Trails & walkLow risk

Camel's Back Road

Garhwal Himalaya · Uttarakhand

A flat 1845 ridge promenade from Library Chowk to Kulri with Himalayan and Doon Valley views past an old cemetery.

Visit-safety grade
Low

Genuinely low-risk. The main thing to mind is altitude / ams.

Altitude / AMS5 pts
2005 m — intermediate. Est. SpO₂ ≈ 93% arriving unacclimatised. AMS rare; some notice mild breathlessness on exertion.
Cliff exposure5 pts
The path runs along or above a ~150 m drop, unbarriered in places.
Remoteness / rescue5 pts
A town and basic help are not far off.

Score 15/100, 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
  • unfenced valley drop on the outer edge of some stretches
  • shared road with ponies and vehicles; ice underfoot in winter
The safety code · trails & walks
  • Turn around when fog rolls in — unfenced viewpoints and edges vanish in seconds.
  • Don't underestimate the climb back; start early enough to be down well before dark.
  • Stay on the path — the ground near cliff viewpoints is often loose underfoot.
When to go
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Prime windowShoulderOff-season
Photos

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

The essentials
Nearest town
Mussoorie
Elevation
2,005 m
Exposure below
150 m
Visit
Short walk
Approach
≈3 km each way · 30 m climb
Season
Mar–Jun, Sep–Nov; icy patches in winter, foggy in monsoon
Permits
2 to arrange (Uttarakhand)
How to reach
Starting point
Mussoorie
Uttarakhand
By air
  • Dehradun (DED)~32 km
  • Shimla (SLV)~118 km
By rail
  • Dehradun~16 km
  • Rishikesh~45 km
By road

Drive to the roadhead Mussoorie. From Dehradun (~16 km) shared taxis and state buses run the last leg to Camel's Back Road.

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
13°, overcast· wind 2 km/h

Live from Open-Meteo at this spot, adjusted to 2,005 m. Mountain weather turns fast — treat this as a hint, not a promise.

Altitude & air
Intermediate
Elevation
2,005 m
Oxygen vs sea level
~78%
Est. SpO₂ (unacclimatised)
~93%
Air pressure
604 mmHg

AMS rare; some notice mild breathlessness on exertion.

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 Camel's Back Road(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.

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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.