Kedarnath Yatra- From a diary of a solo girl

Kedarnath yatra from the diary of a solo girl traveler. Here is a complete detail and my personal experience for Kedarnath trip

Being a solo girl traveler it’s always a trouble for everyone around me to choose travel as an option for me. But traveling is in my blood and I hardly bother about anyone else opinion. What matters the most to me is the fulfillment I get from traveling the different parts of this world. Today I am going to document one of the most interesting journeys of my life i.e. journey to the Kedarnath temple. It was my dream destination and I had researched about it intensively before actually going for Kedarnath yatra. So buckle up guys for a virtual tour of one of the most beautiful and charismatic locations of Northern India.
My experience:-
So basically I started my journey from New Delhi and reached Haridwar by 6:00 AM and rushed to Har ki Pauri and attended the Ganga Aarti. There was a huge rush but I managed to attend it from the first row. Then I got freshened up and took a small dip in Ganga jii. After spending my 2 hours there I proceeded to Haridwar Bus stand where after finding extensively for 1 and a half hours I finally got an Ertiga heading toward Kedarnath on a shared basis. Buses on this route generally leave Haridwar before 5:00 AM so if you are planning to go by bus then ensure to visit the Haridwar bus stand before 5:00 AM. After waiting for a few more minutes we finally started our journey with a chant of “Har Har Mahadev”. I was excited as I was living my dream. Roads after Rishikesh miraculously turned out to be more beautiful. Curly roads, lush green mountains, crystal clear water in the river, and soothing breeze is enough to fell in love with these mountains. In the next two hours, we reached Dev Prayag which is the origin of the river Ganga where it’s two tributaries Mandakini and Alaknanda mixed to make Ganga. It’s very pleasant view and something which we never get in cities. After leaving there we took a halt at Dhari Devi temple (although the driver was not ready to stop there after requesting a lot and promising to pay something extra he finally agreed on a condition to return in just 30 minutes). Dhari temple is something that I used to be fascinated about a lot and was the second most important destination in my plan to cover. This mesmerizing temple is located in the middle of the Alaknanda River. Among many stories and folklore, one of the most interesting stories about this temple is that during 2012-13 government was planning to construct a dam near Dhari Devi temple. Locals tried to convey that by this project temple would get submerged. In that case, the government had decided to replace the idol of this temple with some other place. The head priest denied this and tried to object to it a lot but officials had removed the deity from its original place. On the same day, Uttarakhand state witnessed one of the deadliest food of this century.
Moving ahead from Dhari Devi temple we reached Guptkashi and the driver suggested on resort named Musafir Resort. It was so beautiful and peaceful that all of us agreed to drive. Food quality, service, rooms everything was just awesome and we loved staying there. The next day we woke up early in the morning and reached Gaurikund at 8:00 AM and started our trip. Even though I was a solo traveler all 6 people in the car were like friends and treated me like a family member. It’s very rare and can only be seen in places like Kedarnath. So it took us around 8 hours to reach Kedarnath temple. We got the first glimpse of the temple from the Kedarnath base camp. It was very energetic and motivating. After getting the first glimpse we started running toward the temple and reached there in just a few minutes. It was an emotional moment for all of us and this is the same time I realised that there is happiness all around. Everyone is laughing, and enjoying, some have tears in their eyes but still smile, chanting the word “Har Har Mahadev”. Kedarnath is not just a pilgrimage point or a tourist destination but it’s an emotion.