I belong to #Uttarakhand and hence, my love for hills can never take a back seat. But at times I don’t like travelling through the serpentine route, especially when rocky mountain tries to pounce on me from one side and there is a gravitational pull from the river flowing down the hilly route one the other side. Well, it’s a delightful experience when you have naive green trees on both the sides, with sun rays filtering through gaps between their branches and leaves.
Our first view of #Chopta!
The access to #Chopta right after #Ukhimath (which is a small village and a pilgrimage site in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand) offers the most amazing driving pleasure with a zip and zap move after every 2-5 seconds. Enchanting beauty of the pine, deodar and rhododendron forests and mountains covered with sparkling goldenish silver snow gives a captivating pictorial appeal altogether.
I had only thought of visiting the place sometime in the offing, but it will happen so soon I never knew....Well, we were to go to Nainital in the first week of October for vacation, though there wasn’t any booking but some kind of juggaadd was there, certainly.... The bags were almost packed to leave by 5:00 am in the morning.
Around 12 midnight, my husband impulsively said, “let’s go to Chopta”. We were off the cuff. “Let’s Pack up for Chopta and leave in an hour’s time”, Ashok said. I had my jaw almost dropped, but I was thrilled too. And we two along with two kids began our journey at 1:35 am.
From Ghaziabad it’s about 380-400 kilometres journey, which of course isn’t possible at one go. Driving via Meerut, Rishikesh, we reached Byasi around 6 am. We had light snacks there and then moved to halt at our (Ashok’s) maternal uncle’s place in Shrinagar. As Ashok was feeling sleepy I took over the steering wheel and drove up and down the scary hills till a few kilometres before Shrinagar where we reached at 10:00 am. After taking the much needed rest to drive ahead safely, we left for Chopta at 4:00pm.
Moving towards Srinagar from Byasi
We passed by the Srinagar dam at the Alaknanda River, which has a capacity of generating electricity up to 330 MW
Kids had real fun in shopping what not..., I should say, from the road side shops- toffees, chocolates, sweets, chips and drinks. They were enjoying equally while listening to Pahari and Bollywood songs. And when tired, they were sleeping cuddling over each other.
Kids too tired....
Place ahead of Agastyamuni, on our way to Chopta
Passing through Rudraprayag, around 6:30 pm the darkness fell and it felt scary driving on the hilly roads. We had complete faith in God and were equally brimming with our passion to reach Chopta by 7:30 pm or 8:00 pm max. There was no hotel/camp booking but we were only moving ahead.
Darkness fell; we continued driving to reach Chopta. The snow covered mountains excited us more to continue....
Around 7:15 pm, we received a call from a well-wisher who was trying to arrange accommodation for us. “Madam please don’t go beyond Ukhimath. Find a lodge and stay there tonight, as I am unable to get in touch with my people in Chopta due to bad network”, said Mr Bhandari. Though, we had already driven 15 minutes forward. But we listened to him and took a U-turn.We spent the night (October 2) at Anushree Lodge, which was quiet descent and too economical with home-like food.
Beautiful morning captured from Anushree Lodge's rooftop, sun is yet to rise though...
The morning looked incredible at Unkimath. The silver peaks of Himalaya mountain range, clear sky and the sun showering its untouched rays on us... was breathtaking. “Oh it’s nothing. Reach Chopta and then realise what’s nature’s beauty about”, said another traveller who was staying at the same lodge.
It's morning October 3, 2015; we set to move towards Chopta from Unkhimath. On right is the Anushree Lodge we stayed at
We started ... and in another 40-45 minutes we reached Chopta. “Woooooooo... awwwwww !!!!! I am sure nothing can be as marvellous as this place”, I said to Ashok. Kids were overjoyed too! It’s a natural treat to eyes, with views of snow adorned #Himalayan range, 8790 ft above sea level. Also called as #MiniSwitzerland, it's a must for all wanderlusts; thankfully, it’s still not a commercial travel spot!
Kids were overjoyed too to visit the mini Switzerland of Uttarakhand
A base for tracking to Tungnath, which is the third temple of Panch Kedar, which lies 3.5 kilometres away, Chopta looks even more beautiful on way to this temple. During the hiking to the temple, the scenic beauty of silver-lined peaks of Panchchuli, Nanda Devi, Nilkanth and Kedarnath, just hypnotise you.
Entrance to begin tracking to Tunganath Temple
As we had no strength to track with two kids, we hired mules that helped us reach the temple, though I would recommend people to walk up the hills to enjoy the track and capture the serenity and splendour of this place. I missed on capturing various beautiful sites during our journey from Chopta to Tungnath and then, way back.
I loved clicking this pic!
Incredible #Chopta!
Half way to Tunganath, we took a break for 10 minutes at this point
Hey... we had the most delicious food while the mules took a break half way to Tunganath. MAGGI!!!! Though it was still to be relaunched after an extensive ban all across the countryover concerns of excess lead levels, but we were lucky enough to slurp the Maggie noodles in the cold weather.
Enjoying Maggi!
Don’t miss out on the access to heaven like spotI must tell avid travellers not to miss a point, where you feel that you are about to enter heaven... it looks as if the track pathway ends there, and the gossamer sky is there to embrace you.In fact the entire track to the temple gives you that heaven like feel.. you tend to believe you are in cloud nine.
Looks as if the temple is placed somewhere in the sky, amidst gossamer clouds
#Tunganath is known to be the highest #Shiva #shrine in the world. Its literal meaning: Lord of the peaks, speaks for it. The most amazing part is its positioning in the mountains, which forms the #Mandakini river valley one side and #Alaknanda river valley on the other side.
We almost reach the temple; stairs to Tunganath
The temple!
Returning from the temple, on our wayback...
I wish to camp in Chopta for at least 3-4 days, when I go there again!
