Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand open to tourists from June 1: All you need to know

Indian Express

2 days ago

Valley of Flowers Uttarakhand 2025: The Valley of Flowers in Uttarakhand opened to tourists for this year on June 1. The valley usually stays open for four months — June, July, August, and September — and closes sometime in October, as winter and snow make it dangerous for tourists at other times of the year.
Located in Chamoli district, the Valley of Flowers is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its beautiful alpine meadows, with hundreds of species of flowers blooming in the verdant forest, have long enchanted tourists. The valley is also home to a variety of birds and animals.
What makes the Valley of Flowers special, and what should you know before planning a trip here? We explain.
The Valley of Flowers is located within the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, spread over an area of 87 sqkm. Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India (after Kangchenjunga), also holds religious significance, as Nanda is considered the patron goddess of Garhwal and Kumaon.
'The gentle landscape of the Valley of Flowers National Park complements the rugged mountain wilderness of Nanda Devi National Park. Together they encompass a unique transition zone between the mountain ranges of the Zanskar and Great Himalaya, praised by mountaineers and botanists for over a century and in Hindu mythology for much longer,' UNESCO says about the site.
Flower species such as orchids, poppies, primulas, marigold, daisies and anemones can be found here. The valley also abounds in medicinal plants and herbs, and flowers with religious significance, such as the brahmakamal, offered to Nanda Devi. The valley has a variety of habitats, from foothills to alpine zones, from waterfalls and streams to forests, and is thus very rich in biodiversity.
'The trek to the valley offers eye-catching spectacles like cascading waterfalls and wild streams. Situated at an altitude of around 3,600 m above the sea level, the valley is also home to such rare and amazing wildlife species like the gray langur, the flying squirrel, the Himalayan weasel, and black bear, the red fox, the lime butterfly, the snow leopard,' the Uttarakhand tourism website says.
While the area has long had a significance in Hindu mythology and is populated by a local tribe called the Bhotiyas, the western world discovered it in earnest in 1931, when three British mountaineers returning from Mount Kamet, Frank S Smythe, Eric Shipton and RL Holdsworth, lost their way and ended up here. Smythe later wrote a book called Valley of Flowers, published in 1938. This opened up the area to mountaineers.
The India-China war of 1962 led to the border between India and Tibet being closed off, but Nanda Devi was once again opened for scaling in 1974. The resultant crowds damaged the delicate ecology of the area, and in 1982, the region was declared a national park and closed off to visitors. The Nanda Devi Biosphere was established in 1988, and gradual, controlled tourism slowly opened up.
The nearest airport is Jolly Grant airport in Dehradun, while the nearest railway station is Rishikesh. The last motorable point is Govind Ghat, from where the Valley of Flowers is a 16-km trek.
Other attractions close by are the Hemkund Sahib, a Sikh pilgrimage site where the 10th Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, is believed to have meditated for 10 years. Then is the sacred town of Joshimath, where Lord Badri from the Badrinath temple is brought for the winter.
Often, people get so caught up taking photographs in the Valley of Flowers that they are unable to explore a lot of its beauty. If you want to explore the valley at leisure, you can consider spending the night at Ghangaria, the last inhabited village on the way to the valley, and make multiple trips here. Tourists are supposed to exit the valley by 5 pm.