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Sacred Lakes at Impossible Altitudes

Frozen, turquoise, sacred, or all three. India's high-altitude lakes sit where humans have no business being — and they're worth every gasping breath.

8 destinations in this collection

Gurudongmar Lake

5,425m

Sikkim

17,800 ft. Sacred to Buddhists, Hindus, and Sikhs. Frozen 8 months. One of the highest lakes in the world.

Tsomgo Lake

3,753m

Sikkim

12,313 ft. Glacial lake 40km from Gangtok. Frozen and snow-dusted in winter, wildflowers in spring.

Loktak Lake

768m

Manipur

Not high-altitude but impossibly unique — floating phumdis and the world's only floating national park.

Pangong Tso

4,350m

Ladakh

14,270 ft. The lake that changes color 5 times a day. 134km long, shared with China.

Tso Moriri

4,522m

Ladakh

14,836 ft. The lake Pangong wishes it was — quieter, higher, more sacred, less Bollywood.

Prashar Lake

2,730m

Himachal Pradesh

8,956 ft. Floating island in a crater lake — nobody knows why it moves. Pagoda temple on the shore.

Nainital

1,938m

Uttarakhand

6,358 ft. Naini Lake surrounded by hills — the original British hill station lake retreat.

Valley of Flowers

3,658m

Uttarakhand

Hemkund Sahib lake above the valley — 15,200 ft glacial lake sacred to Sikhs, accessible Jul-Sep only.

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