Whispering Trail: The beginner's delight – A blissful trek to Chopta, Devariatal, Tungnath and Chandrashila Peak!

Traveling has always been my passion but I was introduced to trekking last year in October when I joined a travel group named Wildlife and Forest Travel (WAFT) - an online meetup group which brings all like-minded people together and gives them an opportunity to interact, travel and share their experiences. A trip to Devariatal, Chopta, Tungnath and Chandrashila peak was my first expedition with the group. I was excited as well as nervous at the same time as I was about to travel with completely unknown people. With several doubts in my mind, I decided to take the risk and said yes for it.

Short Itinerary:
Day 0: Delhi to Haridwar overnight travel
Day 1: Haridwar to Devariatal via Sari Village
Day 2: Tungnath-Chandrashila Peak Summit
Day 3: Chopta to Haridwar and back to Delhi by overnight travel

Day 0: Delhi to Haridwar overnight travel

The meeting point of the trip was ISBT - Kashmiri gate from where we took UPSRTC Volvo bus to Haridwar. I reached Kashmiri gate around 9 pm. My fellow travelers started pitching in around 9:30 and we had a round of interaction before boarding the bus. We were 14 people in total, all belonging to an age group of 24-32, working in different sectors but having one thing in common - the zest for travelling. The excitement and passion was clearly visible on their faces. Some had traveled together before but most of the people were new to this group and were meeting for the first time.

The bus started from Kashmiri gate around 10:30 pm and reached Haridwar at 5 in morning. It was cold and chilly in Haridwar. Fortunately, a tea shop was open at that time and a cup of hot tea in such chilly weather was no less than a bliss.

Day 1: Haridwar to Devariatal via Sari Village

Around 5:30 in morning, our pre-booked tempo traveler came and we started our journey further. The overnight journey made all of us so tired that everyone slept to wake up after an hour when the tempo stopped for breakfast in a small restaurant in Shivpuri. The restaurant was at the river side with a great view so we couldn’t resist ourselves from taking some pictures.

Further from here towards Devprayag, we had fun time playing antakshri and dumb-charades. On reaching Devprayag, we witnessed the confluence of ferocious Alaknanda and mild Bhagirathi which gave birth to stable Ganga River and started our onward journey along the Alaknanda River. The entire route is very scenic and provides great view of hills and river.

The 10 hours journey which started from Haridwar finally took us to Sari Village – the base camp for Devariatal Trek. Sari village is situated in Rudraprayag district near Ukhimath at a height of 6,554 feet and is the base camp for a very beautiful lake, Deoria Tal. The village is located amid dense forest of Oak and Rhododendron trees. Tourism and farming is the main source of income of the local villagers. Sari Village is well connected by roads and have around 100 houses. We stopped at Dev Bhumi homestay and from here after taking some rest we started our trek to Devariatal.

Sari Village to Devariatal Trek

The trek is well paved with stones except at some places. This beautiful trek of around 3 km from Sari Village takes you to the gorgeous lake – Deoria Tal or Devaria Tal. It’s a small lake but it provides a refreshing view of lush green meadow and mesmerizing panoramic view of Chaukhamba, Kedarnath and other peaks of Himalayan range. It’s an excellent spot for camping, sighting mountain peaks and star gazing. In Hindu mythology, it is believed that it was the place from where the mighty Pandavas were asked questions by Yaksha.

We reached Devariatal around 6 pm and did overnight camping there. We enjoyed the night star gazing sitting around the bonfire. Next day, we woke up early morning with the distinct sound of birds chirping. The reflection of the Chaukhamba Peak over the calm waters of the lake was just beautiful and people spent considerable time to capture that perfect image. At around 8 AM, we started our downhill trek back to sari village from where our tempo traveler dropped us to Chopta in an hour.

Chopta is popularly known as 'Mini Switzerland'. It lies some 29 km from Ukhimath, 254 km from Rishikesh and approximately 450 kms from the Delhi and is the base camp for famous Tungnath - Chandrashila trek

Day 2: Tungnath-Chandrashila Peak Summit

We started the trek to tungnath and chandrashila at around 12 in afternoon.The 4 km trek to Tungnath started with an ascent, and it kept on getting steeper as one reaches near the Tungnath temple (3680 meters). The trek path is well stone paved. The initial trek has pure stretches of Rhododendron forests and meadow begins where the forests end, and covers the entire stretch. Tungnath is the highest man-made Lord Shiva temple in the world and is one of the five Panch Kedar temples i.e. Kedarnath, Tungnath, Rudranath, Madhyamaheswar and Kalpeshwar.

After offering prayers at the temple, we stopped by a dhaba nearby to enjoy some scrumptious Maggi with tea (a ritual in the hills for travelers). By the time we reached Tungnath, it got very cloudy and people informed us that we won’t be able to have a 360 view of the Himalayan peaks from Chandrashila. Many of our group members had already decided of not going up to the chandrashila but 5 of us despite all the odds took our chances and started our further climb to chandrashila.

Chandrashila Peak from Tungnath is little less than 1.5 kms. The trail begins from the back side of Tungnath temple and is consistently uphill with few patches being surprisingly quite steep. The clouds made the view of the downhill really spectacular and unbelievable. As we were really tired, we took our time to climb 1.5 km and reached to the peak in about 2 hours. It was so peaceful, calm and beautiful at the top, which cannot be described in words. We stayed there for another hour and watched the beautiful sunset from the top. The spectacular view of the Himalayas was a treat to eyes and left us with a peaceful soul.

Chandrashila is a moon shaped rock and in India mythology it is believed that this is the place where Lord Rama meditated after defeating the Ravana. Another legend says that moon-god Chandra spent time here in penance.

Though the Chandrashila peak provides a spectacular 360 degree panoramic view of some of the highest peaks in India like Nandadevi, Trishul, Kedar Peak, Bandarpunch and Chaukhamba Peaks, unfortunately, the peaks were not visible clearly because of clouds. With an intention to come back to the place, we started our downhill trek and by the time we reached back to Tungnath, it was all dark. We had tea in a Dhaba and inquired about the stay options at Tungnath. There are several options here to stay in a camp or rooms depending on the choice and the rent varies from INR 400 – INR 800 per night. One can also have their own tents in the meadows behind the temple. Since many of our group members already descended the trek, we decided to go down to Chopta in dark only with the help of torch lights. The trek was not visible at all but since it was well paved, we did not face much difficulty in trekking down. The sky looked amazing with different shades of colours because of clouds. We kept on identifying different objects and animals in the cloud formation in sky during the whole journey down to Chopta and it took us another 2.5 hours to come down. We had a hot water bath in the homestay we were staying in Chopta which helped in getting over our tiredness. rest of the night was spend around bonfire.

Day 3: Chopta to Haridwar

Day 3 spent mostly in traveling back. We woke up little late next day and left for Haridwar after breakfast. We stopped in Rishikesh for lunch and spent some time at the bank of Ganges and reached Haridwar at around 5 PM, took bath at Har ki Pauri, strolled around in the market and came back to Delhi taking an overnight UPSRTC Volvo with everlasting memories, some new good friends and I am definitely coming back here again for the view which was missed due to clouds.

PS: Thanks to WAFT for giving me everlasting memories and such amazing travel buddies.