One Of The Panch Kedar ~ Tungnath temple

Dehradun to Chopta

We started our journey from Dehradun early in the morning around 9:00am. We took a route covering Mussoorie - dhanoulti - Tehri - Tilwara-Augustmuni- Chopta

The route is beautiful crossing from queen of hills to lush green dhanulti, from Tehri lake to crossing river Kali in Rudraprayag district and finally reaching chopta.

We stayed just before 30kms from Chopta as there are not much hotels/camping options in Chopta. The ones that are there are quite expensive and so we decided to stay in a guest house which cost us only ₹1500 for one night

Chopta to Tungnath Temple & Chandrashila Peak

We started our day around 7:00 am and reached the base point chopta at 8:30 am. There are some good options to have breakfast at the base point. We had some good breakfast and filled some healthy stuff and started our trek at 9:00 am sharp

The trek is so beautiful loaded with rhododendron trees and since I visited in last of April I was lucky enough to get a good sight of flowers in full bloom.

After around 200 mtrs from starting point the route opens up to a beautiful view from where the range of himalayas are visible.

The total trek is around 4kms from base point till Tungnath temple and one has to cover extra 1 km for Chandrashila peak which is ahead of temple

We reached Tungnath temple around 11:00 am and after that we started our journey for Chandrashila peak which took us additional 1.5hours. The view was incredible from peak.

The other options to visit temple from chopta is to hire a pony which costs around ₹1200 both ways. For Chandrashila you have to trek as the trek is quite steep and a pony is just not the option.

Tungnath temple is the highest shiva temple in the world situated at 3680m. It is one of the panch kedars which was built by pandavas.

The kapats of this temple is opened on the same day as of Kedarnath temple and during winters the dholi of lord shiva is brought down to a temple in Ukhimath

We returned to the base village around 4:00pm on the very same day and started our journey back home.

We took a stop in Gopeshwar and spent the night there.

Gopeshwar to Dehradun (approx. 250kms)

From Gopeshwar we started our journey around 12:00 in the noon and crossing Karanprayag - Srinagar- Devaprayag- Rishikesh we reached home. It took us entire day and we reached Dehradun around 10:00 pm.

It is a beautiful trek and is doable by everyone, best time is April second week I would say as the rhododendron trees are in full bloom and you get to see some beautiful colours in mountains.