The colour-shifting lake at 14,270 ft
Pangong Tso stretches 134 km from Ladakh into Tibet — a saline lake that cycles through impossible blues as the light moves. Lakeside camps at Spangmik and Man-Merak put you under some of the darkest night skies in India; mornings begin with bar-headed geese skimming water the colour of cut sapphire.
Plan my Pangong Lake tripWatch the lake shift from steel to turquoise to indigo in a single day.
Heated-bed camps at Spangmik with sunrise over the Changchenmo range.
High-altitude desert air makes for extraordinary astrophotography.
Kiangs, marmots and waterbirds along the brackish shores.
May–September; the lake freezes solid and access becomes expedition-grade in winter.
Leh → Khardung La → Pangong (day trips)
Leh → Alchi → Nubra → Pangong → Leh
Leh → Nubra → Leh → Pangong → Leh