Wildlife & Photography

Gilgit-Baltistan is high-altitude wilderness on a continental scale, and its wildlife reflects it. Drive toward the Khunjerab Pass in the early morning and Himalayan ibex graze beside the road; the slopes of Khunjerab National Park also hold Marco Polo sheep — the world's largest wild sheep, with horns sweeping over a metre — along the Chinese frontier. Golden marmots whistle from the verges, and yaks drift across the high pastures like shadows.

The grail is the snow leopard. The Hunza valleys and Khunjerab National Park support one of the cat's healthiest populations, and dedicated winter expeditions — tracking with local spotters between roughly December and March, when the cats follow ibex to lower slopes — give patient photographers a genuine chance of a sighting. Even without the cat, winter Hunza delivers frozen lakes, smoking chimneys and light that summer visitors never see.

Summer belongs to Deosai. The world's second-highest plateau blooms into a 4,000-metre wildflower grassland in July and August, and it is the stronghold of the Himalayan brown bear — best scanned at dawn near Bara Pani with binoculars and a long lens. Golden marmots pose at burrow entrances across the plateau, while wetlands and lakes such as Sheosar draw waterfowl and raptors; Borith Lake in upper Hunza is a noted stopover for migratory ducks in spring and autumn.

Photographers should plan around two more calendars: blossom season in April, when Hunza's orchards froth pink and white beneath snow-plastered peaks, and late October, when poplar and apricot trees turn the valleys molten gold. Few places on earth pair charismatic wildlife with landscapes this photogenic — and crowds this thin.