CHOPTA: Trekking in Himalayas in Monsoon

Walking up the trail of tungnathji temple ,our minds was acquired completely by the beauty of the region, with monsoon playing a dual ; the  mantrap beauty that clouds were creating the tiny droplets of rain that we were feeling on our faces defining life in all new prospective.

But also not letting us to see all those beautiful peaks at the same time.

But, the almighty sitting at the peak was smiling …..and we the mortals, were smiling too.

Chopta is one of the most Picturesque spot in Uttarakhand which is located about 181kms from Haridwar. It is also famous as Switzerland of Uttarakhand. The main attractions include The temple of Tungnathji( one among the panch Kedar), Breath taking scenery, Devariya Tal, Mighty peaks , Lush green meadows, and chandrshila peak.

The trek to Tungnathji is of 4kms and the track is well paved....

The journey- 

It was the second week of july. We, a group of seven friends were returning from our trip to Badrinath and Mana,  and Chopta was also on our travel map. We were at Chamoli and were searching for a taxi to take us to chopta. .

Monsoon was in merciful mood but rains had already played their parts ; most of the taxi drivers were not sure if the roads to chopta via Gopeshwer was open, there were news of many landslides .

After long search and negotiations one taxi driver was ready to take the risk. It was already pass 4 pm and chopta was some 35 kms away.

The driver of the Mahindra jeep that we hired turned out to be inspired by Raid De Himalaya; he was driving so fast on that curvaceous mountain road with many small rainy waterfalls all around and visibility almost zero that we turned more religious through out the journey. But lord was kind to us as we had a flat tyre in middle of the stretch. What a sigh of relief huuh!

This break also provided us an opportunity to click the beautiful area and appreciate the beauty of the nature.

When we reached chopta, the monsoon welcomed us with heavy rain. Somehow we managed to settle in a small hotel booking two rooms for seven of us. Chopta being in a Wildlife century, there is no electricity supply and almost zero mobile coverage .

We were happy like anything, the hotel owner was a nice guy he arranged for tasty Chai-Pakora, aah what a bliss!

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After satisfying our taste buds, we all chit-chatted till dinner  time. Even the dinner provided with hot roti and aloo sabji was tasty.

We settled in our beds hoping  that the monsoon will be a little peaceful tomorrow as we were to start the trek to Tungnathji early in the morning.

Day 2-

Next morning was cloudy, and we started the trek at 7.30 in morning. Excitement levels were high and everyone was engrossed in the vistas created by mountains and clouds. The trek is easy & the atmosphere was encouraging with beauty all around.

We took first tea break at a small tea stall near a beautiful meadow. After taking tea we purchased few suger candies and resumed our journey, when it started to drizzle. We pulled out our polythene rain coats and continued our journey in the misty weather.

 

We took many photography breaks and another tea-biscuit break before the final ascend.

Rain, clouds, mist, green and beautiful mountains , everyone was feeling the heavenly atmosphere ….we LOVED CHOPTA !!

We reached Tungnathji temple. The priest was very kind we chatted with him about the temple and the life during winters 

Spent some time at the temple and then searched a small eatery near temple , needless to say we were hungry like anything. After eating maggi we started our journey back to chopta.

The trail is well paved and there are many opportunities to take shortcuts too. After funfilled journey we were back to Chopta and started our journey back to Haridwar.

Happy and content…..