Motorable. The Ministry of External Affairs stated in May 2026 that both routes are now fully motorable with very little trekking, and its 2026 itinerary covers Dharchula to Gunji by jeep. Most of what is written online still describes the old five-day walk.
For years this journey meant walking. The Ministry of External Affairs itinerary for 2017 has five consecutive trekking days between Dharchula and Gunji, by way of Sirkha, Gala and Budhi. Most of what is written about this route online still describes that trip.
It is no longer that trip. The 2026 itinerary covers Dharchula to Gunji as seventy kilometres by jeep, and Gunji to Nabhidhang as eighteen kilometres by jeep. In May 2026 the Ministry stated plainly that both routes are now fully motorable and involve very little trekking, and a Rajya Sabha answer in April 2026 confirmed that road connectivity has been established to move pilgrims to the Lipulekh area in vehicles.
This is the single most useful thing we can tell somebody deciding whether a parent can come. The walking that remains is short and specific, not five days of it.
Be careful what you read. The Ministry's own frequently-asked-questions page still says the route involves about two hundred kilometres of trekking and takes twenty three to twenty five days. That was accurate before the road, and the same Ministry's 2026 itinerary and its own May 2026 statement now contradict it. If somebody quotes those numbers at you, they are quoting a page nobody has updated.
What being motorable does not change: the altitude, which is the actual difficulty, and the fact that there is no hospital anywhere above Dharchula. A jeep gets you to four thousand metres faster than your body would prefer. Read the altitude guide alongside this one.