Explore Himalayas: Valley of flowers

Valley Of Flowers National park   

Uttarakhand is well known for its Hindu pilgrimages like Haridwar & Rishikesh. This state is blessed with rich nature and beautiful mountains. It also contains many national parks like Jim Corbett national park, Rajaji national park, Gangotri natinal park, valley of flowers national park etc.   

                         

Valley of flowers, National park of Uttarakhand and UNESCO world heritage site is located in Chamoli district, Uttarakhand Near  Ghangharia & Joshimath town. This valley is declared a national park in 1982 and Now it is world heritage site. Valley of flowers is 20 km northwest of Nanda Devi National Park.

Why to visit valley of flowers ?

    

You must be thinking that what is special about this valley which is worth visit !! Valley of flowers is located in the lap of nature surrounding Magnificent mountains having diversity of both flora and fauna.Valley is known for  its lush green meadows, alpine flowers and the variety of flora. This area is very rich in diversity as it is a home to rare and endangered animals, including the Asiatic black bear,snow leopard, musk deer, brown bear, red fox, and blue sheep. Birds found in valley include Himalayan monal pheasant and other high altitude birds. Valley of flowers and Nanda Devi National Park Together, they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya.

When to visit valley ?

The park is open only in summer from June to October and rest of the year it is covered by heavy snow. The best time to visit Valley of Flowers depends upon your preference as the valley is beautiful all time. If you want to see maximum number of flowers and green meadows July and August is a best time, if you want to explore the hart stealing beauty of glaciers you should visit in June, to see Brahamkamal flowers at Hemkud August and September is a best time.

Brahmakamal

How to reach valley of flowers ?

One of the exciting thing to visit valley of flowers is its track. To reach Valley you have to do the tracking of 17 km. Nearest major town near valley is joshimath near Garhwal, which has convenient road connections from haridwar and dehradun about 270 km from joshimath.

From delhi one can take train to train to haridwara and then travel by bus to govindghat via Rishikesh.One can drive from Delhi to Govindghat a 500 km distance.

Govindghat, a small place close to joshimath from where the treck begins. From Govindghat, one can take shared taxis up to 4 km and then a trek of less than 11 km brings trekkers to Ghangaria, a small settlement located about 3 km from the valley of flowers.

If in case you can't track 11 km then you can hire a porter, mule or a helicopter to reach direct Ghanghariya.

If you are fit to make this track, do it because this track is full of amazing and exciting things.In this track one can find Sikh pilgrims, perfumed wild flowers, wild strawberries, water streams by the side of path.

Thing to remember: 

To visit valley of flowers visitors need to take permit from the forest department,at Ghangaria and the permit is valid for three days and visiting and trekking is allowed only during day time. visitors are not allowed to stay inside the National park, accommodation can be available at Ghangaria. The best time to visit is between July and early September, when the valley is full of flowers, just after the outbreak of monsoon.

GALLERY:

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