The Fairy Meadows, locally known as Joot, officially the Fairy Meadows National Park, is an area of grassland near one of the base camp sites of

Nanga Parbat Nanga Parbat () (; ), known locally as Diamer (), is the ninth-highest mountain on Earth and its summit is at above sea level. Lying immediately southeast of the northernmost bend of the Indus River in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan-a ...

, located in

Diamer District Diamer District (), also spelled Diamir District, is a district of Pakistan-administered territory of Gilgit–Baltistan in the disputed Kashmir region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of ...

in the

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

region in

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. At an altitude of about above sea level, it serves as the launching point for mountaineers summiting Nanga Parbat by the Rakhiot face. In 1995, the

Government of Pakistan The Government of Pakistan () (abbreviated as GoP), constitutionally known as the Federal Government, commonly known as the Centre, is the national authority of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, a federal republic located in South Asia, con ...

declared Fairy Meadows a

National Park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

Location

Fairy Meadows is approachable by a fifteen kilometer-long jeepable trek starting from Raikot Bridge on the

Karakoram Highway The Karakoram Highway (, ), also known as the KKH, National Highway 35 (), N-35, and the ChinaPakistan Friendship Highway, is a National Highways of Pakistan, national highway which extends from Hasan Abdal in the Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab p ...

and leading to the village of Tattu (Tato). The dangerous and narrow gravel mountain road from the bridge to the village is only open to locals, who provide transportation to visitors. In 2013, the World Health Organization declared it the second-deadliest road on the planet. From Tato onward, it takes about three to four hours hiking by a five kilometer trek to Fairy Meadows. The grassland is located in the Rakhiot valley, at one end of the Rakhiot glacier which originates from Nanga Parbat and feeds a stream that finally flows into the River Indus. Since 1992, locals have operated camping sites in the area.

Tourism

View of cottages at Fairy Meadows - Photo by Shams Shaukat Films

The six-month tourist season at Fairy Meadows starts in April and continues until the end of September. Tourists lodge at the camping site spread over , known as "Raikot Serai". The site of Fairy Meadows, though partially developed, generates about PKR 17 million revenue from tourism, mainly by providing food, transportation and accommodation services. The road to Fairy Meadows was built by Brigadier M. Aslam Khan (M.C, H.J, F.K), First Commander Gilgit Scouts, which today employs the locals. The local community stopped the extraction of timber to conserve the forest and promote tourism in the area. The main attraction of this place other than the meadows itself is the view of Nanga Parbat Mountain. Tourists usually hike to the base camp of the mountain from Fairy Meadows.

Flora and fauna

The grassland is surrounded by thick alpine forest. The high altitude area and north-facing slopes mostly consist of

coniferous forest Conifers () are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All e ...

having ''

Pinus wallichiana ''Pinus wallichiana'' is a coniferous evergreen tree native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and north west India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows in mountain v ...

'', '' Picea smithiana'' and ''

Abies pindrow ''Abies pindrow'', the pindrow fir, West Himalayan fir, or silver fir, is a fir native to the western Himalaya and adjacent mountains, from northeast Afghanistan east through northern Pakistan and India to central Nepal. Description It is a ...

'' trees, while in the high altitude areas with little sunlight are

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

and willow dwarf shrubs. The southern slopes are concentrated with

juniper Junipers are coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Juniperus'' ( ) of the cypress family Cupressaceae. Depending on the taxonomy, between 50 and 67 species of junipers are widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere as far south ...

and scrubs, namely '' Juniperus excelsa'' and ''J. turkesticana''. In the low altitudes, the major plant found is '' Artemisia'', with yellow ash, stone oaks and '' Pinus gerardiana'' spread among it. Research has suggested similarities between ''Pinus wallichiana'' found in the meadows with a sister species, ''

Pinus peuce ''Pinus peuce'' (Macedonian pine or Balkan pine) (Serbo-Croatian and Macedonian: молика, molika; Bulgarian: бяла мура, byala mura) is a species of pine native to the mountains of North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Montenegro, Kos ...

'', found in the Balkans, based on leaf size. Among mammals, a few

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear native to Eurasia and North America. Of the land carnivorans, it is rivaled in size only by its closest relative, the polar bear, which is much less variable in size and slightly bigger on av ...

s are found in the region, with their numbers declining. Some

musk deer Musk deer can refer to any one, or all eight, of the species that make up ''Moschus'', the only extant genus of the family (biology), family Moschidae. Despite being commonly called deer, they are not true deer belonging to the family Cervidae, b ...

, regarded as an endangered species, are also present.

Gallery

File:Milky way over Fairy Meadows, Gilgit, Pakistan.jpg, Milky way over Fairy Meadows File:Nanga parbat, fairy medow, Pak by gul791.jpg, View of Nanga Parbat from Fairy Meadows File:Fairy Meadows, Pakistan.jpg, A sunny day at Fairy Meadows File:Fairy meadow gb.jpg, Sheep grazing at Fairy Meadows File:Local Polo Match Fairy Meadows Nanga Parbat.JPG, A

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

Match at Fairy Meadows File:Fairy Meadows GB Pakistan.jpg, A reflection of Killer Mountain

in a small lake in morning File:Nanga Parbat (Fairy Meadows).jpg, A full view of

behind Fairy Meadows File:Lovely Morning after a night of snowfall at Fairy meadows.JPG, Snowfall at Fairy Meadows File:Building and benches - Fairy Meadows in winter.jpg, Snow-covered wooden cottages and benches

References

Notes