The community of ‘Dusun Sawa’ who resides at the edge of the Crocker Range National Park and about 80 kilometres (or 1.5 hours drive) from Kota Kinabalu is offering visitors a unique experience of Borneo’s virgin highland rainforest! The journey to Utan Paradise passes through authentic sights of traditional village houses and scenic paddy fields.
Utan Paradise Village Stay is situated along the newly completed Kimanis-Keningau highway or about 3 km on the left after passing the Crocker Range National Park office. The park is located in the west-central side of Sabah and had been designated as a forest reserve in 1968 and it is now managed by Sabah Parks since 1996. The park consists of a mixture of both primary and secondary lowland and hill dipterocarp forests; this water catchments area is supplying clean drinking water to the West Coast and the interior of Sabah. Lying more than 300 metres above sea level, Crocker Range National Park spreads over 139,919 hectares of densely forested terrain that stretches from south of Kundasang in the north to Tenom in the south.
Despite being listed in ‘Global 200’ by WWF because of its rich biodiversity and rare species of flora and fauna inhabiting the Crocker Range National Park area, this territory is almost unexplored and undoubtedly it will soon become one of the most preferred destinations for nature and wildlife appreciation in Borneo. There are many interesting trails for jungle trekking namely; Orangutan Trail, Endemic Herbs and Medicinal Plants Trail, Birding Trail, Sawa Waterfall Trail and Nocturnal Animals Trail. In the evening, visitors are normally treated with fascinating insect observation and identification, and once the generator is witched off after 11pm, the dark surrounding at Utan Paradise is perfect for stargazing.
The Borneo Pink Slutz 