Trip to Harsil (Haridwar, Rishikesh, Narender Nagar, Uttrakashi)

Hello All! After spending time on Haridwar we planned to visit Harsil. I have seen very good write up of Harsil from the fellow Ghumakkars. Thanks to their travel experience and the wonderful pictures they have uploaded we chalked down to our next trip after Haridwar.

About Harsil

Harsil is a small beautiful village and a cantonment area which is an excellent peaceful mountain resort which is still unexplored. It is situated in Uttrakashi district of Uttrakhand. Harsil is on the banks of Bhagirathi River and nestled amidst the beautiful Kumaoun Himalayas.
While going towards Gangotri Dham, you have to cross this village. Harsil is the ideal destination if you want to experience serenity and solitude amidst the lap of nature and love to do camping and trekking. Harsil is situated at an altitude of 7,860 ft (2,620 metres.) from sea level, Distance from Uttraksahi to Harsil lies 73 km and Gangotri Dham is 30 km away from Harsil.
We started our journey from Haridwar towards Harsil in the early morning 6.00 Am. The route is Haridwar, Rishikesh, Narender nagar, Uttrakashi and Harsil. Till Rishikesh traffic was smooth at that time and after crossing Rishikesh very few vehicles are there at time. Road was very narrow at some place as there was divider in between the road. Construction and widening of road is going on in Rishikesh area.

After crossing Rishikesh, road was almost in good condition and hardly few bad patches are there during travel towards Uttrakashi. We stopped at outskirt of Narender nagar as road is divided into two ways. One way is going from Narender Nagar and second way is from Tehri and Chamba. We decided to go from Narender Nagar as I have read that road was in good condition. We are almost at the top of hill there. We stopped there for a short duration to admire Rishikesh city and river ganga from there.

It takes almost five hour driving to reach Uttrakashi as we stopped at many places to enjoy nature and snacks which we have packed for kids. We stopped at Uttrakashi for lunch. Before continuing our journey I checked the tank which is half empty and I have read that no petrol pump is after Uttrakshi. I decided to visit petrol pump and fill the tank with diesel. It was good to see that diesel price is almost same as in Delhi.

After crossing Uttrakashi, at many places road was in very bad condition. But to my surprise I have seen people driving Alto and Maruti 800 very comfortable in this route and this encourage me to drive with more spirit at the hills. Accept three places during the trip where road is very narrow and badly broken where vehicles get struck or there floor touch towards the road otherwise its ok. One can easily drive here with little precautions.

During hill journey outsiders have to careful on turns as locals did not honk. One more thing you have to give sides to local taxi wallas as they are always in hurry and they want to overtake either road is narrow or blind turn is ahead. Even bus driver did not ready to give sides for overtaking. But due to the green mountains and the river which is almost flowing next to road make traveling pleasant and hardly feel bad for the travel condition.

We reach Harsil in the late second half of the day we found that Harsil is a very small village and very Hotels are there. Almost all the hotels are two or three star with basic facilities. We zeroed one hotel and booked our room. The rent of the room is very nominal which is Rs. 500/- per day. We booked it for two days. The hotel provided Cable TV and Hot Water facility. We take a bath and gone for sleep to refresh ourself for evening. We waked up late in the evening around 7:00 pm, to our surprise we feel cold. We have taken our woolen clothes along with our self which is very helpful at that moment. Thanks to fellow Ghumakkars, for sharing their travel experience. We came out from our hotel room and found it was dark outside and only few vehicles on the road. Even they stopped there and looking for rooms as there is very accommodation in Gangotri Dham. It was not possible to visit Harsil in the evening as it was dark and cold there. We returned back to our room and watched television. At 9:00PM we decided to visit the area for dinner as there was around 10-15 hotels near by there in a group along with road.

All the restaurants we found that have common menus and even they are providing Chinese and south Indian dishes. We decided the restaurant and ordered for the dinner. After dinner we take a small walk and returned back to our room.
My father waked us in the early morning for taking morning view of the nature. Sun was rising and it was good to see the mountains with sunlight. At many hills snow is shining. We go for morning walk and enjoyed the trek and nature.

Trekking and walking by road is the best thing if you want to feel the naturalness of small places like Harsil. It was cold in the morning but still walk was very pleasant. My kids enjoyed trekking a lot. We reached back our room and taken hot water bath. We went for the breakfast and enquired locals where and what to visit in Harsil.
After taking breakfast we packed lunch and snacks for kids and visited the following travel spots with the help of local villagers. They are:

Dharali which is 3 Kms away from Harsil and easily approachable by road
Mukwas village is 1 Km away from Harsil, is the home of Goddess Gangotri during winters because due to heavy snowfall all the ways towards Gangotri Dham are closed.
Sattal is a 3 kms from Dharali and 7 kms from Harsil. Sattal is a cluster of seven different lakes where you can reach by road or go by trekking. The journey towards Sattal is beautiful and full of picturesque views.

In the evening we moved back to our hotel. We enjoyed evening snacks and later go for dinner.
After returning from dinner we decided to enjoy the river sight seeing in the morning and then planned to visit Gangotri Dham as it was hardly 30 Kms from here.

Next morning we waked up at 5:00 AM. We get ready as per our plan. Taken hot milk and packed our self with jackets, caps and gloves as it was cold in the morning and evening there. My father went to the restaurant and arranged breakfast for us. It was good to know that restaurant food was ready in the early morning as vehicles start moving towards Gangotri Dham. We reached at river bank and enjoyed the view.

The river bed was very wast and at that time at some place the flow of river is very fast and some place it was flowing normal. We walked along with river and enjoyed morning view. We decided to take a dip in river, but my father was not ready for it. He told that water was very cold and it was not good idea to take a bath there. May be somebody get cold and the whole travel journey get wasted with that stupidity. I decided to check the river water with bare hand, it was so freezing that I have to rub my hand for 10 minutes to make them normal. I thanked my dad for his advised. We stay there for almost four hours. After taking breakfast, we played some stupid games there with my kids and run along with the river. My daughter was busy with camera and try to take different shots of the river and mountains.

We decided to move back to our hotel, packed our luggage and start travelling to Gangotri Ghat, which is our next traveling destination.