Exploring the Great Himalayan National Park, Tirthan Valley, Himach...

Hello everyone, hope you are doing well today.

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You might already know that I love to travel and explore places, especially in the mountains. This week I went on such a journey to my neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh.

We initially planned for Kedarnath but for some reason had to drop that plan. But luckily we had some other plans.

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We left for Himachal Pradesh in the early morning of the 25th... it was going to be a long journey. Taking us more than 12 hours. We stopped only to eat or when we felt bored enough.

It was a loooong drive but we managed to reach our destination, the Tirthan Valley. We planned to hike in the Great Himalayan National Park.

You need a permit to enter the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP)from the forest department in Sai Ropa Forest Complex. It was Rs.200 per person and they will assign you a local guide as well, for Rs.1000 per day.

We didn't have enough time to cover the entire National Park, it is a huge park and traversing it could take weeks if not months. But we just had a couple of days for this trip.😅 Hence, we ended up taking a permit for the next day only. Shortlisted a trek and went looking for a place to stay.

We booked a place near the riverside called Tirthan Valley View Stay. It was a nice place with clean rooms and one of the best foods we have had in the mountains. (more on that later). They had a place on the terrace for dining. Here is a sample of what I am talking about.

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^{View from "Tirthan Valley View Stay"}

We still had some daylight to burn, so we went to the nearby river on which the valley's name is based, the Tirthan River.

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^{Tirthan River}

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We took some photos and stayed there enjoying the picturesque views of the valley and listening to the constant sound of flowing water. Was one of the better evenings I ever had.

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^{Tirthan River and Valley}

We came back to our rooms and just went into a coma or something 😂. Clearly, we needed some rest.

Once we woke up around 9 pm. We couldn't sleep anymore, played cards, and had fun the entire night... until everybody went back to sleep early in the morning.

The next morning we woke up around 8:00 am (much later than planned😅), had breakfast, called our Guide for the day and eventually got ready for our adventure... a short trek inside the National Park.

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It was a beautiful morning, there was mist in the air. It was cold but not too cold, more like 10 - 15 degrees in the morning and in the 20's throughout the afternoon.

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^{Trekking through forest}

You see, we had to go through the buffer zone first to even reach the core (main) zone of the National Park.

^{Ropa Village}

We went past some of the small villages. Although we didn't see many villagers as they may have already been shifted to the lower altitude to cope with the oncoming winter season.

As this was still the buffer zone of the GHNP, you could see a few villages and homes along this route.

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In the above image, there is another small village located on the other side of the river.

We were trekking along the river, occasionally crossing small water streams and tributaries that make up the Tirthan River.

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^{Water stream flowing into the Tirthan River}

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It was not the toughest trek we went to... we had to climb up for some time and then the slope became much easier. It was not a steep trek.

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You could hear the water flowing much before you can see it. We came across many such occasions when a small water stream came running down the mountain slopes to join the river flowing through the centre of the valley.

Hippo Point

After trekking for 5 Km or so we reached the place popularly known as the Hippo Point. Water gets collected here and reflects beautiful cyan-greenish colour. Notice the half-submerged rock that looks like a "Hippo", hence, the name - Hippo Point.

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^{Rock formed the shape of a Hippo}

This landmark is just outside the eco zone. You have to have a permit to go beyond this place.

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^{Hippo point on Tirthan River}

We rested here for some time and sat in warm and soothing sunshine over a rock. The water was cold but the day started to get warmer.

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^{Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP)}

We validated our permits here and went inside. We saw many birds but were hard to capture. You have to go there if you are an avid bird watcher. Most of the bird species are endemic to Himachal.

We saw some monkeys and alleged a Bharal (he was far away on the other side of the slope, up in the bushes... we believed our guide on that).

In the late afternoon, we decided to head back as we didn't have camping gear or permission to stay overnight in the Park. It was much easier to get back. It was mostly downhill.

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Chhoi Waterfall

We still had a few hours to play with, so we decided to go on another quick trek to a nearby waterfall.

It was just a Kilometer or two but the hike was challenging and steeper. We reached the top fairly quickly. It's called Chhoi Waterfall and the locals consider it holy. In fact, every water body is sacred to them.

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It is one of the less explored places in Tirthan Valley, there was just one more group other than us. The water comes down from hundreds of feet and half of it gets blown away by winds. You will get wet by just standing next to the waterfall.

After spending some time at the waterfall we came back to our homestay.

Some momos and trouts ended our perfect day. We had some veg pakoras too with special chutney.

One of the best parts of being in Himachal or places far away from big cities and towns... is the dark night sky. I have never seen a darker sky with thousands of stars visible. Even you could see the milky way gaseous cloud of stars only with our naked eyes. And, it was a moon below the horizon. So, no external lights were there to hinder our sight at night.

You somehow feel more connected to the entire cosmos. Maybe this is the reason why all famous sages came to the Himalayas for their tapasyas (austerity).

I highly recommend anyone reading to spend a night to two there.

Thanks for reading...

Namaste 🙏

Stay tuned for more adventures...