Valley of Flowers National Park

The stunning landscape of The Valley of Flowers National Park in northern India's state of Uttarakhand, bordered by Nepal and Tibet, comes alive with the monsoon rain. This high-altitude Himalayan valley has around 300 different varieties of alpine flowers, which appear as a bright carpet of color against a mountainous snow-capped background.

The park is spread over 87.5 square kilometers (55 miles), and was declared a national park in 1982. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The main Valley of Flowers is a glacial corridor, around five kilometers (3.1 miles) long and two kilometers (1.2 miles) wide.

The Valley of Flowers Location: The Valley of Flowers National Park is located in Chamoli Garhwal, close to Nanda Devi National Park. It’s about 595 kilometers (370 miles) from Delhi, and has an altitude that varies from 10,500 feet to 21,900 feet above sea level.

Getting to the Valley of Flowers: The nearest airport is at Dehradun which is 295 kilometers and the nearest railway station is in Rishikesh which is 276 kilometers from there. The closest you can get to The Valley of Flowers by road is Govind Ghat. This requires around a 10 hour drive to Joshimath, then another one hour to Govind Ghat. From Govind Ghat it’s a 13 kilometer (8 mile) trek along a steep, narrow, but well defined mountain trail to base camp at Ghangaria. This will take between 4 to 8 hours, depending on your fitness! The start of the main valley, where all the flowers are, is a further 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from Ghangaria.

When to Visit the Valley of Flowers: The Valley of Flowers is only open from the beginning of June until the end of September as it's covered in snow the rest of the year. The best time to visit is from mid of July to mid of August, when the flowers are in full bloom after the first monsoon rain. If you go before July, you’ll find hardly any flowers at all. However, you will be able to see melting glaciers. After mid of August, the color of the Valley changes quite dramatically from greenish to yellowish, and the flowers slowly die.

In regards to the weather, temperatures get quite cold at night and in the early morning.

Valley of Flowers Opening Hours: To prevent trekkers and livestock from taking too much of a toll on the park, access to The Valley of Flowers is restricted to daylight hours (from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and camping is prohibited. The last entry to the park is at 3 p.m. You’ll need to go from, and return to, Ghangaria on the same day.