Pangi Nala - What's so special about this high pressure water stream cutting through the road to meet Setluj river in Kinnaur region of Himachal Pradesh?
Pangi Nala stood out very clearly during our 10 days road trip to Spiti Valley. Should we call it a high pressure water stream, waterfall or something else? Pangi nala is huge as well as scary. You can sense vibrations in the iron on top of it because of water flowing under it and that tells the power of this water flow. There are many such places on the way from Shimla to Spiti through Kinnaur, but Pangi nala leaves a very special impact on you.
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Above video gives a good sense about water pressure in Pangi Nala ad if you are on bikes while crossing the bridge, you will get some showers on you. Which is awesome in summers, for sure :).
Himachal Pradesh has plenty of these places but the whole setting of this place makes it stand out. While standing on this road, you see Pangi Nala on one side and Setluj river on the other side. Within few seconds Pangi nala water merges into Setluj river.
During this journey to Spiti valley, we saw various waterfalls from distance and noticed lot of marks of waterfalls, which were dry. I am sure that whole terrain must be looking awesome in monsoons with plenty of waterfalls all around, like what you see around Lonavala. Amongst all Pangi Nala leaves a special impression on you.
Most of these bridges on the way to Spiti can be found with thousands of prayer flags. And continuously flowing wind makes these prayer flags more beautiful.
Just look at above photograph. It was very interesting to see these huge houses hanging around these high mountains. And all these villages are not really connected by road, so lot of folks walk a lot everyday. We were on other side of the river and were overlooking these houses standing on steep mountains & very close to the river. We were also wondering how they are cancelling the noise of Setluj river on daily basis.
Another photograph shows a view of Pangi Nala. There is this huge waterfall or fast moving stream on the way and it's called Kashong khudd (Pangi Nala). The waterflow here is very fast and every vehicle closes the windows before crossing this bridge as lot of water can get into the vehicle. We also thought of climbing up this hill to see more of this water stream, but we didn't have much time so kept going after 10 minutes break.
Varun moved to appropriate location for clicking photographs of this waterfall. This place is on lower side of the road on river bank from where you shoot Pangi Nala as well as Setluj river well. This place is also good to give perspective about the hugeness of the water stream.
As we kept moving, we came across more interesting views and also crossed the place where Setluj & Spiti rivers meet. Khab is the place I guess. From here on, there is a steep climb in a narrow road which has rocky mountains on the right and deep valley on the left. By looking at the rocks it seemed that river used to flow much higher that the current state. After 30 minutes of drive on zig-zag road you reach the top from where you see snow covered peaks on one side and golden mountains on the other side because of sunset. The views were spectacular hereon. This was the moment when we again felt that we are in another world now. Shimla, Kinnaur and Spiti have completely different terrains and have their own charm.
During next Spiti valley trip, I may want to trek along this water stream and plan in a way that we stay somewhere nearby so that there is no time pressure. Please drop your comments, questions or questions through comments section below.
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