Valley of Flowers - Uttarakhand

Located in the West Himalayas, the Valley of Flowers a natural wonder is a National Park in the district of Chamoli in the state of Uttarakhand India. It is a part of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. The Valley is at a distance of 522 kms from Delhi, where one have to Trek for 17kms after travelling 505 kms by road. The Valley of Flowers cover about 87.50 kms which is very vast. The entire valley is situated in the Bhyundar Valley at 3,658 mts above the sea level. The entire valley is covered with vibrantly coloured more than 650 varieties of Alpine flowers.

For a long time the Valley of flowers Uttrakhand was well protected and was completely hidden from the world and only the people in the surroundings were visiting that area. Only in the year 1931 that place was discovered by Frank Smith. It was only he who bought this place to the world. He also wrote a book named "Valley of Flowers", which gave the name for the place and also popularised this place.

The Valley was declared a National Park in the year 1982 and very recently it is declared World Heritage Site too. UNESCO have declared this valley as one of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves in the year 2004 and since then it had been so.

One can see vareity of flowers that include Brahmakamal, the Blue Poppy and the Cobra lilly. It is the most sought after place for flower lovers, botanists, trekkers and nature lovers. Every year when the Valley of Flowers National park opens from 1st June and 31st October. Though the best time to visit is during July, August and September. The snow starts melting in the valley in the month of May and in the month of June lots of pilgrims visit Hemkund Shahib and this month one can watch the beautiful glaciers

 and waterfalls all along the valley and there will be less or no rain.
In the months of July and August, one can find the new plants growing and the flowers blooming and after Mid
July one can see the whole valley filled with flowers. By the month of september the plants start dying up and by the end of September visit to this valley is stopped. There are lots of medicinal plants also seen in this valley. The park and the surrounding are is banned for cattle grazing. The valley is divided into two by the Pushpawati River.

There is no accomodation in the valley as the tourists are not allowed to stay in the Valley of flowers. Tourists can stay in the private lodges and hotels in Ghangaria which is the base camp and first halt for the trek. The trek begins at Govindghat.

Legend says that Hanuman got the Sanjeevani herb from this valley

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