There are thousands of valleys in the Indian Himalayas but Solang Valley is my favourite. This valley has enough features to become a favourite. Here you can do trekking, paragliding, river rafting, zobbing, use the ropeway, ski, do mountaineering courses, stay with your family in the best hotels. You can do zip line, enjoy river crossing and enjoy camping.
Collage created in adobe photoshop
This valley is situated on the road itself so you do not need to walk. Now see which is such a Himalayan valley where after reaching by road you directly touch the 5980 meter high snow covered mountain. Because of the above features this is my favorite valley. I went to Solang with my friends in October last year, we went to volunteer in the event organized here. Solang Valley is approximately 674 km from Delhi and it took us 14 hours to reach by car. It took us 2 hours more because road cutting work was going on on the way due to which there was a lot of traffic jam.
We stopped and had lunch at Chandigarh which was 235 km away. After Chandigarh, we stopped directly at the temple to drink tea. As soon as I reached the temple, I started clicking photos. The first photos are of Sundernagar where an airport of Himachal is going to be built. Here wheat has been sown in the fields for next year. Moving ahead we cross Pandoh Dam where Beas river is flowing below the road. Towards evening we cross Kullu where the sunset forces us to get down and click photos.
In Solang we stay at Hotel Adventure Valley. After a long drive, we have dinner straight away and surrender ourselves to a deep sleep. By the time we open our eyes at 7 in the morning, the sun comes. While having breakfast, fresh snow that had fallen last week was still visible over Bhrigu Lake and the mountains of Anjani Mahadev. During the day we go to the admin office to get permission for the event from where we return in the evening.
By evening the weather becomes cloudy, the Dhauladhar and Pir Panjal mountain ranges visible from Solang Valley are lost in dark clouds. I look at the apple orchards visible from the hotel which are probably going to witness rain soon. Next morning the weather clears and we go for a walk in the apple orchards of a local. In the orchards we see two types of apples, one is Royal Apple and the other is Golden Apple. The owner of the apple orchard also gives us some apples to eat, which we take back to the hotel.
For the next two days we explore Lahaul Valley and Solang Valley. Earlier, Lahaul Valley used to be cut off from the rest of the world in winter, but now since the tunnel connecting Solang Valley to Lahaul Valley has been built, one can visit Lahaul even in winter. After completing the day's work, in the evening we cross the tunnel and go to Lahaul where we enjoy the setting sun along the Chandra River.
On the return we stop at Dhundhi from where the trek to Beas Kund, Hanuman Tibba, Friendship Peak starts. And before dark we reach Solang Valley where we see paragliders flying over Anjani Mahadev Temple. So today evening was our last night here after which we come back home after spending 5 days the next day. I hope you liked this trip. Now I am leaving and will meet you in the next post, till then take care and keep roaming.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to tranlate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from POCO F1 and edited in Lightroom/photoshop.