Dream Mountain: Journey to Tapovan, Lata, Vishnuprayag

The Dream Mountain resort is located at an altitude of 2000 mtr. The picturesque view of Himalayan mountains namely Hathi Parvat, Ghoda parvat, Sleeping beauty mountains from resort would spellbind you. The early morning sun rays on these snow capped mountains and different species of chirping birds in the midst of variety of flora and fauna in the resort was a blessing to soul. We had early morning tea, breakfast and got ready for another day of journey to surrounding places. Today’s itinerary was Tapovan hot water spring, Vishnuprayag and Hathi pahad.

Dream Mountain resort

Tenting at resort

During winters

Resort tent

Hathi Parvat, Ghoda parvat, Sleeping beauty and Hathi pahad.

First we started with Tapovan hot water spring, which is 15 km from the resort. The route is towards Niti valley. The Niti village is the last border village on the China border. There are many other villages along the route. Tapovan hot spring is one of the places wherefrom one can view Nanda Devi peak. Nanda devi trek is one of the most sought after treks in Uttarakhand. For this trek, permit is issued by the government. As soon as we reached Tapovan, the air got more fresh and cooler. It was really very exciting and breathtaking experience to be near Tapovan spring surrounded by giant mountains. Few people were already there and boiling eggs in the spring water for breakfast. It must have been a gala time for those people as it was appearing from their cheerful moods. We also participated in their party, but unfortunately could not be offered the eggs as the same were not enough. After spending half an hour or so, we decided to march towards Lata and Rini villages further. Rini is famous for Chipko andolan whereas Lata village has homestay tourism.

Tapovan hot spring

First we reached Rini and then Lata. As soon as reached Lata, we were told that the summer village is 2 km above the main road. Trekking to the village was not possible as it had started drizzling and we had no plan to go to this village. So, we decided to move back to Joshimath and then to Vishnuprayag and Hathi Pahad.

Rini village

Summer village, Lata

Winter village, Lata

Niti village 75 km from Joshimath

After reaching Joshimath, we took the road to Badrinath for Vishnuprayag. Vishnuprayag is the first prayag (Confluence) in the series of all the prayags. This prayag is not inhabited like other prayags. There is a small temple which is taken care of by few priests. We reached there and spent around half an hour. From Vishnuprayag, we further moved to Hathi Pahad.

Visnhuprayag

Hathi pahad is just opposite to Joshimath across Alaknanda. From Hathi pahad, after reaching to a certain point we were stopped by some hydroelectric personnel for further journey ahead. That place has establishment of hydroelectric project and due to security reasons probably we were not allowed further journey. So, ultimately we decided to return back and it was already evening 4 PM. While returning back to resort we also paid visit to temples like Narsingh, Bhavishya Kedar.

Rainbow after rain

Joshimath town viewed from Hathi Pahad.

The whole day passed quite serenely and at the night we were gazing in the sky, the stars were visible after day drizzling. The stars seemed quite near to earth and very clear visibility was there. The next day we were planning for our return to Dehradun. There were many other places where we would be visiting on next tour.