A trip to a 30- million- years-old lake

A most amazing lake in a beautiful landscape is a draw for many visitors from across the country who take the tough and adventurous journey to reach it either on foot or by car.
Gohar Lake lies 25 km southwest of the city of Dorud in Khorram Abad , at a height of 2,250 meters above sea level.
It actually includes two lakes -- a small one, Kore Gohar, and a large one, Kale Gohar, which together cover an area of 100 hectares. In foreign countries it’s known as Iran’s lake. The 30-million-year-old lake was formed as a result of an earthquake in the Oshtorankuh mountains. It features unique flora and fauna.
The best season to go is summer. Every year as of Khordad 15 (May), it is open to the public and is packed with tourists. Before then, you can’t enter. But you can also travel in winter as long as you are an experienced mountain climber with proper equipment.
The dazzling beauty and picturesque scenery attract many residents of Lorestan province as well as the provinces nearby. They struggle on foot or by cars to get there to spend their leisure time beside the beautiful lake.
The popular way to reach it is through the city of Dorud . From there you should head to a village near the shrine of Imamzade Pir Vali and over to Cheshme Khie (Khoram). The paved road to Khie is about 17 km long. You should park your car in the nearby lots and walk up to the village.
To take your stuff you have two options: to carry them yourself ; the lighter the stuff ( or the backpack) , the more comfortable the path, or to carry them on the back of donkeys or mules locals provide for visitors.
It might sound OK to carry them on animal’s back but this way it will cost you some money.
After a rather long path , you get into the lake. The area around is generally rocky and therefore you can’t pitch tents . Only a small part in the northwest of the lake has coastline with trees. It’s the only reason why there is a crowd.
One of the good things the environment base in the region has done to preserve the ecosystem is that it has limited fishing in the lake. Therefore in the mating and spawning season ( in spring) it is forbidden to catch fish. Also to do it in other seasons you’ll have to get a fishing permission from the base. Any permission is given for catching 5 fish only. If it’s found that you have no permission your fishing equipment will be seized and you will be fined. It boasts
cold-water fish species such as salmon , rainbow fish , red spotted fish and so on.
Now if you’d like to travel and pay a visit, don’t pack heavy at all otherwise you won’t enjoy the trip.
It might sound tempting to have a barbeque and kebabs beside the beautiful coasts watching wonderful lake but remember there is a 18-km mountainous route which would exhaust even strong and well-built people.