The Devbhoomi Uttarakhand has a special place in everyone’s heart because of its proximity to Himalayas, the stories of Mahabharat, many religious places with great history and scenic beauty. It was our time now to explore this lovely state giving a proper time to all the major places to enjoy the most out of it. The time was October and I’d say this is the best among all to explore Uttarakhand.
Journey to Haridwar
As Usual we reached Delhi as planned from Bangalore as it was convenient to reach Haridwar. As mentioned in the previous blogs, Haridwar/Rishikesh is the entry point to all major spots in Uttarakhand. We took Shatabdi to Haridwar and reached there by evening. Just roamed around to see pilgrims from all over India of all ages. We halted there at night near the bus stand to take an early morning bus to Sonprayag, as our plan was to reach Kedarnath first.
Journey to Kedarnath
We got up sharp at 4, very excited to start the trek, headed towards the bus stand and took an early bus, starting our journey. The roads were silent, but filled totally with all the buses to Sonprayag, Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri everywhere. The starting stretch of the journey was kind of boring, but the real fun started as we crossed Rishikesh.
Beauty of the Mountains
We were now going around the huge mountains and reached Devprayag, the origin of River Ganga, which is an absolute beauty to watch out for. The road ahead was parallel to the river Bhagirathi, which made the journey very beautiful. The rare sightings of snow capped mountains was such a beauty to watch out for.
The Base Camp
After a long journey we finally reached Sonprayag, took a hotel, freshened up, had a good lunch and all set for the trek after placing our luggage properly. With a lot of enthusiasm, we took a jeep to Gaurikund and started our trek with trek poles on the way. It was almost 4 PM and we covered almost 2 kms of the trek after which the police stopped us and said due to heavy snowfall, we couldn’t go ahead and sent us back from there.
Change in the Plan
We were frustrated and our entire plan was spoiled as we had a huge 25 day plan lined up in the coming days. We had to start the trek next morning and it would cost us another day as it’s not possible to return back on the same day. Without any option we came back to the same hotel which we had booked in Sonprayag.
After dinner, we did a bit of brainstorming and went ahead with our further plan to visit Chopta Tungnath and then come back to visit Kedarnath. The only reason was if we’d start the trek early in the morning, we’d reach the top by afternoon/evening and it’s not possible to return back by night, so the next entire day would be lost. As you’ll know only day journeys are feasible in those areas.
Ideal Kedarnath Trek Plan
Our ideal plan was to start the trek by afternoon, reach by night, stay there, attend morning aarti, darshan and return by evening. Have a good sleep and continue ahead the next morning. So we changed our plan and straight away went to Chopta Tungnath, reached the top by afternoon, came back by night and stayed at a small hotel in Chopta.
Journey to Kedarnath Again
The next day we started our journey towards Sonprayag to start the trek by afternoon and completed our trek as expected. So we actually face a lot of such troubles here and there on our trip, but it’s very important to remain calm, analyze the situation and come up with an alternate plan keeping in mind all the edge cases with respect to the alternate plan. I’d describe our experience of both the treks in a separate blog.
