Gangotri

A closer look at Gangotri

Gangotri is where the Ganga is worshipped at her source, and something about the setting makes even boisterous groups go quiet. The temple is a small white shrine built by a Gorkha commander in the eighteenth century, standing on a rock platform above the Bhagirathi as the river crashes through a narrow gorge of pale stone. Deodar forest climbs the slopes on both sides and the snow peaks of the Gangotri group close off the head of the valley. At 3,100 metres the air is thin, sharp and extraordinarily clean.

The drive up is, in our honest opinion, the most beautiful road on the entire Char Dham circuit. From Haridwar you climb through Uttarkashi, then follow the Bhagirathi as the valley steadily narrows, past the deep green reservoir at Tehri, through the pine belt at Harsil — an army town of wooden houses and apple orchards that many guests wish they had booked a night in — and over the last stretch to Gangotri itself. We pace this leg for stops rather than speed, because the light on the river changes every twenty minutes and the tea at the roadside stalls near Harsil is genuinely good.

At the temple, the ritual is simple: bathe or sprinkle yourself at Bhagirath Shila, where King Bhagirath is said to have meditated until Shiva agreed to break the Ganga's fall in his hair, then take darshan and fill a container with water to carry home. Many families carry Gangajal from here to offer later at Kedarnath or Rameswaram. A short walk downstream brings you to Surya Kund and Gauri Kund, where the river drops through carved rock into pools of an improbable milky turquoise.

For travellers who want more, the true glacier snout at Gaumukh is a 19-kilometre trek from Gangotri through Chirbasa and Bhojbasa, requiring a forest permit and at least two days. We arrange the permits, a guide and porters for anyone keen, though most guests are entirely content with the temple and the valley. The road opens on Akshaya Tritiya and closes around Diwali, and the shoulder weeks in May and late September give you clear skies with a fraction of the crowd.