Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary

Khao Pra-Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary protects a stretch of lowland rainforest in Krabi’s Khlong Thom district — one of the last significant lowland forest blocks left in peninsular Thailand, which is why it has such conservation weight despite being largely closed to casual exploration. As a wildlife sanctuary rather than a national park, most of its interior has no public trail network; access for general visitors is limited to the fringe areas and one specific site.

That site is the Emerald Pool (Sa Morakot), a spring-fed pool reached by a roughly 1.4km trail from the sanctuary’s visitor entrance — this is what almost everyone actually means when they say they’re “visiting” Khao Pra-Bang Khram, and it has its own page with current pricing and hours. Beyond the pool trail, the sanctuary’s forest is genuinely restricted: research access and longer treks require prior permission from the Department of National Parks, not a walk-up ticket.

The sanctuary’s conservation reputation rests heavily on birdlife. For decades it was the only confirmed site in Thailand for the critically endangered Gurney’s pitta, drawing birders from around the world. That population has now collapsed — surveys in recent years have found at most a handful of individuals, and the species is widely considered functionally extirpated here, even though older guidebooks and some tour listings still mention it. Hornbills, however, remain a realistic sighting along the forest edge trails, alongside gibbons calling from the canopy in early morning.

Watch out: Don’t confuse this sanctuary with the Khlong Thom hot springs (Namtok Ron Khlong Thom) a short drive away — they’re separate, separately ticketed sites, and older write-ups sometimes conflate the two because they share a district.

Khao Pra-Bang Khram sits within Krabi’s Khlong Thom area, about a 45-minute drive from Krabi Town. If you’re combining sites in one trip, the Emerald Pool and the Khlong Thom hot springs both sit within a short drive and pair naturally with a half-day loop.