Valley of Flowers Trek and Hemkund Sahib Trek
Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib Trek was our second couple trek, back in the days when our 2 monsters hadn’t joined us. As a family now, we undertake much easier treks (more like walks really). This trek is not advisable with younger children, although 13yrs+ may be able to manage it with frequent stops. Since horses/ ponies are available throughout the treks, one could possibly try with a little younger kids too.
Valley of Flowers india is one of the most spectacular natural beauties in India. The valley of flowers and hemkund sahib trek is like no other.
Check out this post to know all about Planning a Trek in Garhwal Himalayas including details on valley of flowers trek best time to do, what to pack etc.
Day1: Long Distance Travel
This is the first step to visiting Valley of flowers india.
Mumbai – Delhi – Haridwar
After landing in Delhi, we spent some time having dinner etc at the airport food court (sort of a place outside Delhi airport) and then headed to station to catch the train to haridwar. The day ended with a birthday celebration on the train.
Day 2: Landslides and natural disasters
For the Valley of flowers trek best time to visit is July-Aug. Unfortunately that is also the time for landslides and monsoons in Northern India.
Haridwar – Rishikesh – Srinagar (overnight stay at Srinagar)
As you can guess, this Srinagar is not the same Srinagar as the capital of Kashmir, rather a small town in Uttarakhand.
After landing at Haridwar we travelled to Rishikesh and checked in a hotel for freshening up and breakfast. We left for Joshimath at 10am by a 12 seater as we were 10 of us going for the trek. But as luck would have it, after seeing a landslide, a truck fall, a broken bridge and driving through water, we figured Srinagar was the farthest we could manage since Uttarakhand police authorities don’t allow driving in the mountains at night.
When going for a valley of flowers trek, plan with enough buffers for such detours.
Day 3: Jai Badri Vishal
People not from India would usually skip it and go directly for the valley of flowers India.
Srinagar – Badrinath (overnight stay at Badrinath)
After the morning stay at Srinagar and a good breakfast at GMVN, we headed for Badrinath. Reached by late afternoon, had lunch at the GMVN at Badrinath and went to visit the Badrinath temple in the evening. The temple has a great view of the Neelkanth peak which is snow clad all year round. The temple itself is a sight to behold. The brightly colorful temple is set against the lush green mountains and seems absolutely pristine. Badrinath, aka Bhu-Vaikuntha (the abode of Lord Vishnu on earth) is located between the Nar and Narayan mountain ranges.
Tapt Kund – hot sulfur springs in the Badrinath temple premises, which have therapeutic properties. Taking a bath in these springs is permitted and its seriously worth it. Although not many people would feel like having it due to unrestricted access unlike the onsens of Japans where people actually enter after taking a bath ensuring the cleanliness of the natural hot spring/ geyser.
Since Valley of Flower trek best time to do is Jul-Aug, its expected to get a wee bit cold due to monsoons and Tapt kund is totally something to look forward for.
Dinner at Badrinath GMVN was the best we had during our entire trip and we were treated with kheer as the dessert.
Day 4: Longest trekking day
The Valley of flowers and Hemkund sahib trek starts from here.
Badrinath – Mana and back – Joshimath – Govindghat – Ghangaria (overnight stay at Ghangaria)
Badrinath to Mana is a short distance of 5 km. Important point to note is that Badrinath to Joshimath is a one way road for the initial few km stretch. The entry from Badrinath on that road is restricted to specific half hour intervals thus leaving Badrinath has to be planned appropriately.
Early morning we left for the Mana village, which is the last village on the Indian side of the Indo Tibetan border. This village also boasts of the only one to inhabit the Indo Mongolian tribe.
Saraswati Udgam is an interesting sight for although Saraswati river is believed to have dried up and vanished the udgam still continues and another tributary of Ganges is seen to be flowing from here. A stone bridge structure balanced on one end by a small rock was the other captivating sight. All in all, Mana is a must do.
Tourism is the key economy in this region of Garhwal Himalayas and one can find even the small children asking for money in lieu of taking a photograph with them.
Continuing with the journey, we reached Govindghat around 11:30 where we paid for the parking of our vehicle for the next 3 days. We also hired horses/ ponies for carrying the luggage. And then began the 13km trek. 5 of us trekked for the entire stretch and felt it was every bit enjoyable. There are areas, wherein one treks very close to Alaknanda/Laxman Ganga and there are options to actually go down to the river to experience the fresh, clear and cold water. Don’t miss this opportunity.
After 6 hours, we finally made it to Ghangaria and the evening ended with a relaxing session of leg massage. Govindghat to Ghangaria is the first stretch in the Valley of Flowers trek.
A few pointers about Ghangaria – ensure getting reservation in GMVN in ghagaria just like the rest of Uttarakhand since the private hotels are quite bad. Ghangaria is a 4month place: People come from Govindghat and Joshimath for the tourist months of June – September to set up shops and run hotels and other temporary establishments. Electricity is a scarce commodity – limited to few hours in the morning (4:00 AM to 7:00 AM) and few in the evening (7:00PM to 10:00PM)
Day 5: Valley of Flowers: Nature at its serenest best
Ghangaria – Valley of Flowers and back (overnight stay at Ghangaria)
At about 10:00AM we left for Valley of flowers from Ghangaria. Everyone had suggested we carry some eatables with us as one doesn’t find even a single shop anywhere on the way to stop and munch on something (personally I loved that bit since someone is seriously trying to preserve the valley). We instead decided to have a heavy breakfast since the trek to VoF is an easy one and a shorter one too (5km). About 2 km before one reaches the valley and the flowers, there is a ticket and check booth that takes down your details and charges you entry into the valley; The trek to the valley is every bit as beautiful as the valley itself.
Couple of places to see in the valley are – the small memorial dedicated to Miss Margarate Legge, a botanist deputed by the botanical gardens of Edinburgh in 1939 who died while traversing some rocky slopes in the valley. This is about 2km into the valley and further down a few km is supposed to be some glacier which we could not see along with the memorial of the Margarate Legge as it was expected to rain while we were in the middle of the valley and had to return back to be able to reach the valley gates on time. One also crosses the Laxman Ganga river in the valley.
About the Flowers: different flowers have different blooming seasons. Though the valley is full of flowers but don’t go there expecting tulip beds like the ones seen in Netherlands. Flower beds are repetitive as expected and one has to look carefully to spot a new specie.
My learning from this trip: Always carry an extra pair of shoes and if that’s not possible, carry a couple of feviqwik tubes. Carrying a pair of crocs will also be alright as I trekked to Hemkund Sahib in my crocs after the sole (oul) of my shoes departed.
By the way, Feviqwik does works for sneakers if done properly.
Day 6: Hemkund Sahib, High altitude travel and Brahmakamal
Ghangaria – Hemkund Sahib and back (overnight stay at Ghangaria)
So while we did give repairing my shoes a shot, it did not stick for too long so I was left with my floaters for the extremely steep Hemkund Sahib trek. There is of course an option to take the ponies both for onward and return journey. However, do keep in mind that a steep decline on a horseback is not very comfortable.
Hemkund Sahib is at the altitude of over 14,000ft as compared to ghangaria which is at 9800ft. This altitude difference is covered in 6km which clearly gives the idea of incline in the trek.
Enroute, one sees some of the rare flowers (which are not seen in VoF), like the blue poppy (very high on medicinal value) and Brahmakamal – not found anywhere else.
The hemkund (literally meaning the lake of snow) is surrounded by mountains on 3 sides and on the fourth is the Gurudwara of Sri Hemkund Sahib. The site is a photographer’s delight. Despite the cold, one finds many people taking a dip in the holy waters of hemkund.
After visiting the Gurudwara, one can take the tea and khichdi offered as Prasad outside the Gurudwara which breathes in fresh life in the cold. The serving attitude of this community completely humbled me, seeing them serving Prasad and cleaning up afterwards in such bitter cold.
While in the Gurudwara, the head needs to be covered at all times and hence the gurudwara also provides a headscarf if required.
Day 7: A forced stay at Karnprayag
Ghangaria – Govindghat – Joshimath – Karnaprayag (overnight stay at Karnaprayag)
Finally after spending 3 nights at the shoddiest possible hotel, playing poker at night under the torch light interspersed with sessions of killer (game) and storytelling sessions (horror and otherwise) and general bakar, we were ready to leave back for Govindghat.
The trek back to Govindghat was downhill and we covered it in about 3 hours to reach our 12 seater as we headed back to Rishikesh/ Haridwar. It was a season of landslides and we faced a small traffic halt enroute forcing us to make a stopover at Karnaprayag. We all slept peacefully at Karnaprayag after a long and tiring day.
Day 8: Continuing the tradition of Run time change in travel plans
Karnaprayag – Rishikesh – Dehradoon (onboarded the train from Dehradoon to Delhi)
Early morning after having breakfast and admiring the garden behind the hotel we left for Haridwar. Enroute we realized this was the Kanwar time and so it was not possible for us to carry all our luggage and walk uptil the station from where our mini bus was going to drop us. So we decided to bug a friend who was putting up in Dehradoon and decided to catch our train from D’doon itself though our tickets were done from Haridwar. We finally managed to get back to Delhi in time for our flights back to Mumbai.
