Valley Of Flowers Trek

Valley of Flowers, a UNESCO world heritage site is located at chamoli district in Uttarakhand. It is famous among nature lovers for its natural beauty. The best time to visit is in the month of July and August. Around 300 species of flowers bloom at this period of the year.

This is my first long trek and it was totally worth it!!

How to reach Valley of Flowers?

By bus: You can board a bus to Joshimath from Rishikesh, Haridwar or Dehradun. It takes around 8-9 hours to reach Joshimath, or you can also take a bus to Rudraprayag or Karnaprayag and then take a connecting bus to Joshimath. The bus fare will be around ₹500-₹600 per person. The buses leave between 4 A.M - 9 A.M.No bus leaves after 9 A.M.

By train: The nearest station is the Dehradun railway station. You can later opt for a bus or taxi from Dehradun.

By taxi: You can hire a taxi from Dehradun, Rishikesh or Haridwar to Joshimath. Taxi charges are between ₹4000-₹6000.

But if you are a budget traveller, you can hire shared taxis. Shared taxis charge around ₹600-₹800 per person. They take upto eight people in a taxi. One cannot assure about the shared taxis because, if they do not find enough people then he may not start the journey. You may have to wait for a longer time until the taxi fills up and by that time if you change your mind and opt for the bus, the buses may have left the place and your entire day would be wasted.

By flight: The nearest airport is the Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun. And yet again you can opt for a taxi or bus to Joshimath.

So let me share the experience of my journey

Rishikesh -> Joshimath -> Govind ghat -> Pulna -> Gangharia -> Valley of Flowers

Day 1

We ( me and my husband) started off our journey from Rishikesh. The direct bus to Joshimath had already left so we had to board the bus to Karnaprayag at 7 A.M from the ISBT bus stand. We were so excited and mesmerised by those mountains, the blue sky and the ganga river flowing on one side along the route.

Around 2 P.M we got down at Karnaprayag. A bus to Joshimath was already waiting, so we got into it. It was lunch time, we were already starving, we had some snacks but we needed more!! There were roadblocks everywhere, the journey was getting too slow. At some point there were blocks for hours. It took us nearly 15 hours to reach Joshimath (Rishikesh-Joshimath), we were totally exhausted and finally reached at 10 P.M . We checked into a hotel that we already booked, had dinner at restaurant nearby and dozed off.

Day 2

We got up early and had breakfast in the same restaurant and started off to Govind ghat. The only means to reach Govind ghat is through shared taxi from Joshimath. There’s a separate taxi stand where you can find taxis waiting to leave to Govind ghat, Badrinath and Auli. It takes around an hour to reach Govind ghat. The journey was too beautiful. Govind ghat is a tiny village. There’s also a gurudwara in Govind ghat.We visited the gurudwara and had some tasty langar.Note that you need to carry raincoats and trekking sticks along the trek. Raincoats are available in Govind ghat for ₹20 and ₹40(use and throw) and also for ₹500(Good quality). Trekking sticks costs ₹20 which will be very helpful.On reaching Govind ghat you will find a helipad where the helicopter services are available upto Ghangaria. It costs around ₹1500-₹2000 per person or you can take a shared taxi to Pulna village(upto were it is motorable). The actual trekking to Ghangaria starts from Pulna. The distance from Pulna to Ghangaria is 11kms.For those who find difficult to trek can hire a pony or porters who would charge ₹3000 - ₹5000 per person. Ofcoarse bargaining works!!But the real fun is trekking by yourself. It is a medium level trek. Carry only things that are really necessary. We were carrying a 50l rucksack which was a huge mistake, 20kgs felt like 100kgs. If you got some luggage you can deposit them at the gurudwara in Govind ghat.The trek to Ghangaria basecamp is so enchanting, you come across huge mountains, valleys, waterfalls and also the river. You ll see many sikhs trekking along, all of them are headed towards Hemukund Sahib which is a diversion from Ghangaria. People visiting VoF are very less, almost 90% of the people are visiting Hemkund Sahib which is considered to be their piligrimage place. There is also a gurudwara at Hemkund Sahib.It kept drizzling the entire day, the raincoats were really useful. There are shops for every one km where you can have some tea, Maggie, biscuits or cold drinks.It took upto 6-7 hours to reach Ghangaria with a medium speed. Ghangaria is a small basecamp with some rooms and restaurants. You will find many options for rooms and bargaining works here too. There is no power in Ghangaria, but they do switch on the generators for some time when you can charge your cellphones. And also you will not find any cellular network except for BSNL. But some shops have telephone lines who charge ₹10/ minute. The place gets freaking cold at night that you can’t step out of your room.

Day 3

It was morning and we couldn’t move out of the bed . We couldn’t step onto the floor with barefoot as it was so cold like the floor has freezed or something. Somehow we managed to get fresh, had breakfast at a restaurant nearby and headed upto the most awaited destination “ Valley of Flowers “ . VoF is 5kms and Hemkund Sahib is 7kms from the base camp. It takes 2-3 hours to reach VoF. Porters are available from Ghangaria. The true beauty was trekking to VoF. You find different species of flowers along the way, i was mesmerised by the gorgeous beauty of nature. I must say it was like heaven on earth!! It was worth all the pain trekking up there. The snow caped mountains, misty grasslands, the flowers, i just couldn’t get off my eyes. We also saw so many Blue poppies, Ruby,Marsh marigold, Lillium which are found only in VoF. Carry your own food because you will not find anything up there. We left back spending enough time to Ghangaria, had dinner and dozed off. For those who are willing to trek Hemkund Sahib can do it the next day. We had some time constraints so that was out of our plan.

Day 4

We planned to leave back early in the morning since it starts raining in the afternoon. We started at 5 A.M and reached Pulna at 9 A.M. It takes only 4 hours while trekking down. The weather was pleasant so we could get back soon. Reached Govind ghat and we were starving as hell, so we had langar at the gurudwara. Since we trekked back early we planned to visit Badrinath which is only 25kms from Govind ghat.You can also visit Auli which is 30kms from Govind ghat which is famous for skiing, rope way ride trekking etc(seasonal winter activities).