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Valley of Flowers Trek - Part 3 - The Valley

Uttarakhand 15 Sep 2020 Blog 949

Abdullah Alam

15 Sep 2020

Part 3 of 3, of my Valley of Flowers travel blog. This part is the main blog post, outlining the experience of visiting the valley, along with several photographs. Visit part 0 for links to other parts.

After a night's stay in Ghangharia, under clear skies after a beautiful day, it was time to visit the valley. And, as luck would have it, it begun raining the night before. Overnight, the temperature dropped to single digits, and in the morning that followed, the surrounding mountain tops were covered in snow. Unlike the previous few days, the weather changed drastically, and there was fog all around. Visibility dropped considerably.

The mountains dipping in and out of the dense fog offered views like this for short glimpses before disappearing again.

I had woken up at 5 in the morning, hoping to begin the trek as soon as possible. However, looking at the weather, I decided to wait. After two hours, by 7 AM, I gave up, and decided to visit the valley no matter what; if not the valley, at least I'll be able to see the exotic flowers.

The entry checkpoint to the valley is about 2-3km from Ghangharia. Here, you need to provide a valid ID (discounts available if you're a student), buy a ticket (₹150), and register your name and check-in time. You are informed to exit by 5 PM, and if you don't, they will come looking for you. Staying in the valley overnight and camping in there, is strictly forbidden.

The path from the checkpoint to the valley crosses powerful rivers and beautiful thick greenery.

By a stroke of luck, as I began hiking, the sun came out and cut right through the fog. The dense dark clouds dissipated into smaller chunks casually floating by at eye level rather than obscuring the scene, almost adding character to it. As the clouds broke up, peepholes formed through which one could cath glimpses of distant meadows and glaciers, teasing for a moment before disappearing again.

Valley of Flowers Uttarakhand Water flowing under frozen river

Remnant frozen ice over a flowing river

Often one had to cross clumsy little bridges like this over streams.

Slowly, but surely, the weather opened up to clear blue skies with a lot of clouds defusing the harsh sunlight into a soft glow illuminating the surrounding vistas. The valley is almost 7-8km long, and not really possible to complete if you are exploring, resting, and clicking a lot of pictures (like I did); you simply cannot reach the end in one day. I went as far as I could till 2 PM, then turned back.

Once the clouds opened up a bit, the views of the valley were absolutely breathtaking.

Although it was nearly peak season, there were very few people in the valley.

Unlike the flowers most of us are probably familiar with, the flowers in this valley are tiny. They are like small colorful dots across the landscape. However, in camera, they simply look like image artifacts over green mountains, rather unimpressive to look at. The beauty of the place is hard to capture with a camera. Though I've tried my best, the photographs do not do justice to the experience of actually being there.

This place has all the colors of nature. Greenery, white snow, barren brown mountains, wet rocky black and brown sheers, and flowers covering up every other color in between.

The flowers. The main attraction of this place. The valley lies at the changeover between the Garwhal foothills and the proper Himalayas, creating a unique microclimate suitable for very specific flowers at very specific times of the year. These flowers are highly sensitive to the precise climate (and perhaps exygen level) of the region; the locals claim to have tried to regrow the same plants down at Joshimath, and they died out very soon.

Here are some of the flowers found in the valley:

And that, concludes my trek to the Valley of Flowers.

While certainly not a technically challenging hike or trek by any measure, it is an incredibly beautiful place to visit, surely deserves a spot on your bucket list.