Champawat is Kali Kumaon, the quiet eastern edge of the hills along the Nepal border. Once the capital of the Chand kings, it is now the corner of Uttarakhand you visit for silence rather than sights.
Abbott Mount is the signature find, a colonial hamlet at about 6,400 ft: thirteen scattered Raj-era cottages on a private hill, a 1942 stone church in the forest, and an old cricket pitch with an unbroken Himalayan view. The hill was founded by John Harold Abbott, an English businessman, around the turn of the twentieth century, and it is reached via Tanakpur.
Seven kilometres below sits Lohaghat, the market town on the Lohawati river that makes the real base. From here radiate the Advaita Ashram at Mayawati, which drew Vivekananda's followers, the Chand-era Baleshwar temple in Champawat town, and forest roads that see more leopards than tourists.
This is a district of atmosphere more than checklists, best suited to travellers who have already done Nainital and Mussoorie and want the hills as they were. Spring and autumn are best, and winter brings snow to Abbott Mount's lawns and the odd roadblock.