Khau Pha Pass

Near the top of the pass, the summit rises out of the mountain range like a horn. Cloud slides past just beneath it. Far below, a wide valley opens, and terraced fields curl around the hillsides in layer after layer.

The name Khau Phạ comes from the Thái language, and it means "horn of the sky." The pass stands about 1,200 meters above sea level and runs about 32 kilometers along National Highway 32. This area used to belong to Yên Bái province. Under National Assembly Resolution 202 of 2025, that province and Lào Cai were joined into one new province named Lào Cai. So today the pass is described as lying across the Văn Chấn and Mù Cang Chải areas.

Khau Phạ is often counted among the four great passes of the Northwest. Ô Quy Hồ and Pha Đin are two of the other three. The last is Mã Pì Lèng. All four are known for their grand scenery, their length and the difficulty of the road. Khau Phạ and Ô Quy Hồ are two completely different passes, on different roads. They share only a place in that famous group.

What sets Khau Phạ apart is not only the road but the view down from the summit. Below lie the terraced fields of Mù Cang Chải. In the water season, from late May to early June, the fields fill with water and reflect the clouds and the sunlight, white and silver like a mirror. In the ripening season, around mid September, the whole valley turns gold. This is the time when the summit draws the most visitors, because of that golden scenery.

It is also why the paragliding events at Khau Phạ draw such crowds. Two of them are named for the seasons, Flying Over the Water Season and Flying Over the Golden Season, and both are held at Mù Cang Chải. The flights start from the summit of the pass. From that height, pilots and the passengers flying with them can see the whole valley of terraces spread out below, gold or silver-white depending on the season.

At the foot of the pass lies Cao Phạ, which now belongs to Tú Lệ commune after the administrative rearrangement. Hmong and Thái families live here, and the area has grown community tourism. Cao Phạ has traditional farming and handicrafts, such as indigo dyeing and painting with beeswax. A visitor here can do more than look at the view. The life of the community is close at hand.

The area is also tied to a piece of history. The place where the Khau Phạ guerrilla unit was founded was recognized as a national historic site in 2012. The unit was formed in 1946 and took part in the resistance war against the French in this area. To pass through Khau Phạ is to pass through land that holds the local community's memory of the resistance, as well as its scenery.

On the summit, the old name makes sense. Below is a whole living valley, where people have clung to the mountainside for hundreds of years, building each terrace by hand and growing rice in the clouds. Cloud still slides by, the fields still turn gold every September, and the horn of the sky still rises out of the range, as it did on the first day the Thái looked up and named it.