Mainland Serow (Nemorhaedus sumatraensis), Dusky Langur (Trachypithecus obscurus), as well as many bird species. In the ocean occasionally Irrawaddy Dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) show up.

History

The area of the Khao Sam Roi Yot was probably the site where King Mongkut convened with European guests on August 18, 1868 to observe a total solar eclipse. The king was very interested in astronomy and had calculated...
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