Beautiful Himachal – Sangla, Chitkul and Chanshal Pass

[nvldvr]

So it was vacation time again. Ever since moving to Delhi last year, my endeavor has been to visit as much of Himachal as possible. With about10 days leave this time around, we had plenty of options at hand. Did some planning / research, and decided that the destinations will be Hatu, Sangla, Chitkul and Chanshal pass.
I am going to restrict the writing part due to paucity of time. This will therefore be more of a photologue.

Having stopped over at Shimla on day one, the next day we moved to Narkanda and Hatu. Hatu is a beautiful temple at 11200 feet ASL surrounded by thick deodar forest. We had carried our camping equipment along and having found a good spot, we decided to camp here for the night. Didn’t take too many pics at Hatu. Just a few pics of the camp site and surrounding places.

 

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The next day we drove through Sangla Valley and reached Chitkul at night. Sangla is a breathtakingly beautiful valley in Kinnaur district. Had been to other parts of Kinnaur but never realized that such a beautiful valley could exist in an otherwise very rocky and hilly Kinnaur. The drive from Sangla to Chitkul through Raksham was the highlight of the journey.

The pics. Sangla Valley.

 

[sanuroxz]

Lovely start mate...

 

[nvldvr]

Chitkul. This is the last village on the Indian side. Beautiful village which is best visited between May and Nov.

 

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On the way back to Shimla, took a small detour to Bhaba Valley. A right turn at Wangtoo takes you across the river to a place called Kafnu. Kafnu is the start point of treks into the beautiful Bhaba Valley. Must mention that the road to Kafnu must be among the most dangerous that I have driven. A narrow road virtually perched high upin the sky. Any mistakes and it will be a while before you hit the ground again.

 

[sanuroxz]

Lovely shots

 

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Next stop was the mighty Chanshal Pass. The pass connects the villages of Dodra and Kwar to Rohru, and remains motorable from May to end Nov. The altitude is 14800 feet ASL.

A beautiful temple in typical hill architecture enroute to Rohru.

 

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We stayed at a forest rest house at Larot for the night, and decided to hit Chanshal Pass early next morning. The booking for the rest house is done from DFO office at Rohru. The rooms in the rest house are good. However, strangely, there was no water supply.

The rest house at Larot.

 

[sanuroxz]

Loving teh speed and pictures

 

[nvldvr]

The approach road to Chanshal.