Valley of Flowers Trek

Duration: 04 Nights 05 Days
Places Covered: Rishikesh - Rudraprayag - Chamoli - Joshimath - Valley of Flowers - Chamoli - Rishikesh

The Valley of Flowers trek gives a feeling as if you are entering a Fairyland. Once you reach the valley of flowers, you will have to cross a check post after entering your names in the register, and paying a nominal fee. After this, you will find a stream coming down from the left, and one has to cross it over a makeshift bridge. The path goes down, and there is an iron bridge over the Pushpawati River. The sight of exotic flowers starts from here. Blue poppies can be seen on rocks beside the bridge. People come here for trekking, yoga, flower-research, and meditation.

Valley of Flowers Trekking Tour is available to suit all types of pockets. Starting from budget tour package to high end luxury tours, tourists are given ample of options to choose from. People from all over the world come to Valley of flowers, Uttarakhand to enjoy trekking and flower spotting.

“Valley of Flowers” is the name of the Himalayan area in Uttarakhand state in India. In 1931 the English mountaineer Frank Smythe stumbled across the Bhyundar Valley, an 8 km long glacier corridor in Chamoli -one of the district of Uttarakhand state .This area, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and carpeted with over 500 species of flowers , soon became a protected site.

The valley is spread across 10 kms area and is divided in the middle by the Pushpawati stream. Flowers mostly orchids, poppies, primulas, calendulas, daisies and anemones carpet the ground. Alpine forests of birch and rhododendron cover a part of the area, and are home to tahr, snow leopard, musk deer, red fox, common langur, bharal, serow, Himalayan black bear and a huge variety of butterflies.

Valley of Flowers Uttarakhand is a world heritage site. The park, 90 square KM in area is situated at an altitude between 3,200 M to 6,675 M and is home to more than 500 varieties of flowers which bloom mainly between June and September. The valley changes its dominant color every two weeks during flowering season.

The valley which changes its dominant color every two weeks during flowering season was popularized by British mountaineer- Frank S. Smythe and his colleague R.L. Holdsworth who incidentally reached this valley after a successful expedition of Mount Kamet in 1931. Fascinated by its beauty and grandeur, Frank S. Smythe revisited this area in 1937 and published a book "The Valley of Flowers” in 1938.

There are ample flower types here to explore. The variety is so large that most of the tourists are left spellbound once they reach here. Once you enter this place, you will keep on discovering one or the other flower. Walk a little distance and you find new species of flowers. Tourists often stop and gaze at this amazing collection of interesting flowers. Academic tourists and backpackers also visit the place in order to conduct their research and work on the projects related to this place. You will often spot the students searching for an area which could have flowers of entirely different species. There doesn't seem to be a limit to the variety of flowers on offer here.

The real enchanting beauty of the valley is evident in the places that are situated further inside the valley. This is the place where tall trees are missing and what is left is even more interesting. There is uneven ground covered with grass and rocks. One can also spot the small red berries spread over rocks, small white flower beds, blue daisy-like flowers, and bunches of blue-berries that make you feel in heaven.

Inside the valley, is located the grave of Mary Legge. She was a one time enthusiastic botanist and explorer who lost her life in the Valley. It was in the year 1939, when Miss Margarate Legge, a botanist appointed by the botanical gardens of Edinburgh arrived at the valley for here research work. While she was passing through some rocky slopes to collect flowers, she had a fatal slip. Her sister later visited the valley and built a memorial on the spot where she was buried by the locals. The following words are inscribed on the stone:

"I will lift mine eyes unto the Hills
from whence cometh my help."

Valuable informations about valley of flowers

Area 87.5 sq km Languages Hindi, Garhwali Altitude 3,250 to 6,750 m above sea level Rainfall 1800.2 mm Maximum Temperature 17°C Minimum Temperature 7°C Best time to visit March-April, July-August

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