Valley of Flowers – A Miracle on Earth

Almost every one of us fond of good things in life dreams of visiting a place with clear open skies, bright pleasant light spread everywhere, rolling mountains, fresh cool breeze and lots and lots of flowers – of every color, every shape, every size and every fragrance possible! Do you too wish to visit such a place, but don’t believe that it exists somewhere? But it really does – it is the Valley of Flowers.

Valley of Flowers is a national park in the north Indian state of Uttarakhand and is famous since ages for its unlimited varieties of flowers. The beauty of the place has been acknowledged and appreciated in ancient Hindu scriptures, which shows that the area carries the same splendor and grandeur since ancient times. The Valley of Flowers has been admired by numerous eminent botanists and mountaineers, along with the commoners who consider it a fairyland.

Here are some of the rare endemic flower species occurring in the Valley of Flowers:

Bramha Kamal (Saussurea obvallata)

Phlomis bracteosa

Morina longifolia

Primula

Himalayan Blue Poppy

Vajradanti (Himalayan Sinquefoil)

Pannir Soppu (Geranium collinum)

Pedicularis punctata

Dand Kunja (Van Gulab – Wild Rose)

Laddoo (Gobka, Doona) (Allium wallichi)

Inuri (Bistorta vaccinifolia)

But you need not think that you won’t get a chance to see any wildlife here. It is in plenty – Snow Leopard, Brown Bear, Asiatic Black Bear, Blue Sheep (Bharal) and many more. And if there are flowers, there should be honey-suckers, i.e. birds and butterflies, moths and beetles; so Valley of Flowers have them too in plenty, making it a bird-watchers’ paradise. Numerous birds like Pink Browed Rosefinch, Rufous Turtle Dove, Blue Rock Pigeon, Spotted Dove, Yellow Billed Blue Magpie, Hoopoe and many more, and an unending variety of butterflies.

Snow Leopard

Lime Butterfly

When to Go?

The Valley of Flowers NP is inaccessible for most of the year. It is open from June to September and the best season to visit is mid-July to mid-August as it is the blooming season for most of the flowers.

How to Go?

You first have to go to Joshimath, a town in Garhwal (Himachal Pradesh). You can reach Joshimath from Haridwar or Dehradun by road. Trek to Valley of Flowers starts from Gobindghat which is a small town one-hour away from Joshimath. There is another option of traveling by train from Delhi to Haridwar and then to Gobindghat by bus, via Rishikesh, or by car from Delhi to Gobindghat.

From Gobindghat you need to trek for 14 km to Ghangaria, a town about 3 km from the Valley of Flowers. A Sikh pilgrimage place Hemkund Sahib is nearby. The entire trek is indescribably spectacular, being adorned with colorful and fragrant flowers. The actual Valley starts near a gorge of River Pushpawati and you get to see a flabbergasting beauty of flower carpets on the backdrop of snow-clad mountains.

So, plan this vacation around July or August and visit the amazing Valley of Flowers to view an unbelievable miracle on earth!