The Mount Everest of Road Trips
India’s High Country
India’s Leh-Sringar Highway has been referred to as the highest motorable road in the world, and while that distinction is debatable, it sure feels like it. Massive Himalayan peaks surround you the entire time, and the 260-mile road traverses multiple mountain passes, all topping out at over 14,000 feet. The route was used by pashmina-wool traders in the 17th century, and apart from a few stretches of blacktop in open valleys, it will seem as if time stood still: ancient Buddhist villages with prayer flags, small farms lining the lush Indus River Valley, and sheepherders tending to their flocks. Start in Sringar, the summer capital of Kashmir, and head east toward Kargil, a natural stopping point halfway along. The next day, you can visit the thousand-year-old Lamayuru Monastery, which is still home to Buddhist monks, and at the end of it all, you can drive up 17,500-foot-high Khardung Pass, just outside Leh, for the ultimate bragging rights. — Kitt Doucette
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