Green water
Among mountains.
Bilal Javed Awan — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Aleerajai — CC BY 4.0 · Sanam Noor — CC BY-SA 4.0 · AsmaHyder — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Obaid Hassan Qureshi — CC BY-SA 4.0
Satpara Lake is a natural blue-green lake among bare brown mountains above the town of Skardu. Rocky slopes and distant snow peaks surround it, and a small tree-covered island sits in its middle. It lies at 2,600 m and covers about 4 square kilometres. It is fed by melting snow and ice from the mountains around, above all from the Deosai Plains, and the Satpara Stream, its only outlet, drains to the Indus and waters the Skardu valley. Local tradition credits a 17th-century Balti king with damming it, and the Satpara Dam below has since enlarged it. Trout have been introduced to it. You sit on the shore or take a small boat out towards the island, or walk the pebbly beach where the water changes colour with the light and clouds. The road from Skardu to the Deosai Plains passes by, so many visitors stop here on the way up. It is about 7.5 km in a straight line south of Skardu. Evenings are cold, even in summer.
Among mountains.
In the middle.
Beyond the lake.
South of Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan
About 7.5 km.
May to October.