Yamunotri Gangotri Kedarnath and Badrinath
It is called as Chotta char Dham of North, Located in Himalaya in Uttranchal State.
The Original Char dham of India are Puri, Rameswaram, Dwarka, and Badrinath, Located in four differet states i.e. Odissa, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat & Uttrakhand Respectively.
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| Yamnotri |
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| Gangotri |
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Kedarnath
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| Map Showing all 4 pilgramage points. |
Must Visit During this Tour: Valley of Flowers & Hemkund Sahib
To visit these place, the road access is upto Joshimath, From here you need to trek.
Yamnotri
Unfortunately we could not visit this place. We started out trip from Gangotri, As per our taxi driver these 4 places are to be visited in order, so we could not go back and we had to proceed further to kedarnath.
Gangotri
Accessible by road, your vechile will drop till the parking of the temple. Another half km walk and you are there at the temple.
To the left side of the temple, You have steps taking you to the ghats.
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| Ghats at Gangotri |
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| Ghats at Gangotri |
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| Ghats & Landscape at Gangotri |
Water at these ghats is so chilling, Its hard to step down in water even for a sec, But there were many people who were taking a dip in these chilling water.
Tip: Roads leading to these temple places are narrow and rough, and at few places you will find traffic is allowed only in one direction and other direction will be held up for hrs and they release it on a periodic interval.
So a 50km distance may not mean 2-3 hrs, if your moving direction traffic is held up, it could also take 6-7 hrs.
Kedarnath
Trek for kedarnath starts from Gaurikund, This being end of a narrow road. There are vechiles who are try
ing to return and there are some who have left the vechile parked on road side,
It advisable to take your hotel 2-3km before gaurikund, thhen start your journey fresh next day
Reaching kedarnath shrine by Helicopter: There are multiple pvt. operatiors.
They start from phatta and drop you just few mtrs away from shrine. but they charge above 9000+ per person.
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| Hot Springs at GauriKund |
At start of the trek from gaurikud you have a dense local market with narrow lanes selling things like small oxygen cylinder, disposable rain coats and stuff you might need during your 14km journey.
From this market there is a deviation to right which takes you to gauri-kund(hot water spring).
After you have crossed the narrow market lanes, you have another challenge.
you need to cross the stable of pony/horse. yes there are 1000's of those and there is no way to cross it without brushing yourself or getting a push from few of them.
:-) Might sound scary to few of them.
Well, this is start if your journey, You need to share your 14km trek with the ponies.
There have been cases of people falling from ponies or ponies pushing the trekers away.
Roads are uneven at many places, When you have ponies all along the way, you can imagine the shit and above all the weather conditions are wet so...
Below are two pics showing worst part of the roads...
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| Trek to Kedarnath |
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| Trek to Kedarnath |
Eating on way to Kedarnath : McDonalds, KFC, Barista, CCD. you have non of those. :-(
You only find temporary make shift shops selling Hot parotha's, Maggie, Omlette or packed biscuits/chips.
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| Make shift shops on way where you can eat. |
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| Seating area inside the make shift shops. |
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| Enterance of the shops |
Place to Rest: These temporary shops which serve you food during day, By night they all pile up the chairs.
And lay the matress which were piled up during day. They drop the curtains at shop enterance. Dinning room changes to bedroom at available for rs 100 per person per night.
