Follow the Indus upstream from Skardu into the Kharmang valley and the scenery softens: willow-lined fields, stone hamlets, and side streams pouring off the high ground. The most dramatic of them is Manthokha, where a glacier-fed stream leaps roughly 45 m off a cliff in a single white curtain — Baltistan's best-known waterfall and one of its easiest scenic day trips.
The fall is at its thundering best in early summer, when snowmelt swells the stream and the spray drifts across the meadow at its base. A short, easy walk leads from the parking area to the foot of the falls, where the microclimate is ten degrees cooler than the valley floor — bliss in July, bracing in May.
Manthokha has grown a modest, likeable visitor scene: riverside restaurants grill fresh trout farmed in the cold water, wooden huts and campsites take overnighters, and families picnic on the grass through the summer weekends. It remains a local pleasure rather than a polished resort, which is much of the charm.
The drive itself — about two hours and roughly 80 km southeast of Skardu along the Indus on the Kharmang road — is half the trip, with river gorges and village oases the whole way. Combine Manthokha with Khaplu for a long day east, or stop en route if you're continuing deeper into Kharmang.
