Reasons to travel to Spiti Valley from Kinnaur route

Why traveling to Spiti via the Kinnaur route is so strongly recommended?

Below are some pictures to add on to the advice.

While we were planning Chandrataal lake trip, we spoke to a few people on the preferred itinerary, the road conditions, what kind of vehicle to take, to self-drive and the obvious – which route to take. And, after endless discussions and everyone strongly advising us to take Kinnaur route to Chandrataal, we decided to go against all the advice and take the Manali route to cut short the number of days on road. Teenagers! 

But fate had other plans and our rebel without a cause decision went for a toss and we ended up being on the road for 10 days and completed the entire Spiti circuit. 

I have a very vivid imagination, I translate all the text into visuals in my head. So every time we were discouraged from going through the Manali route, I had painted a picture of the route in my head, but unless one travels through the patch one cannot even fathom how bumpy, tiring and treacherous the route can turn out to be. 

Going via the Manali route, not only will you gain altitude too quickly which leaves you with too little time to get acclimatized to the terrain but also driving through the river bed twice (if you come back via Manali) will make your bones hurt for days. 

Visuals always help put things into perspective, below are the pictures of the route from Battal to Rohtang Pass which am sure might help someone in deciding the route. 

Most of the patch from Battal to Rohtang is a river bed. Life is bumpy – is NOT a metaphor here.

We picked, moved and adjusted rocks from the river bed just so we could drive through the patches. 

Make sure you either hire an expert driver or a local driver who can navigate through the water streams. We were extremely lucky to have covered the entire journey with Pawan (Manali local) who knew what he was in for. 

The truck surely added color to the barren landscape

The bikers made it look very easy breezy. 

Heart and Skills

For a view like this, a thousand times over 

“A hundred years ago, there were one-and-a-half billion people on Earth. Now, over six billion crowd our fragile planet. But even so, there are still places barely touched by humanity.” – David Attenborough

I wish it stays that way.

Out of the portal, on some solid ground.

This picture was taken at Rohtang Pass. The last lap of our Spiti endeavor.

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