My Journey to the Valley of Flowers, Yumthang, North Sikkim, India 🇮🇳 (My Sikkim Diary #08)
Hello again 👋, l hope you all are doing well. Today's journey brings us my amazing adventure in Yumthang, the valley of flowers 💐 So be ready to get lost into beautiful nature.
Yumthang flowers 💐valley 😍. There was freezing cold weather 🥶 and little bit snowfall so I had to put a pair of hands gloves and thick winter jacket.
I stayed at Lachung village the previous day. I only visited Zero point. There are many beautiful spots around here in Lachung. So I wanted to go. You know I always start my journey in the morning. So I hired a car 🚗 to visit my next destination Yumthang valley. It's only 25 kilometres car 🚗 drive. It took me 1 hour and 50 minutes to arrive there.
I found this sweet lady selling her homemade vegetable momos on the Katao route. It was early morning and the weather was freezing cold so this fire🔥hot momos kept me warm on my journey.
Katao route is only 25 kilometres from Lachung and know for its stunning view for snow covered mountains pick ⛰ . But due to bad weather mountains view was blocked by thick fog😕.
The main road towards Yumthang continues straight ahead with the Teesta river flowing on its right.
It's a resting place. We stopped here to have some food and pee break.
Do you know? According to a famous traveller Joseph Hooker,Lachung and Yumthang are the two most picturesque places in the whole of Sikkim!!😏🤔 And it is often compare to the Switzerland 🇨🇭😉.
The Yumthang Valley of Sikkim, valley of flowers 💐sanctuary, is a natural sanctuary with river, hot springs, Yaks and grazing pasture surrounded by the mighty Himalayan mountains⛰.
Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary which spans across 43 Square km area and has 24 different varieties of Rhododendron. But I missed it 😔. I visited there at wrong time so didn't find any blooming Rhododendrons 😕. March to May is the blooming time. I visited there end of September, bad timing 👎😪. But got the great Mountains view⛰. So I'm not regretting much.
Unknown colourful flowers 💐in Shingba Rhododendron Sanctuary.
In Yumthang valley, a beautiful pine wood 🌲 forest. If you are lucky you can see Nilgai, (Boselaphus tragocamelus), the largest Asian antelope (family Bovidae), wild yak and deer 🦌 here. Guess I not lucky enough 😕. I didn't get the chance.
I found this beautiful Yumthang hot spring in Yumthang forest block😍.
I stayed in Yumthang valley for 2/ 3 hours. But suddenly there was heavily raining starting and I had to rush back to car🚗. And went back to Lachung.
📝Note:
A separate permit is required to visit Katao. If you are longing to see snow ❄, Katao is the best option.
Visit Yumthang valley during March to May otherwise you will miss Rhododendron blooms like me.
That's the end of my journey for today. I hope you guys are enjoying it. Next day I will come back with another adventure. Lots of love ❤. Bye