The name rightly suggests that it is a Valley full of Flowers and the spectrum of colours on display is unreal when you go there in months between July and September but you already know that. Photographs we find on the internet showing a carpet of flowers in a rainbow of colors are infact real and not an exaggeration or a product of Photoshop. The Valley has over 300 different species of flowers that have been identified and each of these are in full bloom during the season.

There is perhaps a history as well to the repeated visits… Noted mountaineer, Frank Smythe credited with the discovery of Valley of Flowers first stumbled upon this in 1931 but had to leave the in a hurry to catch his ship back to England. He returned a few years later and stayed back for over 2 months there. Better still, Margaret Legge, credited with naming the place never left…

Perhaps, even though the landscape remains the same, the sights and sounds are never the same… Different colours to admire, different fragrances created by the bloom of these flowers, and let’s face it, 300 varieties of flowers, you really will need to visit this place more than once to be able to even notice most of these…
To quote a traveller “During each of my visits, the Valley was always the same but it was my own mind which gave a different picture during each visit”.
There is certainly a magic to this Valley, but we will just leave it to you to find that magic.

No questions asked about the mesmerising beauty of this place, but there are a few things you need to consider before planning this trek, these are:

If you are looking for a peaceful wilderness getaway where you don’t want to encounter people, you should look at some of our other treks. In 2010, about 7,000 people visited the Valley and about 5 lakh people visited Hemkund Saheb. This figure will probably touch 10,000 in 2012 for Valley and about 95% of these people visit between July and September. Doing the math nearly 100 people visit Valley of Flowers everyday and multiple thousands visit Hemkund Saheb. So you will encounter a lot of people on the trek. Visit it for the beauty of the place but not to get away from people.

The total trekking days are 4 where you trek from Govind Ghat to Ghangria and setup base there. Trek to Valley of Flowers and return to Ghangria second day and trek to Hemkund saheb and return to Ghangria on the third day. The nearest Railway Stations with regular trains are either Dehradun or Haridwar both of which are about 300 km from Govind ghat. During the trek you will reach a maximum altitude of about 4,300 mt.

All in all a six day trek from Dehradun to Dehradun.