IITK90 Trek to Valley of Flowers, Hemkund, Vasudhara Falls and Garsaun Bugyal – Uttarakhand

The prayag below is Devprayag which we reached around 11.00 am. We picked up Deepak and Rashmi Jain, as well as Ashutosh and Meenal Goel from there. In this prayag, the muddy river to the right is Alaknanda (it is a very turbulent river) and the river on the left is Bhagirathi (a quiet river). Downstream it becomes Alaknanda.

We saw Panchaprayag on our way from Rishikesh to Pandukeshwar.  Devprayag, Karnaprayag, Vishnuprayag, Nandprayag and Rudraprayag.
Reached our hotel in Pandukeshwar at 7.45 pm.

Saturday, Sep 15: Pulna to Ghangharia – 11.6 km
We started at 7.15 am in the morning from our hotel in Pandukeshwar. We drove for about 4 km from Pandukeshwar to Pulna, a place close to Govindghat. Pulna is where our trek to Ghangaria started.

Starting the trek from Pulna to Ghangaria. Trek started at about 9 am. Total trek distance was about 11.6 km.

The total moving time for the trek was about 4 hours with about 1.5 hours for lunch.

Reached Ghangaria around 2.30 pm.

Our hotel in Ghangharia, much like a hostel wing.

No phone coverage, so lots of chitchat.

Bonfire in the evening. Antakshari plus games conducted by RK Ranjan and Deepak Jain.

Sunday, Sep 15: Trek to Valley of Flowers
Trek from Ghangharia to the Valley of Flowers. This  mouth of the valley is below if the Khunt Khal glacier. The end of the valley is below the Tipra glacier.

The trek went from Ghangharia at 10,000 ft to Valley of Flowers at 11,500 ft. The distance from Ghanghari to the mouth of the the Valley was about 3.5 km and the distance from the mouth of the valley through the valley till the riverbed was about 5 km. Total trek distance was 17 km.

Starting at 7 am from Ghangharia.

Flowers along the way.

Pushpavati river. Flowing from the Tipra glacier all the way to Ghangharia.

521 species of flowers in the Valley. Some very interesting flowers. This is a cobra lily. If you touch the cobra lily and then touch your tongue, then the tongue swells up. It has some poisonous and allergic reaction.

At the riverbed. In front is the Tipra peak. The water in the river was freezing cold. We could not keep our feet in the water for more than 10 seconds.

We ate lunch at the riverbed.

Monday, September 17: Ghangharia to Hemkund Trek

The trek from Ghangharia to Hemkund was 6.7 km one way, with an elevation gain of 4,300 ft from 10,000 ft in Ghanghari to 14,300 ft at Hemkund Sahib Gurudwara. The trek took 3.15 hours to climb and a similar time to come back.

Started out at 7 am.

Lots of sikh devotees climbing. Some of them without footwear. Cries of “Jo bole so nihaal, sat sri akal” were heard throughout during the trek.

In front of Hemkund,

The location where Guru Gobind Singh meditated at Hemkund.

Hemkund Sahib Gurudwara. The langar at Hemkund Sahib was amazing. Kadhi pakoda, rice and kheer. Too good.

There is also a Laxman mandir next to the Gurudwara. Laxman is supposed to have meditated here as well.

With the Himalaya Heaven team Pavan, Deepak, Manoj and Dinesh.

On the way back from Hemkund to Ghangharia.

Tuesday, Sep 18: Ghangharia to Pulna Trek

The trek back from Ghangharia to Pulna was just a way to get back. It was 11.7 km.

A little 5 year old cute girl being carried by a porter on the way down.

Modeling poses recommended by KC Joshi 🙂

Relaxation after the trek. Pakodas, paneer and snacks in Pandukeshwar.

Wednesday, September 19: Vasudhara Falls, Mana


Now that we had done 4 days of trekking, we were under the impression that the hardest part was done and now it was easy walking for the next two days. The trek to Vasudhara Falls falsified that expectation 🙂

We started from Pandukeshwar early morning and stopped first at Hanuman Chatti. This is the location where Bhim’s pride about being the strongest was crushed by Hanuman. Bhim could not even move Hanuman’s tail. Read more about this cool story.

From there, we drove to Badrinath. Badrinath is one the locations of the Char Dham, which are Badrinath, Dwarka, Puri and Rameshwaram. The Chota Char Dham are Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamnotri, Gangotri. Badrinath is the temple of Vishnu.  In most vehicles, we see “Jai Badri Vishal” written on it.

From Badrinath, we drove on to Mana village. This is the last village in India before the Tibet border which is about 40 km away.

A baba that we saw at the start of the trek, serving you know what 🙂

Bhimpul, a rock put by Bhim (from Mahabharat) put in place to create a bridge over river Saraswati. Saraswati river starts just before this bridge and ends within 500 meters and appears again at Allahabad at the Triveni sangam. The story is that as the Pandavas, weary from war, had decided to to do “deh-tyag”, this is the route to Vasudhara falls on which they did it. Draupadi gave up her body in the river Saraswati who was supposed to be her mother.

Manikarnika parbat, named after Yudhisthir’s horse Manikarnika. Apparently, you can make out the horse pattern in the mountain.

Reached Vasudhara falls. The trek was about 5.7 km one way and an elevation gain of almost 2,000 ft. It was an awesome achievement.

Btw, Vasudhara falls is where Arjun gave up his mortal body.

Modern-day Bhim taking a refreshing bath in the ice cold falls.

In the background is “Swarg – aarohini” mountain, where Yudhisthir ascended to heaven. Yama came to take him in the form of a dog.

This trek was particularly interesting with the story of the Pandavas who gave up their mortal body at various spots.

The trek was a total of 11.4 km back and forth.

On the way back from Vasudhara falls, Pravin motivated the team to pick up the garbage left by previous people who visited. The team managed to pick up almost 2 bags full of garbage. Kudos to Pravin’s initiative and the team’s efforts!

In the evening, we drove from Mana village to Joshimath (about 2 hour drive).

Thursday, September 20: Auli, Garsaun Bugyal, Joshimath
We started on Joshimath at around 8 am and drove to Auli, which is a well known ski resort in Uttarakhand. We picked up a ski-lift from Auli. This is the view from the Ski lift.

Then we started climbing to Garsaun Bugyal (Bugyal means an alpine meadow, no trees, on green grass and wildflowers). The trek was 2.3 km one way and took about 1.15 hrs.

During the small trek, we encountered a temple where the fable is that if you sleep alone there at night, when you wake up next morning, you will find yourself in a completely different place, far away.

The views from the Bugyal were stunning. We saw Nandadevi (the second highest peak in India after Kanchenjunga). We also saw Dronagiri (famous of the Sanjeevani Booti that Hanuman looked for to revive Laxman) and Hathi Ghodha Palkhi parbat.

We came back to Joshimath around 4 pm. We then went to Narsimha temple in Joshimath.

We also visited a “muth” set up by Adi Shankaracharya.

This was the end of our 6-day itinerary. We did about 70 km of trekking in those 6 days, pretty serious trekking indeed!

Those were wonderful days. The 25 member team bonded very well, we spent a lot of time chatting and in group settings.

I look forward to more such treks soon.

Friday, September 21: Joshimath -> Bhimtal for IITK90 Weekend Reunion

We started from Joshimath at 5.15 am on Friday, Sep 21. We reached Hotel Harshikar (pronounced Har Shikhar) at around 4.40 pm almost an 11 hour journey by tempo traveler on fairly small roads.

Hotel Harshikhar was on the Bhimtal lake with stunning views.

The reunion ended on Sunday, Sep 23. We flew back to Pune with fond memories of the trek.