Chandratal Lake 🌙

Crescent lake, camping, stargazing

Chandratal — the "Moon Lake" — sits at 4,300m near the Kunzum Pass, its crescent shape giving it the name. The water is glacier-fed and startlingly clear; on a still day you can see the lakebed several meters down. Camping is the standard way to experience it, since day-tripping doesn't do justice to the sunset-to-sunrise light change over the water, and the night sky here is one of the darkest accessible by road in India. It's open only July to September — the approach road is snowbound the rest of the year — and camping permits are required, arranged through the Spiti forest department or your camp operator. Altitude sickness risk is real at this elevation; acclimatizing in Kaza first is standard practice.