Best hotels in Ladakh

The Snow Leopard Lodge, the only dedicated wildlife lodge in Ladakh,i s located high in the beautiful village of Ulley in the Sham region of central Ladakh, north of the Indus River, at the head of the valley of the Ulley Chhu at an altitude of about 13,000 feet. It is 2 – 3 hours driving distance west from Leh. Ulley itself is a hamlet of just about 7 houses beyond which are the summer pastures of Yak and Dzo. This is classic ibex country and there are few more evocative sights than a magnificently horned male ibex standing vigil on some impossibly narrow outcropping, a few thousand feet above a plunging cliff. Over the past 10 years this area has been developed for snow leopard tracking and has gained a reputation not just for the high numbers of snow leopards but as one of the best areas to see Ibex, Urial, Wolf, Himalayan Fox, Bearded and Himalayan Griffon Vultures and Golden Eagles.

Starting life as a homestay owned by one of Ladakh’s top snow leopard trackers under the auspices of an innovative programme initiated by the first Director of the Snow Leopard Conservancy India – Rinchen Wangchuk – designed to use tourism as a conservation tool for the preservation of snow leopards and their ecosystem by putting tourism revenue directly into the local community.