Famous Lakes of Kashmir: The Complete Guide to Azad Kashmir’s Most Beautiful Alpine Lakes

Ratti Gali is the most celebrated lake in Azad Kashmir and one of the most beautiful alpine lakes in Pakistan. Sitting at 3,683 metres in the Neelum Valley, it is fed by the surrounding glaciers and maintains a vivid, shifting colour between emerald green and deep turquoise depending on the light and season. The name Ratti Gali comes from the Kashmiri word for the red wildflowers (ratti phool) that bloom across its meadows in abundance each summer, their reflection doubling in the clear water below.

The approach from the town of Dowarian involves a three-hour jeep ride on a rough mountain track, followed by a 45-minute to one-hour hike to the lake shore. The base camp near the lake shore has become well-organised over recent years, with basic accommodation, food stalls, and camping facilities available. Spending at least one night at the lake is strongly recommended: the early morning light, before clouds form over the peaks, turns the water and surrounding snowfields into shades that no afternoon visit can replicate.

Ratti Gali is also the gateway to five interconnected high-altitude lakes, including Hansraj Lake, Kalasar, and Gattian Lake, accessible by further trekking from the base camp. For travellers wanting a guided experience, Crossroads Adventure’s Kashmir alpine meadows expedition includes Ratti Gali as its centrepiece, with full logistics and professional guidance throughout.

The Neelum Valley contains a chain of high lakes connected by trekking routes that allow experienced walkers to move between them over multiple days. Hansraj Lake (also called Hans Raj Lake) sits at approximately 3,900 metres and is reached by crossing the Ratti Gali Pass from the base camp, a route that takes four to five hours from the lake. Famous Pakistani travel writer Mustansir Hussain Tarar wrote about this lake and effectively introduced it to a wider Pakistani readership, attaching his name to it in popular usage.

From Hansraj, further trekking leads to the Kalasar lakes, a cluster of three small glacial lakes at 4,130 metres, and onward toward the Shounter Valley on the far side of the pass. The interconnected nature of these lakes and valleys means that a properly supported multi-day trek can include four or five distinct lake experiences in a single journey, each at a different elevation and with a different character. This is exactly the kind of route that benefits most from a local guide with genuine knowledge of the terrain.

Gattian Lake sits just two kilometres behind Ratti Gali Lake on the reverse side of the ridge that backs the main lake. Because it requires an additional hour or two of walking from Ratti Gali base camp, a significant portion of visitors to Ratti Gali never reach it, which makes it noticeably quieter despite its proximity. The lake’s character is slightly different from Ratti Gali, sitting in a narrower bowl with steeper surrounding terrain, and its colour shifts from pale turquoise to a deeper blue depending on the season and cloud cover. Travellers who camp at Ratti Gali for more than one night should make the short extension to Gattian a priority.

Saral Lake is the highest and most remote of the major Neelum Valley lakes, sitting at 4,100 metres in a wild, untouched setting that sees far fewer visitors than Ratti Gali. Its remoteness is its most defining quality: reaching it requires a multi-day approach either from Gumot National Park below, or by crossing from the Kaghan Valley via Dudipatsar Lake and the Saral Pass, one of the finest high-altitude crossings in the western Himalayas.

Saral is most dramatically viewed from Noori Top, the pass that connects Azad Kashmir to the Kaghan Valley. From the top of the pass, the lake lies directly below, a perfect circle of deep blue in a high mountain bowl, with the Kaghan peaks stretching away on the far side. The crossing from Saral to Kaghan via Noori Top is one of the great wilderness routes in Pakistan, combining two of the country’s finest valley systems through genuinely high-altitude terrain with no developed infrastructure in between.

Chitta Katha Lake is the highest major lake in Azad Kashmir and arguably the most visually striking of all the region’s lakes. Its name means “white stream” in Kashmiri, and the name fits: the lake’s water has a milky, glacial quality, fed directly by the glaciers of Mount Hari Parbat (Deosai Peak), which rises immediately above it. At 4,115 metres, the lake is set in a landscape of bare rock, permanent snowfields, and glacial ice with virtually no vegetation at the lake’s immediate shore. It is starkly beautiful in the way that only very high mountain environments can be.

The approach from Kel involves hiring a jeep to Domal Bala, followed by a five-kilometre trek of three to four hours. The terrain is rough and the altitude is significant. The window for visiting is narrow, typically July and August only, as snow closes the approach route from September onward and access is difficult before late June. The effort and the altitude are high enough that Chitta Katha requires solid physical fitness and ideally an experienced local guide for the approach. The rewards are proportionate: few lakes in Pakistan at this elevation are reachable by trekkers without technical mountaineering skills.

Shounter Lake sits lower in the Shounter Valley than Chitta Katha and provides a more accessible introduction to this remarkable sub-valley of Neelum. At 3,100 metres, it is enclosed within snow-capped mountains with glaciers as its primary water source, and its turquoise waters reflect the surrounding peaks on clear mornings. The valley is accessible from Kel by jeep, making Shounter Lake reachable without a demanding multi-day commitment.

The Shounter Valley opens a wider network of possibilities beyond the lake itself. Trekkers from Shounter can continue over the Shounter Pass toward Astore Valley, a two to three day crossing that connects Azad Kashmir to Gilgit-Baltistan through genuinely remote wilderness. This pass route is one of the less-travelled high crossings in Pakistan and rewards those who make it with views across two entirely different mountain landscapes.

Spoon Lake, located 20 kilometres into the Shounter Valley, takes its name from its distinctive spoon-shaped outline visible from the ridges above. The lake is glacier-fed and, in winter, merges entirely back into the surrounding glacial ice, becoming almost indistinguishable from the frozen landscape around it. In summer, as the ice retreats, it re-emerges as a clearly defined body of water surrounded by dense forest and mountain terrain. It is less visited than Shounter Lake itself and rewards those who continue further up the valley road with a more solitary experience.

Banjosa Lake near Rawalakot is the most accessible lake in Azad Kashmir and one of the most popular with domestic tourists. It is an artificial lake, created to serve the needs of the local area, but surrounded by natural pine forests that give it a genuinely scenic setting. Boating facilities are available on the lake, and the surrounding forest has well-developed walking paths, picnic areas, and facilities that make it the ideal option for families, first-time visitors to Azad Kashmir, or those who want the experience of a mountain lake without a demanding trek.

Banjosa is not the remote wilderness experience that Ratti Gali or Chitta Katha offer, but it does what it does very well: a comfortable, accessible, and genuinely pleasant lake experience in the rolling forested hills above Rawalakot, easily combined with other lower-altitude sights in the area including Toli Pir viewpoint.