A trek to the Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand

Day1- Rishikesh(1,031 ft)

Our base camp was at Bharat Mandir Dharamshala in Rishikesh. It was just about 50 meters away from the Triveni ghat which is known for its evening aartis. Rishikesh, just like Haridwar, is a highly religious destination. It is also famous for adventure sports like river rafting, bungee jumping, and rappelling. However, all adventure activities are stalled during the monsoons. Apart from the multitude of temples and ashrams, there’s little sightseeing to do. Don’t get fascinated by everyone telling you about the Ram Jhoola and Laxman Jhoola; they are just bridges to cross the river. The best thing is to watch the Ganga aarti at Parmarth Niketan or Triveni Ghat (we could attend neither because of an interminable trek briefing). Apart from camping facilities by the river, there are a lot of café’s and hostels too now in Rishikesh like they have appeared in most tourist destinations. You get bikes on hire too (INR 500 – 600 per day).

I took a bus from Haridwar to Rishikesh which took about an hour. For the ignorant (like I was), just stand at the point where all buses are departing as there are no dedicated stands for different destinations. You don’t need to ask anyone which bus goes to Rishikesh (I did keep asking). You’ll hear conductors shouting the destination and even in the chaos, you’ll hear when Rishikesh is being called out. Talking about sarcasm, I asked a man who somehow looked very knowledgeable about buses (probably was born in one) and was wearing a uniform, ‘Which bus goes to Rishikesh?’ and he smartly replied without even throwing a glance at me, ‘The Rishikesh bus will go to Rishikesh.’ And I thought in my mind ‘Yes, indeed!’

It was extremely hot in Rishikesh with absolutely no rain, which was a surprise to me as, back in Mumbai, it had been raining incessantly for three days when I had left. Apart from lending our ears to the briefing, we did nothing much except for sauntering around the place and getting to know each other – even when woken up at an unearthly hour I’ll remember ‘I am from Nagpur but I study in Bangalore’.

We were to take a long bus ride (10-11 hrs) to Joshimath early in the morning the next day and so we packed and our bags were checked for their weight about 39 times (in spite of the fact that no changes were made – no removals).

 

Day2- Rishikesh to Joshimath Camp (6,150 ft) by bus (275 km)

Oh how I wish I was riding a bike! The drive from Rishikesh to Joshimath takes you through Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Gopeshwar and into the beautiful district of Chamoli and the Nanda Devi biosphere reserve. Rudraprayag is where the roads diverge, one goes to Kedarnath and the other to Badrinath. Even though not riding a bike, my friend Raghav and I (forced to, not out of choice) got the best seats in the bus – just beside our super efficient driver Monu. What we saw from the wide windscreen of the bus with every turn on the meandering roads was just magical, nothing short of a fantasy land, but real nonetheless. It feels so useless to express the beauty in words, it makes it confined somehow – the clouds floating as if having forgotten where to go, like cute little children in attention to their majestic teacher of a mountain. The scenery kept changing, the shades kept changing as we ascended and the mountains in all their magnificence beguiled us all the way, and so did the river – playing hide and seek, now there, now not, but there all along. The drive to Joshimath and further to Badrinath is enchantingly beautiful; you wouldn’t like to miss a moment.

There were numerous landslides on the way, some so fresh that JCBs had to clear the rubble before we could pass through. We witnessed the four prayags (confluence of two rivers) – Devprayag, Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag and Nandprayag on the way to Joshimath; the fifth one (Vishnuprayag) being on the way to Badrinath. Five rivers merge into the Alakananda to finally form the holy Ganga river. According to Hindu mythology, when Goddess Ganga began her descent to Earth, her force was formidable. To temper her force, she was said to have been split into 12 channels that flow to reunite completely after Devprayag (where rivers Alaknanda and Bhagirathi meet) to become River Ganga again (source (read more about the panch prayags here - https://uttarakhandtourism.gov.in/destination/panch-prayag#:~:text=These%20five%20places%2C%20in%20descending,a%20step%20closer%20to%20moksha.)

We were to stay in a guest house called Balram Guest House and were we happy with the view it had! Simply wow! If there was any weariness from the long journey, it disappeared immediately with a look at the splendor of a view it offered. We were in the clouds. The lazy drifting of the clouds gave a dreamy effect and the look of the mountains changed every few minutes. In the distance, at a much lower altitude, we could see the tail of a path we were to take the next day. Later in the evening, as the rays of the dusk were setting in, a snow capped peak in the distance turned a blazing orange, a sight to behold. Cameras and pictures create memories but can never really capture what you really feel at the moment – a multitude of emotions all emerging and merging at the same time – a surging excitement dropping the next moment to a sudden calm, a restlessness you get comfortable with and don’t want to let go off, a happiness leading to a strange heaviness, a satisfaction leading to content yet longing for more. And the mind and heart chants ‘beautiful, beautiful, beautiful’.

We walked to the market looking for street food (had pani puris in rice puris for the first time) and Uno cards (no luck there) and then to the Narsingh Temple and Shankaracharya temple. The town, earlier known as Jyotirmath gets its name from Adi Shankaracharya who had meditated here and established a pilgrimage after he achieved ‘Jyoti’.

And at night, we taught a grown up kid from Greater Noida to play cards!

We slept and it rained!

 

Day3 - The 2 km story!

Joshimath to Govindghat (5500 ft) by bus (about 20 km) and a trek from Govindghat to Ghangaria (10,200 ft) 

No-one disturbed the beauty as we had left it the evening before and the majestic formidable mountains and the playful clouds welcomed us the next morning too. Our bus took us through Vishnuprayag to Govindghat (about 20 km). At Govindghat, you get off the highway and walk towards a Gurdwara and take the stairs right after it, to your left and you arrive at the bridge flowing over the burbling Alakananda. This was the start of the trek for six of us. From Govindghat to Pulna (where the actual trekking path starts) is 5 km and is a motorable road (INR 50 per person), so the majority took the jeep to Pulna. You can also avail of a helicopter ride from Govindghat to Ghangria (INR 3000 per person).

I met a Bengali sadhu on the way to Pulna and he showed me the cave he stayed in, adorned with a dainty little garden. He has been staying and meditating there for 17 years now. Some tastes stay forever and the sweetness (not sweet exactly) of the water I drank at his place, I know, will stay with me forever. He said it was from the stream, created by the waterfall he showed. I tried to meet him on the way back but couldn’t.

At Pulna, the path started; a path which at Kedarnath, I got to know is called the chhai-futiya (a six-foot cemented path). One can hire mules at Pulna to take their luggage till the bridge (mentioned below) or ride them as well. Again the six of us were our own mules while the rest had their luggage laden on mules. You start with a steep ascent and immediately you wonder what lies ahead. And if you’re already thinking of the rest of the 10 km, you’re making a big mistake. If, breathless, exhausted, sweating profusely, as you take a sip from your bottle, you ask a descending person how much of it is remaining, you are making a bigger mistake. Just keep walking.

All the way till Ghangria is mostly uphill, quite steep at places. This being the path to the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib too, is lined with a few shops and there are places where you can rest.  You see the river flowing beside you to the right all along as you climb higher and higher and the canopy of trees gives you intermittent glances of the mountains and a few waterfalls. There are sweepers who constantly keep the path clean and they were doing a very good job of it. It was sad to see people being carried by pithus (men carrying tourists in baskets).

And finally you see the famous bridge that people have been telling you about, ‘just 4 km from the bridge’ they’d said. Just! And here’s where you cross the river and now it flows to your left. The ‘just’ 4 km now turns into a sort of unending nightmare. Oh, it reduces though – from here on, anyone you ask and they’ll say ‘only 2 km more’. And so do the boards. Walking into the forest, with every step you take thence, it seems you are on a possessed path that never ends – the two km are far from being covered. No matter how exhausted you are, you want to run down and catch hold of each person who’d told you ‘2 km only’ and give them a nice long lesson on distances and measurements – till they fully comprehend it, but you don’t because you know you have climb back!

The path through the forest only gets steeper here and when the infamous 2 km finally ends, the scenery opens again to the majestic mountains facing you and nestled at its foot is a helipad and there were many groups who’d pitched up their tents a little away from the helipad. We were so happy to finally see the helipad as we thought we’d reached but it wasn’t so. Our place of stay was another km away and needless to say an ascent. I wish I had captured Vibhav, the Chattan’s expression when he heard this!

It took me around eight hours to trek the entire path from Govindghat to our place in Ghangaria. Ghangaria is a small village and the last one in the Bhyundar valley, nestled at the foothills of the Himalayas. It and hence the route to the Valley of Flowers stays open only for four months (July to October); it’s covered with snow and is inaccessible for the rest of the year. The hotel we stayed at – Hotel Himalay made the most of this charging us INR 100 for laundry (a pair of clothes), 70 for a bucket of hot water, 350 for drying your shoes etc. There are a few shops selling sweetmeats, snacks, winter clothing and accessories. It is a good idea to have some cash with you here as online payments don’t always work due to the poor network.

I was happy to meet my camp leader from the Har Ki Doon trek. Fatigue didn’t stop us from venturing for a walk and having delicious gulab jamuns and playing a game of bluff before he cuddled into our blankets and called it a day.

And remember, by no means is it 14 km from Govindghat to Ghangaria! However, I came across the old, young, children, fat, thin and everything in between on the route and even to Hemkund Sahib so it’s tiring but doable. It was really great to see a group of the aged (not at heart for sure) encouraging each other and having fun en-route.

 

Day4 - Trek from Ghangaria to Valley of Flowers (11,500 ft)

It started drizzling the next morning as we started for the Valley of Flowers. You witness a gigantic waterfall to your right as you start the trek. Again, we saw pitthus carrying people. Fortunately mules don’t go to the Valley of Flowers. Very soon, as you walk on the chhai futiya, you come to a divergence, one going straight to Shri Hemkund Sahib and the left one to the Valley of Flowers. The path to the Valley of Flowers and the one to Vasudhara Falls (mentioned below) are the the only real trekking paths on this circuit, the others being cemented paths. You walk into the jungle and soon cross a bridge over the impetuous Pushpawati river flowing down in a hurry. 

This again is a complete ascent till you reach the valley. You’ll find a few waterfalls on the way; please don’t forget to drink from there – it’s simply bliss. Where we left the bridge behind, the mountain that stands tall against it was such a magnificent sight to see; it really inspired awe. You finally cross a stream and that and a huge rock marks the start of the valley.

The large expanse of the valley is part of the Nanda Devi Biosphere. I’d suggest to not go with any set image in your mind of the valley and its abundance of flowers (if you know what I mean) and you’ll enjoy it better. You’re likely to say ‘Oh, I’ve seen better and more variety’ but that’s okay. The trek itself is worth it and there were flowers - exquisite and exotic ones found only at such altitudes and what’s more is the scenery they are pitched against. An artist’s delight, nature plays around with colours here – red, yellow, white, blue, orange, purple and of course green swaying to the tunes of the wind against the blues and browns in the distance and the fluffy white floating all around. We thoroughly enjoyed the canvas eating our lunch perched on a rock.

It’s amazing how it was discovered by three British mountaineers, led by one Frank S Smythe who seemed to have lost their way. How they must have felt when they chanced upon it the very must time – this gamut of vibrancy! If you have the time and the willingness, you can walk till the foothills of the glacier you see now from a distance. Again by no means was the trek from Ghangaria to here 3km; it easily is 4 km if not more. It was fun descending like it always is to me.

 

Day5 - Trek from Ghangaria to Shri Hemkund Sahib Ji (15,200 ft)

Quite a few of our trekking mates (if I may call them that) seemed to have enough of trekking and decided against walking to Shri Hemkund Sahib Ji. So a few stayed back, a few took mules and the rest trekked. The way to Shri Hemkund Sahib Ji is again a chhai futiya all the way till the Gurdwara. It is an extremely steep ascent and you cover an altitude of 5000 feet in a distance of about 6 km and about 4 hrs. That doesn’t in way deter devotees though from walking all the way to the Gurdwara. Slowly and steadily just keep walking and you’ll get there. Here too shops and resting areas appear intermittently and the place is kept clean by sweepers. One can avail of mules, pitthus or palkis to get there too.

Shri Hemkund Sahib Ji is a pilgrimage site for Sikhs and is devoted to Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the tenth Sikh Guru. It started to drizzle the moment I reached the top. The Gurdwara was crowded and devotees listened and chanted with what the priest was reading from the Granth Sahib. There is a lake right beside the Gurdwara and it is formed by glacial water. The water of the lake wasn’t really ‘hypothermic’ as I was told it’ll be though it was obviously cold. I didn’t take a dip in it though I did wash my face, hands and feet. Also in the complex is a Laxman temple. The place is really well maintained. Don’t miss the langar of tea and khichdi. The place is mentioned in the Dasam Granth as being surrounded by seven mountain peaks, each having a Nishan Sahib on its cliff. One can only wonder how such a beautiful structure was built at such an altitude and the time, effort and patience it would have required to do so – a place that is accessible only for a few months of the year.

It suddenly got very cold and a downpour began as I started descending. It took me exactly 2 hours to get back to Ghangaria and I didn’t stop as the rain was only getting heavier. As I was pacing down, I marveled at the steepness I had climbed only a few hours ago. A few of my friends who left just a few minutes later got stuck as the melting waters of a glacier we had crossed earlier had flooded a stream and they had to take help from other tourists and the army too came to help them cross the stream with the help of wires.

In the meantime, a few of my batch mates who had stayed back witnessed a cloudburst near the helipad.

The evening was spent as usual playing cards and listening to Greater Noida tales and the days events being reported back in a glorious way (I wonder who did this!).

Day6 - Trek from Ghangaria to Govindghat and by bus from Govindghat to Badrinath (10,830 ft)

14 km back – ha! A walk in the park! A piece of cake! It took me only three hours to reach Govindghat. Descending is fun. As expected, all along the way, trekkers and devotees kept asking the same question we had ‘How much more to go?’ 

Funnily enough, though we were separated, most of my friends had lunch, lemon juice etc. at the same places we had on our way up. Our bus was waiting for us and it took us to our next destination, Badrinath ji in about an hour. Our hostel was quietly nestled at the top of a mountain in the most picturesque location giving us a view of the mountains, the river Alakananda, and the nearby villages. The temple of Badrinath ji was at a walking distance and there’s where we went in the evening. You take a left at the highway and walk past Bharat Sevashshram and a huge black statue of Shri Ramanujacharya and then cross a bridge over the Alakananda to enter into a hamlet lined by shops leading to the temple.

Luckily it wasn’t extremely crowded. Nonetheless, there was the usual pushing and shoving to enter the temple and to get a glimpse of the Lord. We had a dip in the Tapt Kund (hot water spring) in the temple premises before visiting the inner sanctum. The Badrinath temple has Lord Vishnu, the preserver as its presiding deity and is one of the Char Dhams, the other three being Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri. The temple, built in traditional Garhwali architecture, looked really beautiful in its vibrant colours when the lights were on in the evening. It has the mighty Neelkanth mountain in its backdrop. While we were waiting in a queue to get in, I was particularly fascinated by the life like face of a statue right outside the temple and in its premises (I can’t remember the name of the deity). Photography is prohibited inside the temple but that didn’t stop people from doing exactly that – clicking pictures. The bad part is that you get network here and people were making video calls, oblivious of who they are walking into or of disobeying the rules.

Badri Vishal ki jai!

 

Day 7 - Badrinath to Mana Village (10,500 ft) and a trek to Vasudhara waterfalls

The next morning, we got on the bus and got off it – Mana village, the last village before we enter neighbour’s territory is only 4 km away from the town of Badrinath. It’s a small village on the banks of river Saraswati but has many mythological sites if you are religiously inclined. The Ganesh Gufa (cave) and Vyas Gufa have special significance as the Mahabharata was said to be dictated by Ved Vyas and noted by Lord Ganesha in their respective caves here. The outer rock forming the cave to Ved Vyas’s shrine looks like the folds of a Holy book and that’s what you will hear the priest inside say. Just outside the Vyas Gufa is the ‘Last tea stall’, so everyone was having tea and snacks there.

You walk back from the Vyas Gufa and a little ahead the village disappears to open up to the mountains and the cascading river Saraswati. There’s a beautiful idol of Maa Saraswati here. The Pandavas (Oh God, here we go again) seemed to have taken this route to go to heaven. And all along the Har Ki Doon trek, we were told exactly the same thing. In fact, our camp leader showed us the Swargarohini peak in the distance when we trekked to Vasudhara falls and I kept wondering as to what I saw on the Har Ki Doon trek then. Doesn’t matter. Anyway, so the Pandavas took this route and when their wife Draupadi found it difficult to cross the river, one of her husbands, Bhima pushed a rock to form a bridge for her to cross on the way to heaven and it is called the Bheem Pul. In fact, I liked two rock structures in the distance better than the Bheem Pul; they looked like kissing each other with the river flowing below them.

The people of Mana village wear traditional dresses especially the older ones and they don’t let you take their pictures. At least one wall of each house in the village has been exquisitely painted depicting mythological stories and characters. You cross the Bheem Pul and that leads you on to the path to Vasudhara falls. Only eight of us trekked to Vasudhara falls which is again easily a 5-6 km uphill trek with the river and mountains keeping you company on both sides. You walk along the valley crossing streams on the way. It is a strenuous trek but totally worth it. On the way back, I walked back along with our driver Monu had he had many local tales to tell.

The visit to Mana village and Vasudhara falls marked the end of our trek route. The next day we took the long ride back to Rishikesh covering about 300 km on the same scenic route. As we approached Rishikesh, we got a glimpse of 'Incredible India' as thousands of Shiv Bhakts (mostly from the neighbouring states) were all over the streets, walking, on their bikes, drinking, smoking and owning the place as it was MahaShivratri the day after! To make matters worse, for some inexplicable reason, most riders had transformed the silencers of their bikes to make them sound louder - only it ended up sounding like thousands of people farting together under water. When are we going to know the meaning of freedom and respect it and be a little civilized? I was just happy I hadn't gone ahead with my plan of staying a few days in Rishikesh; all of us were eager to get out of the irritating chaos.

It was an eventful trek, definitely not an easy one and thanks to Raghav, Aniruddh, Dheekshaa and the kids (Vibhav and Rishi), I had a great time. Cheers until the next one!

Maa Saraswati

Bheem Pul

Vasudhara Falls