Destinations
Spiti and Kinnaur
The Himalaya stripped back to rock and sky. Monasteries on cliff edges, no trees, thin air. Remarkable, and not something to rush — eight days at least, and only between June and October.
Suits — photographers, second visits, road trips
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Spiti is on the far side of the main Himalayan range, which means the monsoon never reaches it. Nothing grows that has not been irrigated by hand. The villages are the colour of the hillside they stand on and you can see thirty kilometres in any direction.
Kinnaur is the way in — greener, lower, with apple orchards and the Sutlej cut into a gorge below the road. It is where the landscape changes over, somewhere past Puh, and you can watch it happen through the window.
Two things determine everything about a trip here. The season, which is short and moves. And the altitude, which decides the route: you go in from the Shimla side so you climb over four days rather than arriving at 3,650m on day two. People who ignore that spend the week in bed.
- Altitude
- Kaza sits at 3,650m; Komic at about 4,500m
- Season
- June to October, and the edges move by weeks
- Permits
- Inner Line Permit for foreign passport holders near the border
- Give it
- Eight days at the absolute minimum. Ten is better
- Go in via
- Shimla and Kinnaur, out via Manali — not the reverse
- Best months
- June to October. Outside that the passes are shut and much of it is unreachable.
Worth your time
What to actually go and see
Key Monastery
Founded in the eleventh century and stacked up its hill in a way that photographs better than almost anything else in India. Still a working monastery with monks in training. You can stay the night there.
Tabo
Founded in 996 and holding wall paintings that have never been restored. There is no photography inside and they mean it. Give it more time than you think.
Dhankar
A monastery on a spur of eroding rock between the Spiti and Pin rivers, looking like it is about to come off the hill. There is a lake an hour's walk above it.
Chandratal
A crescent lake at about 4,270m, reached over Kunzum La. You sleep in a tent and it gets seriously cold after dark. The reason a lot of people come.
The high villages
Langza with its fossils, Komic at 4,500m, Hikkim and its post office. All within an hour of Kaza and all above 4,000m, which you feel.
The Kinnaur road
The old Hindustan–Tibet road along the Sutlej, cut into the cliff face. Sangla, Chitkul — the last village before the border — and Kalpa, which faces Kinner Kailash.
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Places in Spiti and Kinnaur
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