Tirthan Valley

Turn off the Manali highway at Aut and the road climbs beside a river the colour of bottle glass. This is the Tirthan, born in the glaciers of the Great Himalayan National Park and running through a valley that tourism forgot until a decade ago. The park itself, 1,171 sq km of deodar, oak and alpine meadow inscribed by UNESCO in 2014, begins at Gushaini; day walks go to the Rolla campsite along the river, longer routes climb to Shilt and the Tirath source.

Blue sheep, Himalayan tahr and, rarely, the snow leopard live inside, and the western tragopan, the state bird, calls in April. Jibhi, ten kilometres up a side valley, is where most visitors stay, in slate-roofed timber homestays with a waterfall behind. From Jibhi the road climbs to Jalori Pass at 3,120 m; a five-kilometre forest walk from the pass reaches Serolsar Lake and the shrine of Budhi Nagin, and a shorter one the meadow of Raghupur Fort.

Near Banjar stands Chehni Kothi, a 40-m tower of stone and deodar built in the kath-kuni style without mortar, a fortress-shrine still guarded by a village. The valley's other pleasure is trout: brown and rainbow, fished with a permit from March to October and served pan-fried in every guesthouse. Days here are river sound, woodsmoke, apples drying on roofs, and the kind of quiet that resets a city nervous system in about two days.