A Monsoon Trek to Parashar Lake

A Monsoon Trek to Parashar Lake

I have been on several treks, be it 1 day, 2 days, 6 days or 8 days and I had a great experience on each and every trek in terms of views as well as terrain. If I talk about views, then some treks offer views of the lake, forest, meadows, and summit. But there are some treks which are blessed with all the varieties of views and once such is Parashar Lake Trek. During the monsoon season, I went on a trek to Parashar Lake with a bunch of unknown travelers and it was a wonderful experience. We were in a group of 6 and I was excited for this trek because I was doing it in monsoon and it was my first trek on which I was going to take my new DSLR camera   😀

Day 0: Packed up my belongings and camera kit into the rucksack and left home. We all assembled at Akshardham Metro station and from there we started our journey towards the Shivaliks of Himachal Pradesh. We had our dinner of Paneer Paranthas at Gulshan Dhaba, Murthal and then continued our journey. We drove through Karnal, Ambala, Chandigarh and from Kiratpur Sahib, we took the Manali route.

Day 1: As the day was about to happen, we opened our eyes and we were in the mountains. We promptly switched off the AC and opened the window to let the fresh & cool air come inside the car. The weather was pleasant and we were driving through the clouds.

Mandi is around 500 km from Delhi. We reached there at 8 AM, did our breakfast and continued our journey to Baggi village, which is the starting point of trek. The village is situated at a distance of 30 km from the town of Mandi. It took us more than 2 hours to reach the village due to bad condition of road and several landslide-prone regions. Reached the village and relaxed there for around half an hour and then started our trek to Parashar Lake.

Parashar Lake is situated at an altitude of 2730 meters and is around 8 km from Baggi by trek. Though there is one road that goes up to Parashar Lake but trekking has its own fun, so we decided to reach the lake by trekking. We began with a normal walk through the village for about 100 meters and reached a point where we had to cross the river. The river flow was normal at that time, so we took off our shoes and crossed the river barefoot.

Then we resumed our trek and went through the trail full of boulders and small water streams. This part continued till 500 meters and we came across the road and walked further for about 1 km. The road was mild steep so it was working as a warmup for our body. We crossed a small waterfall and reached a point from where the forest starts. The further trail was through the forest. As we entered into the forest and took the first step, leeches welcomed us. Yes, due to monsoon there were so many leeches. But we were fully prepared as we already knew this, so we brought salt to defend our bodies from leeches. The trail through the forest was continuously steep and also slippery at some points due to algae. It took us around 2 hours and we reached the first meadow. There we had our packed lunch and relaxed for a couple of minutes. The weather was rainy and soon it started drizzling. We quickly wrapped up all the things and resumed our trek. After crossing one more meadow, we again entered the forest. Now there were no leeches as we gained a decent height. We walked for about half an hour and saw a hut. The forest ended and again meadows started. Now Parashar Lake was not so far from that point and we were at the last leg of the trek. In another half an hour, we reached the road and entered in the vicinity of Parashar Lake. The weather was too foggy. We were not able to see the lake so we decided to have tea and Maggi at a shop. As we finished with our refreshment, the weather started getting lucid and the lake was getting visible. We explored the lake and the temple. There is a temple called Parashar Temple dedicated to Sage Parashar situated beside the lake. The temple is built in a Pagoda type structure. Locals claim that the temple is constructed

We talked to locals there and got some interesting information about the lake and the temple. They claim that the temple is constructed of the wood of only one tree. They also claim that the Parashar Lake has a floating island in it which keeps changing its position and they can predict the weather with the help of its position.

Later we proceeded towards our campsite which was around 2 km from the lake. We took the road from Parashar Lake and walked all the way to the campsite. The site was quite scenic and serene. In the late evening, we did bonfire followed by the dinner.

Day 2: Woke up in a fresh and cool environment. It was literally one of the best camping experiences. The place was so peaceful, encircled by dense forest and our camps were in the center. After freshening up, we had our breakfast and then started our downhill trek towards Baggi. The descent was easy as compared to the ascent. We fell several times while trekking due to the slippery trail but it was fun. We retraced the same route and reached the village in around 3 hours. Before reaching, we took a pause near the river stream. The water was so cold and it was perfect to recharge our tiring body.

As we reached the village, it started raining and unfortunately, our car’s battery got some problem. We waited there for around an hour and then departed for Delhi.

We reached Delhi next day in the morning.

Overall it was an amazing trek with all views and experiences of almost all the terrains. One gets an opportunity to trek through the forest, on the meadows, through the big boulders and river streams, etc. The lake site is picturesque and offers great views of surroundings. All these experiences make this trek one of the best weekend treks in Himachal Pradesh.