Lakes & Viewpoints
Hill Stations
The short walk everyone does at sunrise, and the water they built the town around.
21 places
Auli
Auli Artificial Lake
A reservoir built purely to feed snow cannons in the years the natural snow fails, which is often. One of the highest artificial lakes anywhere, half a kilometre from the slopes.
Saputara
Saputara Lake
The lake in the middle of town, with boats on it and a path around the edge. Half an hour, and it is what everyone does on arriving.
Jibhi
Serolsar Lake
About five kilometres of level forest walking from Jalori Pass, through old oak. There is a small temple to Budhi Nagin at the water and a tea stall on the way. Snow shuts the pass in winter.
Mussoorie
Lal Tibba Scenic Point
The highest point in Mussoorie, up in Landour, five kilometres from the Mall. A telescope on a platform, and on a clear morning a line of peaks. Afternoon haze usually closes it down.
Chopta (Tungnath)
Deoriatal Lake
A small lake that holds a reflection of Chaukhamba on a still morning, about two and a half kilometres up from Sari village. Camping on the far bank is permitted and is why most people come.
Mahabaleshwar
Venna Lake
Man-made, dug in 1842 to supply the town with water and now given over to pedal boats and pony rides. Crowded and commercial, and perfectly good for an hour with children.
Matheran
Charlotte Lake
The primary natural water reservoir basin on the plateau, surrounded by dense evergreen forests and hosting an ancient temple shrine.
Matheran
Louisa Point
Looks straight across at Prabal fort, with a seasonal waterfall on the far wall through the monsoon. A red laterite walk out from the market, and like everything in Matheran it has to be reached on foot or on horseback.
Patnitop
Sanasar Lake
A beautiful, offbeat satellite meadow cup enclosing a small natural lake 20 km away, popular for paragliding and wilderness camping.
Wilson Hills
Marble Chhatri Point
A historic marble dome structure built on the edge of a deep cliff, serving as the prime location for watching sunrises and panoramic valley horizons.
Nainital
Naini Lake
The town's central lake, famous for boating and the lakeside Mall.
Nainital
Snow View Point
A cable-car summit with panoramic Himalayan views.
Lonavala & Khandala
Khandala Sunset Point
A ledge off the old highway looking across at Duke's Nose, with the ghat railway climbing the far wall. Best in the monsoon when the falls opposite are running, and busy every weekend.
Mount Abu
Nakki Lake
The lake at the centre of Rajasthan's only hill station, up in the Aravallis, and the reason Mount Abu gets called an oasis in the desert — a plateau twenty-two kilometres long carrying rivers, waterfalls and evergreen forest, in a state that has very little of any of them. Pedal boats go out from the shore and the walk around the water is the town's evening ritual. The rock formations on the ridge above have collected names over the years; Toad Rock is the one everybody photographs. The lake is treated as sacred, so it is a place to walk around rather than swim in.
Mount Abu
Toad Rock Viewpoint
A boulder above Nakki Lake that does look like a toad from one angle and like a boulder from every other. Five minutes of scrambling, and the view over the lake basin is the actual reward.
Munnar
Top Station Viewpoint
On the state border above Munnar, looking down into Tamil Nadu, and the cloud usually arrives by mid-morning, so go early. The slopes below are Neelakurinji country, which flowers once every twelve years.
Kalpa (Kinnaur)
Suicide Point Roghi
A famous roadside viewpoint on the way to Roghi village, characterized by a staggering near-vertical cliff drop into the river gorge below.
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Darjeeling
Tiger Hill Viewpoint
The high-altitude mountain summit at 2,590 metres, world-famous for catching the sunrise illuminating the snow peaks of Kanchenjunga and Everest.
Khajjiar
Khajjiar Lake
A small lake in the middle of the meadow with a floating mat of weed drifting across it. It is silting up and smaller than it was, so temper any expectation set by older photographs.
Kodaikanal
Kodaikanal Lake
Man-made, dug in the 1860s, and star-shaped only from the air. The five-kilometre perimeter road is the good part, so hire a bicycle. Boats are rowed or pedalled and the queue at the boat club is long on weekends.
Kodaikanal
Pillar Rocks Viewpoint
Three granite pillars standing about a hundred and twenty metres, side by side. The viewpoint is fenced and ticketed. Like everything on this ridge it is either remarkable or completely white with fog.
