Title:
Shounter Lake Azad Kashmir | Travel Guide, Things to Do & How to Reach
Description:
Discover Shounter Lake (Spoon Lake) in Azad Kashmir — a glacial alpine lake at 3,100 m in Neelum Valley. Get travel tips, best time to visit, trekking details, nearby attractions, and FAQs.
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Introduction to Shounter Lake
Shounter Lake (also known as Spoon Lake) is a glacial alpine lake nestled in the enchanting Shounter Valley, a sub-valley within Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir, Pakistan. Sitting at an elevation of approximately 3,100 meters (≈ 10,200 ft) above sea level, the lake is fed by glacial melt, surrounded by snow-clad peaks, and carpeted with lush meadows and wildflowers during summer.
Sometimes dubbed the “Pearl of Shounter Valley,” this serene lake is a hidden gem for nature lovers, trekkers, photographers, and adventurers seeking off-beat destinations in Pakistan.
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Why Visit Shounter Lake? (Key Attractions & Highlights)
1. Pristine Natural Beauty
The clear turquoise waters reflect the surrounding snow-capped mountains and verdant meadows, creating an almost mirror-like surface on calm days. The lakeshore is often decorated with wildflowers, adding colorful accents to the green and white surroundings.
2. Tranquility & Seclusion
Unlike some of the more famous lakes in Pakistan, Shounter Lake sees fewer visitors, making it ideal for solitude, meditation, and escaping the chaos of city life.
3. Adventure and Trekking
To reach the lake, one must undertake a jeepeed journey followed by trekking through rugged terrain, offering scenic views and a dose of adventure.
4. Flora & Fauna
You may encounter wildflowers such as Iris hookeriana and glimpses of alpine birds and small fauna in the surroundings.
5. Seasonal Access
The lake is typically accessible from May to August, when snow has melted and the jeep track is passable. Outside this window, heavy snow and impassable roads make it extremely difficult to reach.
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How to Reach Shounter Lake
Starting Point: Kel, Neelum Valley
Most travelers begin their journey from Kel, a village in Neelum Valley. From Kel, a rough jeep track leads toward Shounter Valley.
Jeep Ride + Trek
The jeep ride covers the accessible dirt roads until the track becomes too rough. From there, a trek begins. The trail is moderately difficult and demands physical fitness, especially given the altitude and changing terrain.
Best Time of Year
Ideally, plan your trip between May and August, when roads are clear and weather is favorable.
Permits & Local Guides
Always check with local authorities or tour operators for necessary permits. Hiring a local guide is recommended for safety, navigation, and local insights.
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Suggested Itinerary & Tips
Day Activities
Day 1 Travel from Islamabad (or your origin) to Neelum Valley / Kel
Day 2 Jeep ride toward Shounter Valley, begin trek, reach camp near lake
Day 3 Explore lake area, relax, nature walks, photography
Day 4 Trek back to jeep point, return to Kel / onward destination
Tips & Recommendations:
Pack high-altitude gear including warm clothing, waterproof layers, and sturdy trekking shoes.
Carry adequate food, water, first aid, and camping gear.
Camp near the lakeshore to enjoy starry nights and sunrise views.
Acclimatize properly to avoid altitude sickness.
Travel light but carry essentials like a rain cover, headlamp, and spare batteries.
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Nearby Attractions & Complementary Stops
Chitta Katha Lake: Another alpine lake in Shounter Valley, at a higher altitude (≈ 13,500 ft) and regarded as sacred in Hindu tradition.
Shounter Pass: A high mountain pass (~ 4,420 m) connecting Neelum Valley with Astore (Gilgit-Baltistan) in favorable conditions.
Other Lakes & Valleys: The Shounter region encompasses several smaller lakes and scenic valleys worth exploring.
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Challenges & Precautions
Weather volatility: Mountain weather can change rapidly — plan contingencies.
Road & track conditions: The jeep track is rough and may be damaged; only experienced drivers should attempt it.
Altitude & health: Acclimatization is essential — carry medications if necessary.
Limited facilities: There are little to no permanent lodgings near the lake; camping is primary option.
Safety & guidance: Going with a local guide is strongly advisable.
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Conclusion
Shounter Lake is a breathtaking, relatively unexplored alpine lake that offers pristine beauty, tranquility, and an adventurous trek in the heart of Azad Kashmir. With its snow-fed waters, floral meadows, and remote serenity, it is a compelling destination for travelers who crave nature off the beaten path. Whether you’re a trekker, photographer, or simply a seeker of quiet places, a journey to Shounter Lake promises memories that linger long after the trip ends.
Poetric views
Whispers of Shounter Lake
High in the arms of mountains tall,
Where glaciers sigh and waterfalls call,
A turquoise jewel in silence lies,
Reflecting dreams and cloud-brushed skies.
Shounter Lake, so calm, serene,
Wrapped in meadows, lush and green,
Snow-clad peaks its guardians stand,
A secret gem of Kashmir’s land.
The winds arrive with songs of pine,
The waters glow with silver shine,
Each ripple tells a tale untold,
Of timeless beauty, pure and bold.
Pilgrims of peace, adventurers true,
Find here a world both fresh and new.
In nature’s heart, no noise, no ache—
Just whispers soft of Shounter Lake.
Oh how beautiful! It’s certainly breathtaking. When I saw these pictures I said to my wife, “Oh God has created all things beautiful.”
Thank you for sharing. God bless.
קידושין
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Chinese medicine argues that all disease originates in the gut. The object of this observation: The comparison to just how Justice similarly designated in Torah common law to remove human waste products.
Mercy under the terms of Jewish common law learns from the extermination commandment concerning the nations of Canaan, the eternal war against Amalek – interpreted as antisemitism, and the judicial Capital Crime killing of the minor stubborn and rebellious son. Mercy: the 4th middah of the Oral Torah spins around the Central Axis of the Torah oath brit: Blessing/Curse – ruling the land of Israel through just courts/enduring the judicial torture oppression where Par’o & Egypt functions as the model of all other Goyim legal systems; the Day vs. Night difference between Jewish Independence vs Jewish g’lut/exile in foreign alien kingdoms, dictatorships and democracies.
By stark and absolute contrast the value of Pity compared to that of Mercy. Pity, a shallow, immediate, emotional reactionary, feeling of empathy: directed toward any given situation, which arouses “pity” for the plight suffered by some other. Mercy when compared to pity, resembles constipation or worse some crippling gut related disease. Mercy not pity – defines the k’vanna of the Torah common law judicial system which compares to a healthy digestive track within the human body which efficiently removes bodily wastes.
The לא תעשה commandment to take no pity upon the nations of Canaan when Israel re-conquered a portion of our Homelands in 1948 and 1967, small wander that Arafat himself described his people as descendants from Canaanites! The 2nd Sinai לא תעשה commandment – Not to worship other Gods, understood/interpreted to mean 1) Do not assimilate to the customs and cultures which define the “Path” wherein the Goyim who reject the revelation of the Torah walk therein. 2) Do not intermarry with Goyim who reject the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.
This means that a Goy who seeks to become a Ger Tzeddick must accept the entire Torah revelation. Rambam’s fundamentalist beliefs which limited Torah commandments limited strictly to the language of the Written Torah, this most basic of fundamental errors shaped his the foreign assimilationist statute law vision of Talmudic halacha “converted the revolution to a counter revolution”.
Rambam’s statute law religious perversion compares to the Apostle Paul’s declaration that Goyim “not under the law” and that brit melah an archaic or antiquated religious notion. Immediately after Napoleon freed Jews from the Catholic Ghetto gulags, Reform leadership declared the halachot from the Statute law Shulkan Aruch, likewise – archaic or antiquated religious notions.
The Rambam did not have the least bit of a clue concerning the Torah priority of Av tohor time-oriented commandments. These commandments possess the power to elevate rabbinic mitzvot unto Torah commandments. Talmudic halacha enters an entirely different plane of reality and spirituality viewed from this entirely novel perspective. The Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, which disputes fundamentalist vs science, this case compares to the contrast between how the Rambam understood Torah commandments, limited to merely תרי”ג Torah language, to that of the B’HaG’s vision that time-oriented Torah commandments, actually inclusive of all Talmumdic halachot – if learned through aggadic prophetic mussar as their k’vaana. The B’HaG reading of the Written Torah completely different from the Rambam/Church fundamental reading of the language of the Written Torah.
An example of this idea in context: The conflict between Nikolai Rykov and Leon Trotskii in the late 1920s, a significant moment in Soviet history. It contributed to Trotskii’s eventual exile. Trotskii the Co-founder of the Bolshevik October Revolution. He served as the leader, the architect of the Red Army during the White counter revolution.
Trotsky 2nd only to Lenin among Bolshevik leaders; he theorized the permanent revolution, which forced Stalin to develop primarily with the aid of the economic genius of Nikolai Bukharin, the counter theory of Socialism in One Country.
Stalin along with Troskii supported rapid industrialization and rural collectivization farming programs which negated Lenin’s New Economic Policy, which Rykov strongly supported. Trotsky criticized Rykov and the party leadership for their cautious approach, arguing it would hinder the revolution’s progress. Stalin craftly concealed his agreement with Troskii. In point of fact, Rykov gained rhetoric support from Stalin and other party leaders, in their group effort to marginalize Troskii.
Once the threat of Troskii removed, Stalin thereafter conducted his famous political theatre show trials, (Much like the UN SC and GA condemnations of Israel today) and removed the key pre-revolution and post revolution Bolshevik leaders through his infamous show trials. Stalin accused his political competition, all of whom competed to become the Dictator of the Proletariat, of becoming ”counter-revolutionaries”.
Lev Kamenev, one of the original Bolshevik leaders and a close associate of Lenin, executed in 1936. Grigory Zinoviev, head of the Petrograd Soviet and a prominent Bolshevik leader, executed in 1936. Mikhail Tomsky, leader of the trade unions and a prominent Bolshevik, committed suicide before trial in 1936. Nikolai Bukharin, editor of the Communist Party newspaper and the leading theorist of Socialism in One Country, executed in 1938. Alexei Rykov, Lenin’s successor as head of the Soviet government, executed in 1938.,
The purpose of justice, directly compares to the digestive system – it serves to remove Human wastes. And herein defines the Torah concept of faith as defined through the Sinai revelation. Stalin’s Show-Trials directly compare to Par’o ordering withholding of straw to Hebrew slaves!
The dedication, like a korban, of righteous justice among the Jewish people – most holy to HaShem. Herein defines the k’vanna of the mitzva of Moshiach. And the defining flaw of the House of David in the matter of Bat Sheva’s husband. Or more closer to home, the perversion of Rambam’s statute law halachic rulings which negated judicial courtroom common law, based upon legal precedents. Rabbinic courts today, a joke on par with the UN jester; the plurality of foreign states, as expressed through UN GA and SC Resolutions, does not determine the strategic national interests of any Independent nation – least of all Israel.
Previously, our Gemara of קידושין employed the Torah שמות יח verse: והודעת להם את הדרך ילכו בה. Our Gemara now makes a precedent Oral Torah research upon this Written Torah precedent which my on going commentary upon mesechta קידושין previously learned back to a similar precedent of the aggadic story which depicts the collapse of the Tower of Bavil United Nations world government.
The Torah verse: צדק צדק תרדוף, herein defines the purpose wherein Moshe took Israel out of Egyptian judicial oppression/slavery to conquer the land of Canaan. When a Man builds his chosen Cohen bnai brit family, he must by definition accept responsibility to wipe baby behinds and dispose of dirty diapers. Building a family functions as a microcosm of the National macrocosm pursuit of righteous justice through common law courts of jurisprudence governance/Legislative Review. Goyim courts do not have any reputation whatsoever of justice.
משנה זבים פרק ב — משנה ב בשבעה דרכים בודקין את הזב עד שלא נזקק לזיבה: במאכל, במשתה, ובמשא, בקפיצה, בחולי, ובמראה, ובהרהור הרהר עד שלא ראה, או שראה עד שלא הרהר רבי יהודה אומר, אפילו ראה בהמה חיה ועוף מתעסקין זה עם זה, אפילו ראה בגדי צבע האשה רבי עקיבא אומר, אפילו אכל כל מאכל בין רע בין יפה, ושתה כל משקה. אמרו לו, אין כאן זבין מעתה. אמר להם, אין אחריות זבים עליכם משנזקק לזיבה, אין בודקין אותו. אונסו וספיקו ושכבת זרעו טמאים, שרגלים לדבר. ראה ראיה ראשונה, בודקין אותו. בשניה, בודקין אותו. בשלישית, אין בודקין אותו. רבי אליעזר אומר, אף בשלישית בודקין אותו מפני הקרבן
[[In seven ways, a zav is examined before he is required to bring a sacrifice for his condition: through food, through drinking, through carrying, through jumping, through illness, through appearance, and through thought. If he thought about it before he saw, or if he saw before he thought, Rabbi Yehuda says: Even if he saw an animal, a wild beast, or a bird engaging with one another, or if he saw the garments of a woman, it is still a concern. Rabbi Akiva says: Even if he ate any food, whether bad or good, and drank any drink. They said to him, “There are no zavin here from now on.” He replied, “You are not responsible for the zavin once he is required to bring a sacrifice; you do not examine him.” If he was forced, or if there was a doubt, or if there was seminal discharge, he is impure, as it is a matter of concern. If he saw the first sighting, he is examined. In the second sighting, he is examined. In the third sighting, he is not examined. Rabbi Eliezer says: Even in the third sighting, he is examined because of the offering.]]
If a man experienced a zov-like discharge (similar in appearance to semen but distinct in halakhic status), the sages would “check” the circumstances. There are seven possible causes listed (food, drink, load-bearing, jumping, illness, sight, and thought). These are all natural or external causes that could trigger a discharge without it being a true halakhic zivah. Before he is halakhically established as a zav. That means: when he has only seen one or two emissions, he is still in the stage where we examine whether it might have been due to one of these external factors.
A man becomes a confirmed zav (זב גמור) only after three sightings. After one or two sightings, the Mishnah says we must “check” whether his discharge may be explained by one of these seven causes. If yes, it reduces the likelihood that this is true zav-status, and he would not become fully tamei as a zav. Once he has three emissions, he is “נזקק לזיבה” — halakhically confirmed — and we no longer check external causes. His status is established as zav regardless.
The Mishnah is distinguishing investigative procedure (דרכים) versus established precedent (נזקק). Before full establishment, the beit din (or examiner) works like a judge checking for possible causes of discharge other than zav — this is judicial inquiry. Once precedent is fixed (three emissions = zav), no circumstantial excuses are considered. “בודקין” = the court’s role in examining mitigating circumstances before judgment is sealed. “עד שלא נזקק לזיבה” = before the halakhic precedent locks the individual into a fixed legal status.
Our Gemara brings this Mishha as a precedent דכתיב דתנן בז’ דרכים בודקין את הזב. Our Gemara does not limit the subject matter to the specific mitzva of קידושין as the rabbinic statute law halachic commentaries erroneously assume. The Case of קידושין functions merely as a פרט within the larger (Big Picture) common law כלל. Its this fundamental point of distinction which separates Talmudic common law scholarship from Reshonim religious ritual law perversions.
The study of Torah common law actively makes subtle distinctions which translations of T’NaCH mussar common law and Talmudic halachic common law dismally fail to discern. Immediately after the ’29 Wall Street crash, the bureaucratic Federal Reserve, which has no accountability to the American people nor to Congress or the President for that matter, unilaterally decided to restrict the money supply by 1/3rd. This error duplicated the radical Republican post Civil War Congress which likewise restricted the ‘greenback’ money supply and established the class of ‘Robber Barons’.
The Great Depression witnessed a huge population transfer from rural private ownership farming class American to the cities. Yet no sane person compares FDR to Stalin’s collectivization programs which killed 1/3rd of Ukraine’s population due to starvation. None the less, FDR established farming monopolies which own and dominate American farming today. Stalin’s collectivization, as a matter of State policy, slaughtered the kulaks – independent farmers in rural USSR.
John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath”, depicts the horrors of the Great Depression and the destruction of the American independent farming class. The policy of the Fed and FDR effectively uprooted and negated the 1862 Homestead Act which allowed individuals to claim and settle on parcels of land, typically 160 access, in exchange for a small fee and the requirement to improve the land by building a dwelling and cultivating crops.
The Talmud employs each specific mesechta of Gemara as a פרט to examine the כלל of Talmudic and T’NaCH common law – both of which learn by means of similar Case/Rule precedent comparative Cases. The Yeshiva education programs in Israel mirror the g’lut Torah education which limits the Torah to religious belief in a Monotheistic God which totally abandons the Torah faith: pursuit of righteous judicial justice among and between our conflicting people.
Its the judicial common law courts which permits Jews to remove wastes of fraud, lies, deceit, theft etc. Lacking an efficient waste management digestive system, this forces our people to resolve their disputes through Civil Wars.
thats amazing, gorgeous place.
Preraṇā Satyaṁ Saundaryam 🙏
Your writing feels like a climb itself—each section lifting the reader higher, until we finally glimpse the still, turquoise heart of Shounter Lake. The details are practical yet poetic, guiding not just steps but also imagination.
The poem crowns the journey, as if the lake itself were whispering. It leaves behind more than travel advice—it leaves a lingering echo of wonder. ✨
Dear Martha
I admire you even more for this post.
Thanks for liking my post, Gandhi 🌹❤️🌹❤️
Que belleza de paisaje unas vacaciones sería impresionante
Gracias por compartir un abrazo desde Perú y muchas bendiciones
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I like your descriptions of the natural surroundings, very nice.