Scenic Spots on the way to Divine Yatra YAMNOTRI

Chardham Yatra

                           
1. Introduction to Dev Bhoomi - Uttarakhand
2. Scenic Spots on the Way to Yamnotri
3. Yamnotri - Origin of River Yamuna
4. Scenic spots on way to Gangotri
5. Gangotri - The origin of Holy river GANGA
6. Reverse gear to Dehradun 
7. On the way to Kedarnath  
8. Kedarnath   
9. Scenic beauty on the way to Badrinath   
10. Visit to BADRINATH and village MANA  

In every summer vacation  my family visits  Dehradun  (in law’s house) so we tend to explore the places in Uttranchal.  I love to be there and especially in the month of June when Delhi / NCR  in the grip of scorching heat.

We started our journey for Yamnotri on June 7^th , 2010 from Dehradun at 7.30 AM along with my sister’s family. We were four adults & four Kids.

 There are two routes for Yamnotri from Dehradun :-

Route  No. 1-          Dehradun – 36 Kms  – Herbertpur –  5 Kms - Vikas Nagar – 37 Kms --Yamuna Bridge  – 25 Kms-Damta – 28 Kms- Naugaon – 11 Kms Barkot – 29 Kms- Syana Chatti- 5 Kms-Hanuman Chatti- 7 Kms - Janki Chatti- 6 Kms – Yamnotri (184  Kms by road & 6 Kms by Trek, Total 189 Kms)

Route No. 2  - Dehradun – 38 Kms-Mussoorie –10 Kms- Kempty Fall- 16 Kms  – Yamuna Bridge – 25 Kms-Damta – 28 Kms- Naugaon – 11 Kms Barkot – 29 Kms- Syana Chatti- 5 Kms-Hanuman Chatti- 7 Kms - Janki Chatti- 6 Kms – Yamnotri (169 Kms by road & 6 Kms by Trek, Total 175 Kms)

Distance wise both the routes are almost equal & these routes meet at Yamuna Bridge.

We chose Route No.2 .  From Rajpur road  via  Jakhand , after couple of Kms only the hilly area  started. As we stared early in the morning the climate was little cold. Around 8.00 AM we reached Mussoorie and  from Gandhi Circle we took left turn towards Kempty fall. Our first halt was at Kempty fall for the break fast. By the time our breakfast got ready we captured the scenic beauty of Mussoorie in our cameras.

Kempty fall  is  located at a high altitude of 4500 feet from the sea level. This place was developed as a tourist destination by a British officer John Mekinan, around 1835.The name Kempty is derived from 'Camp-tea', as the Britishers would organize their tea parties here

After having our breakfast we headed towards Yamuna Bridge, the route coming from Herbertpur also meets at this place. Our second halt was at a beautiful village known as DAMTA , which is about 40 Kms from Kempty fall.

DAMTA  is located in tehsil Chakrata , district Dehradun. Its boundries touches three distt Uttarkashi, Dehradun and Tehri. 

As due to the extensive journey we were feeling the motion sickness so we stopped there for sometime and got fresh by washing our faces with the cool mineral water of a stream. We had some liquid diet & proceeded towards our next destination Barkot. It is about 40 kms from Damta. We reached Barkot at 12.00 PM.

As we were having sufficient time to reach Janki chatti which is the last motorable stop to Yamnotri  hence we decided to explore Barkot.

Barkot is located at at a height of about 1828 meters above sea level. It is a haven for any nature lover. We enquired from locals & found there are two temples to visit. We parked our vehicle & started walking towards the temple as guided by the local people. After crossing the market we took a left turn and walked down towards  Laxhmi Narayan Temple. This temple is dedicated to lord Vishnu and it is said that it was built by the Pandavas originally. Some of the statues are installed by Adi Shankaracharya.

Adjacent to this Laxmi Narayan temple there was a Aasthbhuja  Devi temple also. We took prashad from  the temples and proceeded  towards Syana Chatti. 

Syana Chatti  is a beautiful place located at the bank of river Yamuna at an altitude of 1982 meters from the sea level

Chatti means Sarai ( A place for night Halt) , There are five chatti’s between Barkot  and Yamnotri (Syana Chatti , Rana Chatti , Hanuman Chatti , Phool Chatti & Janki chatti)

How the Chatti’s came up ----- As the motarable road reached closer to Yamnotri , the new night halt ( Chatti) places were developed. Couple of years back  people used to walk from Hanuman Chatti  which is about 13 Kms from Yamnotri. Now Janki chatti is last motrable spot,  which is about 6 kms from Yamnotri

By the time we reached  Syana Chatti , it started raining . We were not expecting that it would be so cold around 3 PM & our woolens were packed inside our bags. But we were enjoying the cool weather as we don’t find such weather here in Delhi during these months.We reached  Garhwal Mandal hotel for the lunch.  After having our lunch we again started our journey towards Jannki Chatti. On the way we crossed Hanuman Chatti

Hanuman Chatti is located at the confluence of River Hanuman Ganga and Yamuna.

By the time we reached Janki chatti it was raining heavily & it was too cold also.So we purchased raincoats for all as we had to walk up towards the hotel. We did not waste our time in searching hotels, we took rooms near the parking area. All were damn tired, we had our dinner in the same hotel where we stayed because it was still raining. We all went to bed early as next day we had to start our journey at 6.00 AM for Yamnotri , which is about 6 Kms on foot from Jannki chatti.

Janki Chatti is located at the height of 2576 meters from the sea level. It is famous for its hot water springs.

My Yamnotri Trip experience will be in the next couple of days.