Trek to valley of flowers and Hemkund || Badrinath and Mana visit || Trek to Vasudhara falls

If you really want to explore Uttrakhand, ditch your own vehicles and hit the roads. Public transport will give you that sense of carefree travel. Just pack your backpack and leave. No parking tension, no car safety tension, nothing.

We took a bus from Delhi to Dehradun and from Dehradun to Joshimath. It is approx 18-20 hrs journey.

We came across some beautiful places on our way to Joshimath like Rishikesh,Srinagar, Devprayag, Rudraprayag, Karnprayag, Vishnuprayag. And finally Joshimath. Below are some pics clicked from the window seat. (Tip: Take left side window seat ;D )

We took a night halt at Joshimath. Best thing about this season is you get very cheap hotels for your stay. It's kind of off-season. Same hotel's room that costs us 500 bucks now will cost around 2500-3000 during season(i.e. from may to July).

DAY 2: We wake up early around 5 and took a cab from Joshimath to Govindghat.

We started our trek from govindghat to ghangaria via poolna. It is approximately 13km trek. This trek is not that difficult but requires some strength as you are also carrying your backpack on your own. You can take a mule or a horse also. But I suggest do carry on your own.We did :)

Below are some snapshots from the trek.

We reached ghangaria by 4pm. And took a hotel for 2 days stay.

DAY 3: Today we started our 3-4km trek to valley of flowers from ghangaria. Last entry time is 12PM and last time to exit valley is 4pm. This trek is an easy one, but has 3-4 water crossings. After 2 kms, valley starts to opens up.

It is worth traveling that many kilometers for this scenic beauty.

We returned to ghangaria by 5pm.

Day 4: Today we went to Hemkund Sahib. It is a 6km trek from ghangaria and quite steep one right from the beginning to the end. You can find glaciers on this trek. We reached Hemkund by 12PM, stayed there for around 1-2 hrs and head straight to govindghat the same day.

We reached govindghat at around 6PM. Stayed there overnight.

We reached Badrinath by 11AM. First thing first, we took a hotel and dump the extra luggage, took a small bag and went straight to Badrinath temple for a visit. Luckily we visited on time just before closing of temple door (i.e. before 12.30 PM,It reopens at 3 PM).

After our visit to the temple, we went to Mana village, the last Indian village, before Tibet border.

Mana is a small village and quite a beautiful one. It is 3 KM from Badrinath. Some significant places you can visit here are Vyas Gufa, Ganesh Gufa, Bhem Pul, Saraswati river.

After visiting these places, we went to Vasudhara falls which is at approx 5km from this village. The trail is really beautiful. The nature's setting of mountains, river, clouds, rocky trail is just so perfect . The waterfall is huge and mesmerizing.