LakeLow risk

Bhimtal Lake

Kumaon hills, Nainital district · Uttarakhand

A large Kumaon lake with a central island, lower and quieter than nearby Nainital.

Visit-safety grade
Low

Genuinely low-risk. The main thing to mind is remoteness / rescue.

Remoteness / rescue5 pts
A town and basic help are not far off.
Water3 pts
Still water; standard boating and slippery-edge caution.

Score 8/100, re-derived from the site’s real characteristics — never a marketing grade. A higher number is not “don’t go”; it is “go informed.”

Know before you go
  • deep cold water and drowning risk when boating
  • slippery, uneven banks in monsoon
  • sudden hill weather and afternoon winds on the open water
The safety code · lakes
  • If it sits high, the thin air — not the water — is the real risk; don't race up from the plains, and learn the signs of AMS.
  • Alpine water and weather turn dangerously cold fast, even in summer — carry warm layers.
  • Remote shores mean slow rescue; share your plan and turn back with time to spare.
When to go
J
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Prime windowShoulderOff-season
Photos

Photos via Wikimedia Commons — full attribution on the credits page.

The essentials
Nearest town
Bhimtal
Elevation
1,370 m
Visit
Roadside / drive-up
Approach
≈0.1 km each way · 5 m climb
Season
Year-round
Permits
2 to arrange (Uttarakhand)
How to reach
Starting point
Bhimtal
Uttarakhand
By air
  • Pantnagar (Kumaon) (PGH)~36 km
  • Dehradun (DED)~163 km
By rail
  • Kathgodam~10 km
  • Ramnagar~42 km
By road

Drive to the roadhead Bhimtal. From Kathgodam (Kumaon) (~10 km) shared taxis and state buses run the last leg to Bhimtal Lake.

Distances are straight-line (as the crow flies), computed from the coordinates. Real road distance and driving time in the mountains are longer — confirm current road status and the last motorable point with your operator, especially in monsoon and winter.

Right now
12°, overcast· wind 3 km/h

Live from Open-Meteo at this spot, adjusted to 1,370 m. Mountain weather turns fast — treat this as a hint, not a promise.

Altitude & air
Low altitude
Elevation
1,370 m
Oxygen vs sea level
~85%
Est. SpO₂ (unacclimatised)
~95%
Air pressure
650 mmHg

No altitude effect for almost anyone.

Where it is
3D replay

See it in 3D

A Google-Earth-style flyby that drops in from orbit and traces the real approach trail up to Bhimtal Lake(where it’s mapped in OpenStreetMap), over real satellite terrain — so you can read the climb and the lie of the land before you go.

More lakes
Serious
Pangong Tso
Ladakh
Serious
Chandratal Lake
Himachal Pradesh
Low
Loktak Lake
Manipur

Coordinates, heights and depths are approximate, curated from public sources — good enough to plan and to gauge risk, not surveyed. The safety grade is a deterministic guide, not a guarantee; conditions change with weather, water level and crowds.