Chitta Katha Lake
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Chitta Katha Lake is located in Sharda in Shounter valley of Azad Kashmir(Pakistan) at an elevation of 13,500 feet (4,100 m). Chitta means White and Katha means Stream/water reservoir, so the name means “White Water Reservoir”.
The look of the lake with turquoise colored water and snow covered mountains in the background makes this lake extremely fascinating. The major attraction of the lake is its milky white colors of water from which the name of the lake is derived. The surrounding of lake is very calm and peaceful.
Chitta katha lake is also considered to be the second most beautiful lake of Azad Kashmir. It is a deep bowl shaped body of water with no open water outlet. It is surrounded by unique peaks with hundreds of years old snow layers frozen on them.
This lake is only accessible in July and August, on the way to Lake there are two beautiful streams at Shounter and at Chitta Katha. The trek for this lake starts from Upper Domail village, which can be reached through a two hours jeep (20 KM or 12 miles) ride from Kel. From Upper Domail, the gentle walk up to the Chitta Katha village takes around thirty minutes. From the village, there are two options to reach lake. One goes along the Chitta Katha Nullah and is pretty steep as well as narrow at certain points and could be difficult for inexperienced trekkers. Journey takes 4 to 5 hours for experienced trekkers, whereas it could be more than that for the new ones. The other one takes a bit longer round and is used by the Gujjars when their livestock has to be moved with them. To use this trek, cross the footbridge on Nullah and follow the trail ascending up and remaining at the right side of the rocky face of mountain. This is a nice place to camp for the night if you do not want to return in the same day. After a tough ascend of another hour or two one comes across a flat surface from where Chitta Katha Lake can be reached in half an hour.