Why this ride
The highest point is about 4,600 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Srinagar-Leh Highway: Lamayuru to Leh
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 114 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 1 h 22
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Srinagar-Leh Highway
10 km on Srinagar-Leh Highway.
Rider note
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 10 km
Fotu La → Leh
175 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it. This is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 104 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Lamayuru
Lamayuru looks like another planet, and the people who named the surrounding hills Moonland were not exaggerating. Wind and water have carved the pale clay slopes into a maze of ridges and spires, and on top of the largest of them sits the monastery, whitewashed and tangled, with the valley dropping away behind it. A local legend says the valley was once a lake, drained by a saint who made his way through the rock, and the geology lends some support to the idea.
Read the complete Lamayuru write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Lamayuru is where the day begins. Next is Fotu La.
2. Fotu La
Fotu La is the highest point on the road between Srinagar and Leh, at 4,108 metres, and it is higher than the better-known Namika La further west. It is a broad, windswept saddle with prayer flags snapping in the wind, a few signs from the Border Roads Organisation and a feeling of enormous space. The altitude is real, so do not be surprised if a short walk makes you breathless; take your time and drink plenty of water.
Read the complete Fotu La write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fotu La comes up about 10 km into the recorded legs. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Leh, mostly downhill.
3. Leh
Leh sits in the high desert of Ladakh at about 3,500 metres, in the broad valley of the Indus, with the Karakoram on one side and the Zanskar range on the other, and it is the end of the Manali-Leh highway, one of the great road journeys in the world. The last stage of that road is the best: you cross the Tanglang La, among the highest passes in the world, then drop to the Indus plain, through villages with whitewashed chortens and prayer flags, and the town appears below a hill crowned by the old Leh Palace, a nine-storey building of mud and wood modelled on the Potala in Lhasa. Behind it, the Namgyal Tsemo monastery and a ruined fort hang on the ridge.
Read the complete Leh write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 114 km.
Leg by leg
Lamayuru to Fotu La
Lamayuru → Fotu La is 10 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Fotu La to Leh
Fotu La → Leh is 104 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Srinagar-Leh Highway · part 2 · 225 km
- Srinagar-Leh Highway: Kargil to Leh · 218 km
- Nubra Valley via Khardung La · 206 km