2,000 – 4,694 m
Nagar Valley
The south side of the valley, and the way to Rush Lake.
Twenty-one places worth the road.
Valleys, lakes, plateaus and passes across the north — with the altitude, the season, the permit position and the honest amount of time each one deserves.
Everywhere else
Upper Hunza
in Hunza
Glaciers on both sides of the road, and the Chinese border at the top.
2,500 – 4,693 m
Gilgit
The junction town everyone passes through and nobody stops in.
1,500 m
Ghizer
River, poplars, and almost no traffic.
2,100 – 3,700 m
Phander
A green river bending through a flat-bottomed valley.
2,900 m
Yasin
A side valley almost nobody drives into.
2,300 – 4,700 m
Shigar
in Skardu
Apricot orchards, a 400-year-old fort, and the road to the Baltoro.
2,300 m
Khaplu
in Skardu
The old Yabgo capital, terraced up a hillside above the Shyok.
2,600 m
Astore
The green side of Nanga Parbat.
2,600 – 3,600 m
Fairy Meadows
A grass shelf at 3,300 metres with a killer mountain above it.
3,300 m
Nanga Parbat
8,126 metres, standing entirely alone.
8,126 m summit
Chilas
Hot, dusty, and covered in 2,000-year-old rock carvings.
1,265 m
Chitral
Hindu Kush, Khowar, and Tirich Mir over the town.
1,500 m
Kalash Valleys
in Chitral
Three valleys, four thousand people, and a religion older than the region.
1,900 – 2,200 m
Swat
Green, forested, and full of Gandharan stupas.
980 – 2,100 m
Kumrat
Deodar forest, a cold river, and no road worth the name.
2,100 – 3,000 m
Azad Kashmir
The Neelum river, and forest all the way up it.
1,500 – 3,700 m
Khunjerab
in Upper Hunza
The highest paved border crossing on earth.
4,693 m