Ankit Rastogi
Latest Reviews
Valley of Flowers National Park
The place is heavenly and surprisingly gorgeous than one can imagine. The trek is moderate with an initial 1.5 km being easily walkable followed by 2 km of steep hike on a rocky terrain and last half km to 1 being straight walk again as descent to the plains. Once you enter from the beautifully crafted Forest Post entrance paying INR 150 per person with 3-4 boards of painted information including a map, list of species with broad areas, the trail and large large cutout of flower names with pictures the scenery starts getting marvelous. The entrance timings allowed are from 7 AM to 12 noon only. With kids and women this ideally becomes even more stringent as one has to return back by 5 or maximum 6 PM before it starts getting dark and cold.
The initial trail of around 1.5 Kms is easy , leafy and gorgeous till Dwari bridge. First glacier is crossed right after the entrance with moderate inclination building up to Dwari on Pushpawati river. The scene from Dwari is picturesque beyond imagination when first glimpse of valley can be seen. The gushing sound and roaring water of Pushpawati at Dwari is a timeless memory.
It is interesting to observe a variety of honey bees, nectar bees along with small flowers of yellow, pink, white flat rose and red even in early June with at least 10-15 species evident even till Dwari.
After the bridge real trek starts and this steep climb of 2 Kms raises the height from 3000 mts at the entrance or base of Ghangria to 3400 mts above sea level. The way paved is rocky and needs to tracked carefully with moderate efforts. The views of course start getting clear of the green valley of 87.5 sq km amidst the steep climb. What is also interesting is when looking towards East one can see the trek to Hemkund specially the last 2 Kms of same as lines on snow mountain from this part of Valley.
After the climb comes another glacier from where little decent starts. This relatively easier trek continues to Bhamandhaur where there is a wooden bridge with aluminium roof sheet on a gushing stream named Khunt Khaul River originating from the Himalayan mountain above with paradise flow. Here one finds a milestone mentioning welcome to VoF NP and from here the trail is simpler with curves and flowers all around. We would have easily got another 10 species as colour riot after the Bhamandhaur cave or resting point.
We went to the glacier after this point to at least a km or more and found Brahm Kamal as well in early June.
This trek is gateway to Heaven and had elevated the respect for Himalayas, Dev Bhoomi Uttrakhand and our Incredible India even more. We need to extremely responsible to take care of this UNESCO World Heritage national park and one of its kind in the world.
The initial trail of around 1.5 Kms is easy , leafy and gorgeous till Dwari bridge. First glacier is crossed right after the entrance with moderate inclination building up to Dwari on Pushpawati river. The scene from Dwari is picturesque beyond imagination when first glimpse of valley can be seen. The gushing sound and roaring water of Pushpawati at Dwari is a timeless memory.
It is interesting to observe a variety of honey bees, nectar bees along with small flowers of yellow, pink, white flat rose and red even in early June with at least 10-15 species evident even till Dwari.
After the bridge real trek starts and this steep climb of 2 Kms raises the height from 3000 mts at the entrance or base of Ghangria to 3400 mts above sea level. The way paved is rocky and needs to tracked carefully with moderate efforts. The views of course start getting clear of the green valley of 87.5 sq km amidst the steep climb. What is also interesting is when looking towards East one can see the trek to Hemkund specially the last 2 Kms of same as lines on snow mountain from this part of Valley.
After the climb comes another glacier from where little decent starts. This relatively easier trek continues to Bhamandhaur where there is a wooden bridge with aluminium roof sheet on a gushing stream named Khunt Khaul River originating from the Himalayan mountain above with paradise flow. Here one finds a milestone mentioning welcome to VoF NP and from here the trail is simpler with curves and flowers all around. We would have easily got another 10 species as colour riot after the Bhamandhaur cave or resting point.
We went to the glacier after this point to at least a km or more and found Brahm Kamal as well in early June.
This trek is gateway to Heaven and had elevated the respect for Himalayas, Dev Bhoomi Uttrakhand and our Incredible India even more. We need to extremely responsible to take care of this UNESCO World Heritage national park and one of its kind in the world.
Menani Restaurant
This place deserves a 4 star purely because in a land where finding a decent vegetarian meal is difficult we had some excellent Dal Tadka, Veg Gravy and Chapatis. The ambience is not great so is the serving time. But what was also to be taken care of is the Fish dishes which were ordered by our friends who didn't like them at all.