The mesmerizing hanging valley of Gods –"Har Ki Doon".

Level: - Easy to moderate

Season:- May to June, Sept to Oct.

Route:-Sankri - Taluka - Seema - Har Ki Doon - Sankri.

Finally, done with the official order to explore the Har Ki Doon Valley trek. I packed my bags and started my journey along with one of my colleague Mr. Dewan. In the evening we boarded a bus to Dehradun. The next day at around 0500 hrs we reached Dehradun . Rested and refreshed for a while with a cup of tea and then boarded a bus till Purola- a small town in Uttrakhand. At 1300 hrs we reached Purola .Mr. Bachan Singh was there to receive us and joined us for the trip. We booked a local taxi, which are easily available from Purola to Mori and then to Sankri -the place where we would be spending our night. Travelling for around 24 hrs had made us so tired that gave us a very good sound sleep.  The next day we decided to do our official work at Sankri and decided to start our trek soon after that.

Har Ki Doon the “Hanging valley of Gods” is at an altitude of 3500 m above sea level in the Garhwal Region. This region falls within the Govind Pashu Vihar wildlife sanctuary.

  

Day 1:- Sankri – Taluka – Seema/Osla. (11 km) (5-6 hrs)

As planned to start our trek on the third day, we hired a taxi till Taluka, had our breakfast in a dhaba, bought some biscuits, chocolates, battery etc for the trip. After completing our work at Taluka we started our trek to explore the valley. A narrow descent path next to the forest rest house of Taluka leads us somewhere nearer to the Supin River. There are many places in this stretch which leads you nearer to the river. To our bad luck suddenly it started to rain, luckily we were well prepared for this natural calamity with rain sheet to cover ourselves and protect our belongings from rain. Beside this to my surprise my camera was not working. That made my mood and energy to swing to a low level but with a hope and a positive thought that it would work I kept it back in my knapsack.

After walking for few kilometers we reached Gangad Village. We took a break on the shade of a tea stall which was closed indeed, as it was off season for the trek.  We ate some biscuits to fill in some energy and were getting a glimpse on the structure of the village at the other side of the river. After few minutes it stop drizzling so, we decided to continue our journey.

We had to cross a wooden bridge over the river taking a few snapshots with it. The rain had made the route slippery and hard for us to trek. After walking for about half an hour we felt so exhausted that made the trek till Seema turn out to be a never ending journey. We desperately wanted some tea to energize ourselves and to our favour there was a place nearby where we could have a cup of tea. Finally at around 1500 hrs we reached Seema. To add on to the list of surprises on the very day, the caretaker of the forest guest house was not there even after information was send that we would be there for a stay. We even check the GMVN Guest house but no one was there at the premises. We sat down at the campus of the forest guest house and were discussing to how to spend the night, the dinner, how to deal with the cold and etc etc. Suddenly we heard some noises and found out that the local villagers were returning from their daily paddy field visit with their cattles. We enquired about the owner of the dhaba which was in front of the rest house and asked them to deliver the message to him that we are waiting.

The owner of the dhaba arrived after about one hour. He was like an angel for us at that point of time and that relieved us to some extent. He also informed us that the care taker had left the keys with him to accommodate us at the guest house.  We went to our room and asked him prepare some tea for us. That cup of tea had worked on our body like an herbal medicine. After about an hour we had our dinner and went to sleep in most luxurious way in that environment.

Day 2 Seema – Har Ki Doon – Seema. (21 km) (8-9 hrs)

Next day we woke up at around 0700 hrs with a nice cup of bed tea. One of my colleagues Mr. Dewan was not feeling well so we decided to leave him back at Seema, so that he can rest for the day .I and Mr. Bachan Singh decided to trek till Har Ki Doon and would return on the same day to guest house.

We had asked the Dhaba owner to prepare some paranthas for breakfast and to pack some for our lunch.

At around 0800 hrs we started our trek to Har Ki Doon, crossed the bridge near the Guest house to be on the other side of the river. From here, there was a steep climb to meet the main narrow path that leads to the village when we take a left and to the right is Har Ki Doon . After trekking for few kms of ups and downs we meet the care taker of the Forest Rest house at Har Ki Doon, He was a man in his late fifties. After talking with him for a while we decided to continue our trek and also requested him to prepare our lunch.

We crossed a paddy field where we found few villagers who were still working at the field. The scenic beauty of the paddy filed with local people working and at the same time the river flowing below on the right hand side of the field made me felt the importance of my camera which was not functioning for some technical malfunction.

On the way ahead we crossed a waterfall followed by a small wooden bridge. The trek route after crossing the bridge is little bit steeper. After about a half hour of trek we stopped to have the packed paranthas . After resting for few minutes we started our journey to Har Ki Doon. Finally at around 1230 hrs we reached Har Ki Doon and after crossing a bridge we arrived at the Har ki Doon Forest Rest House.

After a cup of tea at the rest house we decided to spend some time with the spell bound scenic beauty of the area. As the weather was little cloudy the view of the peaks so the way to Jaundhar glacier was not visible on that very day. We wanted to trek ahead but left with no option as we had to move back to Seema on the same day. After few minutes as it start raining, we decided to have lunch at the kitchen near the fire place, to have our lunch in a warmer way.

At around 1330 hrs we started our journey back to Seema with the hope that some other day we would explore the nearby area. We reached Seema Forest House at 1800 hrs and Dewan ji was waiting for us at the dhaba. As soon as we arrived they offered us with some tea .We had our dinner early and went to bed early to ease our tiresome journey after the day  long trek.

Day 3: Seema – Taluka - Sankri. (11km) (5-6 hrs)

Next day we woke up late as we had planned to start our trek back to Taluka by 0900 hrs. After having our breakfast we packed our bag and decided to start our trek back after collecting the packed lunch from the dhaba owner and wished him luck and with promises that we would meet him soon some day. We almost run all the way back to Taluka and reached there at 1300 hrs. After spending few hours at Taluka we hired a jeep to Sankri.

There was a mela(fair) at the village due to presence of “Devta” idol in the village. So after few hours of rest we decided to pay a visit and offer a prayer to the idol at the temple and at the same time we would also experience the unique culture of the locals. We came back to our place and decided to leave for Delhi the very next morning. 

So, we boarded a bus from Sankri to Purola and then travelled by bus till Delhi. Our journey came to an end with a hope to trek again to explore more hidden treasures of the beautiful nature of the nearby areas.