Kareri Village: Trek to the Lake

This hidden lake near Dharamshala: a good weekend getaway from Delhi NCR

Day 0

Delhi to Dharamshala: there are several overnight volvos and buses to reach Dharamshala. When you reach Dharamshala in the morning, you can also go to Mcledoganj for some good food. Tip: take the cable car instead of cab to go to Mcleodganj. Enjoy your breakfast and explore around in Mcleodganj.

You can choose to stay one day here and explore the monasteries. There are several small treks nearby as well.

But after one night stay and relaxation, I chose the trek to Kareri Lake. I have heard that its a shallow lake at higher altitude, amidst the Dhauladhar Range.

Day 1

McLeod Ganj

The essence of lakes in the high altitude mountains is that, that even though the temperature goes in minus, these lakes does not freeze. I have never seen any lake similar to the other one ever.

One such lake is Kareri lake . Even though I didn’t see it in winters, I went in the month of June when I could see crystal green colour lake,

Transparent enough for the mountains to use it as a mirror.

The best part of this lake that I found was that as I went nearer to the lake, I found the water changing its colour....… not literally though!

What I mean is that unless and until I reached the temple after a trek of 1 hour from my base camp, I couldn’t have a single look of the lake.

I started walking closer to the lake and from green colour, it started camouflaging with the mountains and the surroundings. I further moved closer to the lake, that when I noticed the mirror like reflection in the lake. And the moment I’m closest to the lake, I found it like a flowing river or maybe a huge canal type channel of water.

After spending time in mcleodganj, some Tibetan shopping, momos and good food and then I proceeded towards a natural beauty and some silence.

I’m talking about kareri village. From mcleodganj, It’s a continuous hill drive of approximately 3 hours.

There is not much to do at kareri village, two small eateries cum cafe, one hostel ( where I chose to eat, relax and spend the night so that I can take up the trek next day) to spend the night and small one or two huts of the villagers. You will find small shops on way who are basically guides and travel companies to take you to trek.

It is always recommended to have a local guide and you never know where the mountain trails may take you. SUCH IS NATURE.

Day 2

Kareri Village End Point

After a good sleep, I took a local jeep to the main entrance of the kareri lake. These jeeps will cost you little extra but you can take people along so that the cost can be divided.

Kareri lake area is basically a nature park, regularly maintained and preserved by government and local people.

From the entrance to the lake its quite a steep trek of 10-12 kms.

Even though people will say it’s easy, I would really make you aware that even though it’s one day trek, but the terrain is a continuous steep and big rocky one. This makes the trek tiring, but you will find small shacks after almost every two kilometres serving water, biscuits, maggie and such other tit- bits.

Trekking shoes with good grip, waterbottle, phone or camera for photos and highly motivated self are basic ingredients that you need for this trek.

Do check the weather before going. Even though kareri lake won’t be a popular weather forecast area, but even at the base camp, it becomes very cold ( even in June).

After reaching the base camp, I dumped my bag at the tent and started my 1 hour trek to the lake.

I reached the top and there is a small temple of Shiva and Parvati, and that's exactly where you can see the lake. After spending sometime at the lake, I came back to my tent. It is definitely a shallow lake, and if you can take the cold, then one can have a dip too.