How to plan Gaumukh & Tapovan Trek in Uttrakhand

I reached Uttar Kashi late evening from Barkot. Once reached found a cheap hotel for my night stay & slept. I woke up early in the morning and gone to the ganga ghat for a dip.The name of the ghat is manikarnika ghat. After breakfast i checkout from the hotel and went to pay a visit to the very famous Kashi Vishwanath Mandir near the bus stand.

Now i have already heard that for Gaumukh trek one do not need guides as mandatory, but for Tapovan one must need govt permit & govt authorised travel agencies guides.

Some co-travellers were also with me who also wants to trek to Gaumukh.So accordingly we went to the Uttar Kashi Forest Office at Kotbangla.

"Tapovan trek permits is only organised from Uttar Kashi". It is situated on the Uttar Kashi - Gangotri highway near by the taxi stand. On reaching the office we told them our interest to trek to Gaumukh & Tapovan. (Note-They will always tell you not to go there for bad weather conditions and all. ) But anyhow we managed to impress the officials. Now they gave me couple of official pages where the govt authorised travel agencies names & contact numbers are mentioned and told me to choose from the lists below with whom i wanna go for trek.

They suggested to give some calls from the lists & check who's rates better suits my pocket. And i started giving calls to few and what i came to understand from the travel agencies is that:-

The guides charges is between 1200-1600/day.Extra 100 rs/individuals commission for making trek permits from the govt offices. (Permit costs for Indians its 150 Inr / 2days & for Non-Indians its 600 Inr/ 2 days).(More than 2 days fine will be 50 Inr for Indians & 250 Inr for Non-Indians).Guide 3 time meals & night shelter is on us & also his permit. They will require minimum 2 days for arranging all those things.

After knowing all those informations we decided to leave Tapovan trek and lets move to Gangotri for Gaumukh trek. Note- Gaumukh trek does't require any prior permits & guides as well.

So we took a sharing cab from Uttar Kashi & reached Gangotri by late evening. Took a lodge kept our stuffs and went straight to the Gangotri Dham. Now when we already decided to trek upto Gaumukh that time a guy came forward to us & asked if we want to go to Tapovan but we told him the entire story as we know he is throwing bluff. But later on we came to know he is a trek guide in this area for a long time and he took yatris to not only to Tapovan but to Nandanvan also the last point where one can go witbout any oxygen cylinders or masks. He told us that he knew few govt officials here in Gangotri too and we can trek to Tapovan. And without any second thought i asked him his charges and he replied its 1000/day with 3 times meals & shelter which is common everywhere. At last we close the deal with 900/ day & he bid good night while saying he'll wake up us in the morning for making permits. We all were excited and went under the 2 layers of blanket for sleep. Around 06:30 am he came to us and said pack our take away stuffs if one not want to carry the big rucksack. Also suggested to buy some good woollen socks,gloves,inners as the temparature in Gaumukh &Tapovan can fall at any time. Around 09:00 am me along with him went to the "Gangotri Forest Office" for permits.

I carried all my co-travellers goverment id xerox copies. They official asked have i done any high altitude trekking before..& suggested again to avoid Tapovan if u feel the weather is not good. They gave me one form where i filled all the detail informations of mine along with my co-travellers and they officials stamped on it "OK TO GO"!! & handovered a copy to me.

After all this done we done with our breakfast along with the guide in Gangontri near the mandir. Around 10:30am we started our trek by praying for our good journey in the Gangotri temple and crossing it took the stairs for uphill trek.

Let me clear you all the Route Map:-

"Gangotri-RamMandir(2kms)-Chidwasa(7kms)-Bhojwasa(5kms) night stay-Gaumukh(4kms)-Tapovan(5kms)".

Till Rammandir & beyond some point after Rammandir there is a proper road. After we reached Gangotri National Park at Rammandir the officials asked us to show us the permit and we shown them. Then they asked for the permit fees which i'm aware of (mentioned above). I have one of my foreigner friend too with me for whom its 600 Inr & we paid the amount and gave us a amount copy. They strictly checked our backpacks & counted the numbers of polythenes/plastics items we were carrying and took 500 Inr as a deposit for this to not to throw it on the way to gaumukh and bring it back here at this point.

Note if someone have any high altitude problem then they may take Diamox tablet prior a day of trekking. Also one can rent a oxygen portable bottle at 150 Inr from Gangotri.

The trek to Gaumukh is very challenging with rocky roads. Sudden adrenaline rushed through out my whole body as i'm now trekking on the roads that goes to my Him❤layas. While trekking one can see many peaks of himalaya. Gaumukh is basiclly an ice glaciers situated beneath the Shivlinga & Bhagirathi mountains. Gaumukh means the mouth of a cow in a hindi term which is the source of origin of River Ganga.

The road is very narrow some time that only one person can cross it at one time. But i have no words for such astonishing views along with the river Bhagirathi flowing downs.

I saw many wild life creatures during ny trek as they all known as Himalayan Rat,Mirik,Birds,Lizards etc, and they eat Tulsi leaves which is all around and can only live in this bone chilling climate & used to eat ice.

I done with my 14kms trek for the day & reached Bhojwasa. There were 2 night shelters 1.Lal Baba Ashram & 2. GMVN guest house. We choosed to stay at Lal Baba Ashram at 350 Inr with all the meals.

I took a glass of hot tea and started gazing at the pure pollution free bluish sky and the Gaumukh mountain is just near by. We were served dinner at around 19:30 hrs rice roti dal & a sabji which taste yummy at this point of Himlaya. I covered myself with 4 layers of cloths. Soon it started falling snow for some time. We all went for sleep taking 2-3 layers of blankets.

I suddenly woke up around 05:00am for the urge of visiting the loo. So i took my torch and came out to and boy oh boy !! I was mesmerised for some time watching the glance of the sky which looks so beautiful with lots & lots of stars all around which looks like Milky Way. It is because Gaumukh is situated on a 3500mts above sea level with no pollutions & all. I called my other buddies to watch it & but cant be able to keep myself stand outside for more time to watch the e due to heavy cold.

Its 07:30 am and i some how get some hot water for brushing my teeth or else i thought i'll be not be brushing today. Have a roti with a tea and just started our trek for Tapovan via Gaumukh. The officers present in Lal Baba Ashram called all the yatris and suggested us all that uphill the weather was severely bad and the glaciers can break down or fall down taking you at any time.But there were many travellers from around the world who came here for Tapovan but no one dares to go agaisnt the nature taking ther risks of life. Our guide came to us & ask whether we want to trek to Tapovan or not & we decided to not to go to Tapovan & to do it till Gaumukh. (So its not a fault of our guide & we paid him accurately).

So we started our next 4kms for Gaumukh.The road from here is little bit tough as in many cases we need to hold the rocks and then push our body upwards. After reaching 2kms there were a shiva linga mandir where a Baba resides. And we can see the ice-glaciers now in front of out eyes. We reached the last point of Gaumukh just near to me its all covered by glaciers. We spended a good 2hrs there chanting mantras, taking yoga shots, making videos & just to feel it for a lifetime. I want to have bath here near this Gaumukh point but due to the glaciers cant be able to go down. We came back to the shiva linga mandir and from here i touched the bhagirathi river water and it was like i got a frost bite in my finger the water was so chilled.