Chhamb Water fall and Leepa Valley from Bagh via Sudhan Gali, Hattian Bala, Rashian, Dao Khann

The trip started early in the morning at 5 am.
In an hour we reached Sudhan Gali, which is basically a pass joining Jhelum and Bagh valleys. It was still dark, we started our descend towards Jhelum Valley. Later we made a quick stop at ZalZal Lake’s view point. I like the Chikkar as it looked beautiful in autumn.
As we landed on Jhelum valley road we inquire the route to Chhamb waterfall. Drove through couple of towns including Hattian Bala, to finally arrive at Chinari from where we turned left crossing Jhelum Bridge. And we passed through fairytale villages of ‘Kathai’ and ‘Gujjar Bandi’. Village was at a high plateau next to the river with beautiful fields, tall trees and snake like road. People were just getting ready for the day and kids all over were going to the school.
Road was very well maintained we rarely met with any broken patch. Finally, we arrived at a check post after which was a long patch of jeep road, later we found that there was carpeted road ahead as well. We parked the car there. There were two hydraulic power houses being constructed on the water from Chhamb Waterfall. Road was submerged by the debris from the construction of the water channel which was to feed the both power houses. After nearly 4 km of easy hike we reached the waterfall.
There is a beautiful picnic point at the waterfall as you descend a lot of stairs to reach the waterfall. Water falls from a tall but very narrow cliff which makes the water seem a lot in volume but it is not that much. There is a small but dangerously deep pool under the waterfall. There was no one at the waterfall at the time. A few meter away from it was the diversion channel for the water which at the moment had not been activated.
After enjoying for 30 minutes we hiked back through beautiful villages and saw schools out in the sun. Resumed our journey back to Jhelum valley’s main road. From Hattian bala, we crossed the river towards Leepa Valley. Road were exceptionally good. We took a break at the village of Rashian.
Now for Leepa, you will hear the points which are all the villages on the road to Leepa. After Rashian we reached Dao Khann, which was a view point and also the Pass/Gali to Leepa.
There was show on the mountains there. Leepa side of the road was un shadow so snow was thicker there. We descended near the village Moji and drove through the main Leepa village, Kesar Kot to arrive at the most scenic point of the valley known as ‘Shams bari View point. Shams Bari are the snow covered mountains in Indian Kashmir. From that point you can also see the terrace rice fields. Which were empty at the time. From There we drove to Channian village and the Channian Park. We spoke with local for the famous Naval Rice aka pink rice of Leepa Valley and agrees to buy some next day.
We came back to the Nokot village and settled in a hotel there.
All the hotels were closed, we had to get the owner to open for us.