In today's era of increasing gap between the youth and elders, it has become very difficult to decide on a family trips. On one side where the youth is more fond of adventure, road trips and adrenaline rush while the elders are aligned towards divine trips, giving a boost to their faith and making it all count towards their belief in the end.
Uttarakhand is said to be the land of God's... Also termed as the 'DevBhoomi' in India... It is said that covering all the pilgrimage in uttarakhand is equivalent to covering the abodes in India. However, practically covering these pilgrimage in uttarakhand itself is much more difficult than covering the whole India.
Well it is basically due to the remoteness of the location, rugged mountain terrain, lack of oxygen at such an altitude, difficult routes and inviable wheather. But still people choose this harder path in the faith of the almighty and cover these pilgrimages. Well covering all of them in one go is next to impossible in present lightening speed era where men is not able to catch a breathe of relaxation due to fear of lagging behind in the race called life. But yes one can definitely sneak out for a while to cover them in bits and pieces, taking a break from race and get some fresh air.
So in order to plan for a family trip which should have something for all generations, a trip to uttrakhand is bet bait. It has a combo of destiny as pilgrim's for the elders while the journey full of adventures for youth. On the same pretext, We decided for a family trip to one of the most precious pilgrim: Badrinath. Badrinath being the farthest pilgrim in uttrakhand has the best to offer for both adventure and nature.
For starting a trip to uttrakhand, Delhi can be the best start point for people coming from any part of the country or world. Since uttrakhand is in the lap of Himalayas, hence raods are the only way to reach these places (all the more reason for best road trips possible). Although one can always reach till places like Haridwar, Dehradun or Kotdwara through Train to start their road trip but Delhi can offer considerable variety and cost effectiveness for hiring vehicles.
we started our journey in evening after finishing our days work and to capitalise on the limited holidays that we got. To reach Badrinath one has to go via rudraprayag. There are mainly two ways to reach rudraprayag. One is through Haridwar - rishikesh while other is through kotdwara- pauri.
One must remember the time of month of the trip for choosing the route carefully. If you are planning to go before the opening of pilgrim's which generally starts by the end of April then one must use the kotdwara-pauri route as every year construction work commence on Haridwar - Rishikesh route before summer season. Hence to avoid the road blocks and hours of jam kotdwara-pauri can be best alternative. We reach kotdwara by night after a 6 hours long journey. Checked in our hotel and took rest.
Next morning after having early breakfast, we proceed our journey. Kotdwara is at the foothills of Himalayas and the last town in plain terrain in this area. The route via pauri is the road less taken and more near and dear to nature. The road is very smooth and driving on this route has it's own adventure and pleasure altogether...
The Five 'Prayags'...!!
The trip to Badrinath is also very special as one will witness the five famous prayags of uttrakhand (confluence of rivers) i.e Devprayag, Rudraprayag, Karanprayag, Nandprayag and vishnuprayag. At these places major rivers of uttrakhand merge to make the deity Ganges.
Although the Devprayag can be witness only on the Haridwar- Rishikesh route but rest of the prayags can be very well visited through both routes.At Devprayag the official Ganges from the confluence of alaknanda and bhagirathi rivers.
After crossing Srinagar(yes uttrakhand has it's own Srinagar too) on kotdwara- pauri route, we reach rudraprayag by afternoon. Rudraprayag is a very small town which is at the confluence of mandakini and alaknanda rivers. At the confluence there is a ancient Temple of Lord Shiva which has the evening prayer everyday. The temple in front of the mighty rivers merging in best of their turbulent form is itself a view to remember. The small town has all of it's peace and sanctity to offer. So feeling the same and remembering the morning full of talking with the mountains enroute, we had quick bite and proceeded further to our destination as mountains had yet to talk a lot in the rest of the day.
Our next stop was again a confluence of alaknanda and pindar river. The confluence is not as turbulent as Rudraprayag but the Karn Temple has it's own aura altogether. The temple is on the road itself and one must visit the temple before moving ahead. The cold breeze at the temple has its own charm and surprise seeing the difference in air from the road and the very little distance between them.
After spending sometime at the temple we head towards joshimath our destination of the day.
On our way to joshimath we crossed the fourth prayag: nandaprayag. It is at the confluence of of again almighty alaknanda and Nandakini rivers. Although it doesn't have a temple at the confluence but the location is picturesque. We didn't halt at the location as we had to reach joshimath.
The rest of the journey to joshimath is like a maze inside the mountains in which we we're gaining height and forested mountains we're now being replaced by the rocky Meadows. Once crossing chamoli town the mighty rocky mountains started to have snowy tips like a vanilla tip on chocolate ice creams. The climb started to become more and more steep and curvy as we were closing in with joshimath.
The surprise arises at joshimath. Normally people going to Badrinath stay at joshimath but just 10 km ahead of joshimath is a wonderlust village Auli. Joshimath is at an altitude of 6000-7000 fts while just 10 km of drive will take you to an altitude of 9000 fts, So much closer to the snow clad mountains.
Hence one can always choose to stay at auli instead of joshimath to have optimum feel of the nature and snow.
Auli is famous for it's offbeat small trekks, skiing and ropeway. If you plan your trip in winter's till early April you can be lucky enough to try your luck on skiing as well. But after mid April the snow layer in auli is not so dense to support skiing.
We were lucky to be reaching auli at the time of sunset. The splendid view of sun touching the tip of the mountains and shining them as gold was breathtaking.you can always find all the answers of why uttrakhand is a paradise on the map of India if you visit it once.
Being a high altitude location with lack of oxygen and elders (remember we are on a family trip), we resign to our beds after having a quite dinner.
We started our day early in the morning as the sun was over the head by 0600Hrs and after having a quick bite we moved towards the first destination of the day. Vishnu Prayag was the last or we can say the first prayag from the glacier joining the mighty Alaknanda and Dhauliganga. The place was just too quite and calm composed as compared to any other prayag. It was also devoid of any market area in the nearby vicinity. Hence, one can always enjoy the sanctity of this place. when visiting vishnuprayag one should make an endeavor to go to the bottom of the temple towards the sangam and enjoy the magnetic view of thundering river meeting each other and giving you an adrenaline rush.
The next destination should be the hanuman chatti which also holds the check post for the Badrinath Dham. one has to make entry at this gate. while the youngsters are making the entry, the elders can always make visit the to the famous Hanuman Temple.
Finally moving towards the Badrinath Dham, one always encounters the steep treacherous turns which has now made onto a class X highway for the devotees. This road construction has made the drive extremely rejuvenating. After a series of turns and crossing iced waterfalls and various similar views one reaches the badrinath village which is equally spread along the river alaknanda. The Temple is visible quite remarkably from far away and therefore one gets decent amount of time to pry of its beauty. Since the gates of the temple were still not opened, we could the visit in quite repose. After visiting the temple we had adequate time to near the bridge badrinath which offers quite a beautiful falls of alaknanda river.
The Mana Village is the last village of India where habitation resides in that region. After that village there are 60kms of barren mountains reaching upto Mana Pass on India China Border. Hence, One should not miss the opportunity to visit this place when on Badrinath Trip. Just after half an hour drive from badrinath, we reached this place which was located as in the lape of barren mountains all around. There was an ITBP camp also present at the location distinctly visible across the river. The village was shut only few shops were open as the locals move to joshimath in winter season. But many people return by the month of april and one can atleast enjoy the hot cup of tea in this land of lamas. The Heritage of this village is quite distinct and one should behave responsibly in maintaining the same.
After the quaint visit to the end of the country, we moved back towards Auli while having a garhwali lunch at a dhaba in Joshimath. These dhabas making the traditional garhwali cuisine are worth tasting at an unimaginable reasonable rate. We also halted at Topoban taking a small detour. The hot water spring here is always a question of mystery but unfortunately, people have converted this sacred place into some kind of bay. On returning to our guest room, we witnessed the lovely dusk with shining snow peaks and sharpening breezes.
The next day was awaiting for a long journey back home and at the same time, we had to see the artificial lake of Auli. So we started in the morning after checking out and witnessed the lake on the top. one can also go for ropeway tour from there till joshimath and back which is around more then an hour tour.
The enthusiast can drift towards 5-6 kms long lush green trekk of Gorson Bugiyal amidst the meadows. The trekk has more than 12 View points in the route where one can take a breath. It also has a temple enroute. The best way for the family is to give elders a ropeway ride while youngsters can sweat it out on the trail. The Skiing is also available here for the adventure love buds but one has to lookout for the season very particularly due to requirement of fresh snow.
After this phenomenal journey, we bid adios to Auli and uttrakhand, enjoying this break in our mundane life where something was the there to enjoy for each age group making it the best Family trip Destination.
