Destinations
Kalpa and Reckong Peo
The last comfortable night before Spiti, on a shelf of apple orchards facing the Kinner Kailash range across the Sutlej. Reckong Peo below it does the paperwork; Kalpa above it does the view.
Suits — breaking the climb to Spiti, apple season, second nights at altitude
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Kalpa is where a Spiti trip stops being a drive and starts being a journey, and it earns that by being the last place on the way in that is still comfortable. There are proper hotels, the food is good, the nights are cold rather than punishing, and you sleep facing a wall of six-thousand-metre rock.
It also does something for you physically that no amount of planning can substitute for. Coming up from Shimla you have gained a lot of height in a day, and the body deals with that much better if it gets a night somewhere in the middle before being asked to go higher. That is the whole argument for stopping here rather than pushing on.
Kalpa or Reckong Peo
They are seven kilometres apart and they are not interchangeable. Peo is the working town — bus stand, banks, the hospital, the permit office, and the market where everyone from the surrounding villages does their shopping. Kalpa is the old village above it, and it is quieter, colder, older and considerably better to look at.
Stay in Kalpa. Do your errands in Peo on the way through. Nobody has ever regretted that order.
The permit, and who needs it
If you are travelling on a foreign passport and going up the Sutlej beyond Pooh towards Spiti, you need an inner line permit, and Reckong Peo is where it is issued. Indian nationals do not need one for this stretch.
It is an office with opening hours, which matters more than the paperwork does. Arriving in Peo at four on a Saturday afternoon and expecting to leave for Nako in the morning is how people lose a day. We handle this, but it is worth knowing why the itinerary puts you in Peo when it does.
What to do with a day here
Walk. The orchard paths above the village go up towards the Chaka meadow and there is no navigation involved — you are on a hillside with a view you cannot lose track of. There is a monastery and a temple sharing a courtyard in the village itself, which is a Kinnaur arrangement you will see again further up.
In late September and October the answer is different: watch the apples come down. It is the busiest few weeks of the year here and the most interesting time to be standing in the middle of it.
Going on from here
North is Spiti, and the next stop that makes sense is Nako at 105 kilometres or Tabo at 167. Both are long days on a road that does not hurry. Back down the valley, Sangla is 46 kilometres and Shimla is a full day.
What Kalpa is doing in that sequence is the night between Sangla and Nako, and at 2,960 metres it is the last place on the way in where you sleep below three thousand. Everything after here is a step up — Tabo is 3,280 and Kaza 3,650 — and each of those steps is easier for having slept here first. That is the argument for a second night at Kalpa rather than a second night further on, and the altitude guide sets out why the route runs in this direction at all.
- Altitude
- 2,960m, on a shelf 7km and about 660m above Reckong Peo
- From Shimla
- 227km. A full day, and not one to combine with anything else
- From Sangla
- 46km, about two hours back down the Baspa and up the other side
- Permits
- The inner line permit for the Sutlej above Pooh is issued at Reckong Peo
- Give it
- One night going in. Two if you want a day among the orchards
- Best months
- April to October. The road stays open all year but the orchards and the light are best in September and October.
Worth your time
What to actually go and see
The Kinner Kailash wall
The reason to be up here rather than down in Peo. The range stands directly across the Sutlej gorge and catches the light before anything else does, which means the view from a Kalpa balcony at six in the morning is the one people remember out of the whole trip. The rock pillar on the skyline is the one pilgrims walk around.
Apple country
Kinnaur apples are the ones the rest of India pays extra for, and Kalpa sits in the middle of the orchards. Late September and October is picking, when every spare vehicle is carrying crates down to Peo and the whole valley smells of fruit. It is a working landscape rather than a scenic one, which is the point.
Reckong Peo
The district headquarters, and the last place with banks, a hospital and a proper market before Spiti. Everyone from the surrounding villages shops here, which makes it a working town rather than a view — do your errands on the way through and sleep up the hill.
The Roghi road
Eight kilometres of single track cut into the cliff above the Sutlej, ending at a village almost nobody drives to. The viewpoint partway along is signed Suicide Point, which is a piece of roadside theatre — there is no incident behind the name. Walk it if the drop bothers you; it is two kilometres on foot.
The old Hindustan–Tibet road
Below Kalpa the road runs on into the gorge, cut into the cliff in places and cantilevered out over the river in others. It was built to reach Tibet and it still feels like it. This is the stretch people mean when they say the Kinnaur road is the best drive in the state.
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