Valley of Flowers Trek

Trek with Renok Adventures with their special batch for Photography to Valley off Flowers Trek

crisscrossingindia

Nestled high in the West Himalaya,India’s valley of flowers national park is renowned for its meadow of endemic alpine flowers and outstanding natural beauty. This richly diverse area is also home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic clack bear, snow leopard, brown bear and blue sheep. The gentle landscape of the valley of flowers national park complements the rugged mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi national park, inscribed on the world heritage list in 1988. Together they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya, praised by mountaineers and botanists for over a century and in Hindu mythology for much longer.

This hidden treasure or Nature’s beautiful secret was revealed to British mountaineers Frank S. Smythe and Mr. R L Holdsworth on 9^th July 1931, when they reached here after a successful expedition of Mount Kamet. Drawn…

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A Special Trek To The Valley Of Flowers

By Jai (written for Kissan’s Nature’s Friend Contest)

trek-to-the-valley-of-flowers

The trek to the Valley of flowers is an experience you can enjoy with your family as the trek is along a well laid. Till Ghangaria the trek route is the same for the Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib. So, if you want to do this trek with kids you will get porters on the way who can carry them in a Palki(a sort of Palanquin). Your kids can sit in them or you can put your daypack and other supplies in them.

The second batch of Valley of flowers batch was a special one for me. There were two families who were joining us and they were bringing their kids along with them.

One family was from Gurgaon and were bringing their 8-year-old daughter Gauri and the other family from Nashik were bringing their son Avadhut who was 6 years old. Initially I was a little skeptical because this was the first time I would take kids for the Valley of Flowers trek. But I soon realized that my skepticism was ill-founded as the kids, to my surprise slowly but surely fell in love with the beauty of the Valley of flowers.

avadhut

We started our trek early and hired Palki’s for the children. Throughout our trek both of them were very talkative and kept telling me stories about their friends and school. But after we crossed the first village,Bhuyandar, on the trek they started telling us that they wanted to get off the Palki’s and wanted to trek. So we relented as you so often have to with kids and they started the trek to the valley of flowers. But soon they realised that the trek was beyond their limits and we put them back in their Palkis again. After some time we stopped at a safe point where you can feel the river water. This was the time where I became acquainted with the exploratory traits of Avadhut. As soon as he was out of the palki he was unstoppable. He was jumping from one rock to another.

Through the trek I became very protective of him and always kept an eye on him. Generally I have seen that kids are afraid of ice cold water but Avadhut  was enjoying getting wet in the ice-cold water of the Laxman Ganga River. After spending about half an hour resting we continued on our trek to the Valley of Flowers. Avadhut was sitting comfortably in his palki while Gauri was walking slowly with her Mom and Dad during this phase of the trek.

 

The next day we continued on our trek to the Valley Of Flowers and after a short trek reached the starting of the national park(a big boulder and a stream marks the starting point of the Valley Of Flowers National Park). At the starting point Avadhut and Guari quickly got off their palkis in excitement. Their faces were blooming like all the flowers around us.The children one moment were dancing and playing in the drizzle in their ponchos and another moment were staring at the beautiful flowers in the park..They were so enamored with this Himalayan version of the Garden of Eden that they  threw a fuss when we were leaving.

 

blue-poppy-on-our-trek-to-the-Valley-Of-Flowers

This was a memorable trek to the Valley Of Flowers for all of us but especially for me as I had always been skeptical about kids that age being able to really appreciate nature. I was wrong.

 

Jaipur Trekking and Cooking

Trekking in Jaipur Go fish

Jaipur too is surrounded by hills and as a trekking aficionado I though of trekking to one of the hills cook food and return. So I called few of friends and children and made a plan to trek a hill near malviya nagar with red beacon light on top of it.

All set packed my backpack with all the supplies for the maiden Jaipur trek raw chicken as our chef was very gung ho about it and all sort of spices. Four of us started the trek near the Jaipur shooting range. It was raining and we all were excited to see the Jeep Safari that to in Rajasthan till now we have seen waterfall in my Himalayan Trek – Valley of Flowers. This was wonderful. Initially we didn’t face any difficulty as we were trekking on the trails made by shephers and their cattle but after sometime it became difficult because all the trees were full of thorns. We kept walking and finally we reached our destination the Red Beacon light.

Anil & Rajesh resting after the so called hardest trek for them

Our Stove which failed and we cook our chicken on makeshift chulha

My multifuel stove which ditched us when we required it most …and then we went in to the jungle to collect wood and we were afraid that we will not get good dry wood but we were lucky we got lot of them.

Our Chef – Anil and our Chulha

Cooking and chatting It was no less then any of the best cooking shows and on top of that it was a lesson learnt in how to cook without a stove.

Yummmmmm It was fun to cook there

Our Guest

The Red Beacon light cage….first time we saw it so close Trekking

 

Go Trekking or Jeep Safari with Renok Adventures

Go Trekking or Jeep Safari with Renok Adventures

 

How to do Valley of Flowers Trek

Valley of Flowers is a national park and The UNESCO world heritage site located in the Uttarakhand and about 250 Kms from Haridwar. I am writing this article because there are lot of adventure seekers like me wants to do this trek on their own but are lost in this e-wilderness of internet.

Guide to do Valley of Flowers trek on your own.

Reach Haridwar

First of all reach Haridwar from Delhi by bus or by train and best is reaching Haridwar by train start around 12 in the midnight from Delhi and reach Haridwar by early 5 am. After reaching Haridwar get fresh’n up at railway station and have tea outside railway station.

Route Map

Reach Govindghat:

Govindghat is the starting point of Valley of flowers trek. To reach Govindghat catch a GMOU (Garhwal Motor Owners Union) operated  bus “The Vishwanath Sewa” just outside the railway station towards Haridwar bus stand and other options is to hire a taxi. It takes around 10 hours to reach Govindghat. After reaching Govindghat stay in a Hotel at Hotel Bhagat (Deluxe Rooms for Rs 1950 Ph 9412936360). Relax for next day’s trek and alternatively explore the local area.

Hotel Bhagat Govind Ghat

Trek to Ghangaria

Start early from Govindghat to Ghangaria. Ghangaria is a small town with few hotels, restaurant and a Gurudwara which serves as the basecamp to the trek of Valley of Flowers and Hemkund Sahib. No mobile networks here. You can book GMVN hotel through their website.

Flowers in Valley of Flowers

Trek to Valley of Flowers

Get your lunch packed and start early to enjoy the heaven on earth. After trekking for about 1 kms there is a entry gate for Valley of flowers and pay your entry fee which is Rs. 150 per person. After this gate you will start witnessing the different type of flowers and do forget to hire a botanist with you to get the detailed information about the various flowers in the valley of Flowers. After trekking for 3 Kms you will reach first wooden bridge and there lies a big rock which marks the starting point of the valley of flowers. You can trek upto Tipra Kharak and but generally Trekkers trek upto the Margaret Legge’s memorial grave. You can have your lunch here and return to Ghangaria. Do keep a check on your time and if its raining the water level increases drastically in the streams you crossed, so keep that in mind too.

Trek to Hemkund Sahib or trek back to Govindghat

Next day you can trek to Hemkund Sahib which 6 Kms of steep trek and takes around 5 – 7 hours and remember to reach there before the “Antim Ardas” which happens at around 2 “O” Clock.

This will help you to do Valley of flowers trek on your own and the other option is to book fixed departures of Renok Adventures for Just Rs 9000 per person all inclusive from Haridwar and make trek buddies during the valley of flowers trek.

Cheers !!