Har Ki Dun Trekking Expedition

The state Uttarakhand has a long list of trekking trails. Some are easy, some are moderate, some are difficult and some are strenuous. Every trek has its own features and requirements. This time we were headed towards Har Ki Dun.

Har Ki Dun is one of the most magnificent valleys in the Garhwal Himalayas. The trek starts from the small town, Taluka, which is situated near the Sankri village. The trek is good and beautiful, as it offers a variety of flowers, plants, butterflies and other species. In the starting the trek goes from pine forests, ancient villages and then it passes through large alpine meadows. It offers panoramic views of snow clad mountains and glaciers. The weather of Har Ki Dun trek is very volatile as it changes rapidly in a short span of time. Trekking to Har Ki Dun includes crossing rivers, camping on planes full of snow and climbing glaciers. This trek has only one thing which can disappoint the trekkers that it is a round trek. It means the route of trek remains same while starting and returning the trek. However, most of the treks have different starting and returning routes. But Har Ki Dun has this negative point. Inspite of this, the beauty of Har Ki Dun compensates this disadvantage.

As usual, we began our journey from Delhi in the night. We boarded our bus from ISBT Kashmere Gate around 10 PM, which cost around ₹370. At around 5 AM, we reached Dehradun. After reaching Dehradun, we took some rest, did our breakfast and then we visited IFRI (Indian Forest Research Institute) at Sehastradhara.

In the morning, we left our base camp at 8 AM and boarded the bus to reach Sankri. The bus was hired by YHAI (Youth Hostel Association of India) and it was included in our trekking package. The bus took around 10 hours to cover the distance of 250 km. The route was quite narrow and it was full of hair-pin bends. We reached Sankri at around 6 PM. After exploring the village, we slept at our basecamp.

In the morning, first we were transferred to Taluka from Sankri via jeep. The jeep was hired by YHAI and it was included in the package. The jeep took around one and half hour to reach Taluka, as it was located 10 km away from Sankri. Taluka was the starting point of our trek. After all this, we had to trek from Taluka to Seema Camp. The distance of this trek was around 15 km. The whole trek was simple and contained easy terrain. The route passed through pine forest, waterfalls and large meadows. It took almost 8 hours to complete the trek. The weather remained normal throughout the whole trek.

Taluka is a small town, situated at a height of 2000 metres above the sea level. The road from Sankri to Taluka is very narrow and it is very difficult and dangerous to travel by bus, that’s why there are very less availability of bus. Jeeps are easily available to travel.

This was the main trek day because on this day we had to reach our main destination, i.e., Har Ki Dun valley. We started at 8 AM and from the starting point of the trek, we had maintained our pace because this was the longest part of the whole trek. The total distance which we had to be covered on that day was 18 km. In addition to its length, this was also the toughest part of the trek. The terrain was tough as compared to the previous route and we had to cross rivers and climb glacier. The scenes were mesmerising. We were filled with motivation because of that awesome scenes, otherwise the weather wasn’t cooperating with us. As we were moving towards the peak, the weather was getting worse. At around 1 PM, we reached at the midway destination, which is Osla. We did our lunch at Osla. After Osla, weather became more worse. Some members of our group got scared due to bad weather. But we were enjoying the weather by chanting “abhi toh party shuru hui hai”. However, after some time we were only pretending that we are enjoying, but from inside we were also scared. After leaving Osla, we got the opportunity to see the snow and then we continued our trek until we reached our destination, i.e., Har Ki Dun. The temperature was around 1 °C to 2 °C. At around 6 PM, we reached our destination and we started celebrating and shouting “ohh yes! we made it”. We have seen waterfalls, water streams, rivers, butterflies, snow-covered peaks, etc., while trekking from Seema Camp to Har Ki Dun. At Har Ki Dun, we did a big photo session by taking many photographs. That place was like heaven. We were feeling very happy and blessed after reaching Har Ki Dun. After having tea and dinner we went to sleep. During night, the temperature came down to -5 °C to -6 °C.

This was the final trek day. As this was the same route, so we had no such excitement. Instead of excitement, we were little sad because our trek was going to be finished. But after sometime, we again started enjoying because from this trek we had earned a great & unforgettable experience and a big collection of photographs.

On this day, in the morning we left Taluka and travelled to Sankri via jeep. The jeep was hired by YHAI and was included in the package. After reaching Sankri, we boarded the bus to Dehradun. The bus was hired by YHAI, but it was not included in the package. It was on our own expense, which cost around ₹250.