CharDhamour CharDham Yatra started in delhi and ended in delhi. we booked from southerntravelsindia.com travels. they are reasonable and best for south indian people.
day 1: to RushikeshDelhi to rushikesh. (10:30PM - 5:30 AM) -7 hours
day 2: night halt @ Barkot; covered
Rushikesh visited many ashramams. mainly swargasramam, geeta Ashramam, Shivananda
Ashram. most
of these ashrams are run by trusts. those, who are devotional can enjoy the ashramams. due to time constraint we did not visit many ashramams.
There are many world famous Yoga institutes here. many foreign students also comes here and join various yoga courses.
i really surprised to know many stores are accepting VISA/MAster cards, there are few agencies for foreign currency conversion also.
Haridwar and rushikesh is the starting point for Himalaya mountains. River ganga flows from here. it comes from Gangotri.
we have seen two suspension bridges called Ram jhoola, laxman Jhoola.
Finally, guide showed rudraksh tree(noproof, took it granted). But, frankly speaking i could not recognize if see next time. even i could not find the difference betweek rudraksh and it side tree.
Note: If any one of you visited Rushikesh with a guide, he will rush in all places, finally take you to some shop, its trap. don't believe, the prices of items the owner shows. one can easily find the same with min 500 less in nearby shop and even 1000 less in normal shops in our cities.
After that we departed to Barkot on the way to Gangotri. we have seen dehradun, mussorie on the way. if we have rushed as early as possible in rushikesh, we could have found some time at kempty falls, don't expect big falls. its reasonable falls. down, shops are available to rent swimsuits, air balloons its really a fun place to en
joy and to spend some time.
NOte: If any one plans Mussorie alone, they can visit these falls for half day activity. if you like temples, enquire about surkanda devi temple at a height of more than 8000 ft from sea level, its near by only. if you are lucky, you can see total himalayas from one corner to another corner. we are told by priests that its really amazing view in winter espcially. it seems total mountains appear as total white shade.
After we crossed mussorie for more than 3 hours we traveled along Yumuna river. its one of the beautiful places to drive to enjoy scenic. its very bad ghat road. hardly our driver drove the vehicle at 20-25 kms per hour speed, or even less after mussorie.
At 8PM we reached our hotel to night halt. in Himalayas after 8 no vehicle will travel its mandatory.
journey time only without halting for sight seeing: 1:30PM - reached barkot by 8PM tea break for 30 mins. 6 hours. dangerous curves and narrow roads.
day 3: Yamunotri: 
All vehicles will reach till janaki chetti either by jeeps/rented
vehicles. from janaki chetti have to go by walk/pony/doli.
we started by 7:30 in barkot and travelled for more than 2 hours along yamunotri river to reach janakichetti. It is my one of the amazing experience to see green scenaries on two mountain ranges separated by Yamuna river. while going mist/clouds, many many of them can be seen on the way to yamunotri. Syana chatti, Rana chetti and Hanuman Chetti are few villages on the way. it took around 2 hours to reach to top and while
coming down 2 hours. at the temple i don't think it takes much time. At the temple there are hot springs, majority of the people will take bath in hot springs and go for darshina.
i am really flattered by the scenes while going and coming back. it is hard to predict the weather in yamunotri. we were there around for 7 hours, 4-5 times its rained, out of that 2 times heavy rain for 20 mins, one can easily get wet with that rain.
we went by horse for Rs. 400/- plus at check post they charged another Rs. 50 , based on weight it differs couples more rupees extra.
Don't miss the morning views, if you get a chance, go for a small walk. In some places clouds stand still clearly visible places.
Day 4: Night Halt @ Uttar Kashi.Till Lunch free. went for walk on mountain roads. one c
an see many small falls. in these hills. we found a okrut tree in front of my hotel. we started to uttarkashi in heavy rain in the afternoon. after one hour of drive we struck on the road where half of the road on the hill fell down. On the way
we visited prakateshwar temple. it is not a man made temple. it is in a cave, with the help of steps gwe went down. down kedar ganga flows. inside the temple one can see five siva lingams, one jyothirlingam, formations happened. we can feel and touch everything there, pujari allows that. donot miss a chance to see the beauty of the cave if any one gets a chance. it is small hike on a hill, not difficult to climb.
After that we departed to Akash ganga, Uttarkashi on the banks of River bhagiradhi. By 7PM there was a harati program. every one can participate in the harati program. It was good. after that we visited few temples Ganga, Shiva, Hanuman. Out of all these i have seen one dwajastambham without basement for it. it has Trisulam with GhandraGoddali,(assume some sort of axe) very rare to have.
( uttarkashi story should be added).
Day 5: Gangotri. Night Halt @ UttarKashi
It was difficult day for all. from morning to evening just traveling and traveling with 2 hours break to see the gangotri. we took a bath in Ganga the visited Gangotri temple. it was
totaled painted with white color. very tough ghat road till now we traveled But very scenic road i enjoyed a lot. i recommend start early to gangotri, if starting from uttar kashi, complete visiting and pooja programs quickly then there will be plenty of places to enjoy on return from gangotri.
there was road work going while we are coming back, all vehicles are stopped at Apple trees. We took many pictures there, stopped went inside Apple tress. it was really awesome climate one can appreciate the weather luckily there was no rain today.
Day 6: Night Halt @Srinagar.it might be another tough day, instead of going to RamPur. we stopped at Srinagar, it is not Jammu & kashmir Srinagar. on the way we seen Tehri Dam drive through. total day just travelling to srinagar. Tehri Dam Reservior is one of the biggest in asia. It took us almost more than 5 hours to cross the dam from one end of the reservior.
Tehri Dam: (uttaranchal.com). On the rivers Bhagirathi and Bhilangana
Tehri Dam is the primary dam of the Tehri Development Project, a major hydroelectric project centered near Tehri Town in the state of Uttaranchal in India. Located on the Bhagirathi River, the principal tributary of the sacred River Ganges, the Tehri Dam has a height of 855 feet (261 m), making it the 5th tallest dam in the world. The dam's intended capabilities include a power generation capacity of 2400 MW, provision of irrigation to an area of 270,000 hectares, irrigation stabilization to an area of 600,000 hectares, and a supply of 270 million gallons of drinking water per day to the industrialized areas of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. There is another smaller dam 14 km downstream at Koteshwar that will produce 400 MW of electricity, and is still considered part of the TDP hydroelectric plan. The Tehri Dam has thus been the object of active protestation by environmental organizations and local people of the region. . In addition to the human rights concerns, the project has spurred concerns about the environmental consequences of locating a large dam in the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan foothills. There are further concerns regarding the dam's geological stability. The Tehri dam is located in the Central Himalayan Seismic Gap, a major geologic fault zone. This region was the site of a 6.8 magnitude earthquake in October 1991, with an epicenter 500 km from the location of the dam. Dam proponents claim that the complex is designed to withstand an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude, but
some seismologists say that earthquakes with a magnitude of 8.5 or more could occur in this region. Were such a catastrophe to occur, the potentially resulting dam-break would submerge numerous towns downstream, whose populations total near half a million.
Since 2005, filling of the reservoir has led to a reduced flow of Bhagirathi water from the normal 1000 ft³/s to a mere 2 ft³/s. This reduction has been central to local protest against the dam, since the Bhagirathi is considered part of the sacred Ganges whose waters are crucial to Hindu mythology.
Day 7: Night Halt @ Kedarnath.
We started at 5 AM from srinagar to Rampur/Gaurikund. It was 4-5 hours journey. we reached Rampur by 10:30AM. from there it is half an hour driver to gourikund, from there trek route to kedarnath starts. it 14 kms from gourikund to kedarnath one way. i sincercely recommend trek to kedarnath, if capable, it is best place, climate changes very frequently, we never now
when it rains, when it stops, we can clearly how cloud forms, becomes white, then travels upwards slowly, crossing us and going up.
today's night halt should be at kedarnath, but because of my wife health problem we stayed at rampur only. in the evening we went to triyug Narayan Temple, here supposedly Lord Shiva married Parvathi in front of Lord Vishnu. it is believed that from then onwards the homam(fire) did not stop, continuous fire.
KedarNath STory:
After mahabaharat War DharmaRaj got one strange dream on one night like all pandavas become Kustus. next day DharmaRaj called all his brothers and told about his dream. he asked what could we do to overcome Go hatya, gotra hatya and bhraman hatya pap. they decided we will pray for Lord Shiva and by getting Shiva's darshan we can got rod of this pap. Nakul & Sahadev knew Jyothisk and they found Lord was at Kashi/Banaras at that time.
they started to banaras to has darshan of Lord Shiva. Shiva came to know pandavs are coming to have darshan of me and he surprised why they are coming to me, Mahabharat war is done for s
ake of dharma and by krishna leading on dharma side and they did nothing wrong by killing all their cousin brothers, gurus. if they want to do some pap nivaran they should go to Lord Krishna not to me. by thinking of this he did not allow to give his darshan to pandavas. he decided to leave kashi and moves to UttarKashi, by thinking Uttar kashi total jungle by that time, no human can come to this jungle.
After pandavas reaching Kashi they came to know, shiva left to uttar kashi. the place is called now Sri Kashi Vishanadh Temple. Pandavas again started to UttarKashi. shiva
saw panadavs are coming here, then he thinks he would want to go such a place where no humanbeign can come there. And he goes to Keadar at the height of more than 12K
fts. there by that time no human beign lives. Pandavas reached UttarKashi and again started to kedar by knowing Shiva left to kedar. Shiva saw pandavas coming to kedar and he surprised how they are able to come to kedar. Still he refuse to give his darshan to pandavas and he creates a cattle by his power and he become one of them in cattle. Pandavas reached kedar and saw the cattle. Dharma Raj tells his brothers, It is tough to live for human beigns in these mountains and we see the big cattle here. it could be the Shiva's magic.
Note: for the people, who are intersted to walk kedarnath all the way up, I recommend ,plan night halt at Rampur only.
Day 8 : Night Halt @ RampurDay 9: Badrinath
Badrinath is one of the best places i have seen. i can say it is must see place at least once. iin my opinion everyone will love this place.
Badrinath temple, sometimes called Badrinarayan temple, is situated along the Alaknanda river, in the hill town of Badrinath in Uttarakhand state in India. It is widely considered to be one of the holiest Hindu temples, and is dedicated to god Vishnu. The temple and town are one of the four Chota Char Dham
pilgrimage sites. It is also one of the 108 Divya Desams, holy shrines for Vaishnavites. The temple is open only six months every year (between the end of April and the beginning of November), due to extreme weather conditions in the Himalayan region.
The mountains around Badrinath are mentioned in the Mahabharata, when the Pandavas are said to have ended their life by ascending the slopes of a peak in western Garhwal called
Swargarohini - literally, the 'Ascent to Heaven'. Local legend ha
s it that the Pandavas passed through Badrinath and the town of Mana, 4 km north of Badrinath, on their way to Swargarohini. There is also a cave in Mana where Vyas, according to legend, wrote the Mahabharata.
Saraswathi river started from mana village. Goddess saraswathi temple is there at the begining of the hill. it is said that one can see saraswathi river only in this place on the land. On the peaks of hills opposit to temple lake manasarovar stays. water comes from the hill is believed that it is manasarovar water.
badri nadh temple harati 8pm, 12pm. one way gate opening.
explain mountain,
badrinath story:
Day 10: Night Halt @ Pipalkoti Day 11: Departure to Haridwar. (Arrival at 3 PM) See Mansa Devi Temple, Ganga Temple and Aarti at Haridwar.
Day 12: morning arrive @ Delhi.
to see Aurangabad and Ellora, in and around of ellora, 
it covers Grishneshwar, Badra Maruthi temple. first we went to Aurangabad to see "Mini TajMahal" or Bibi Ka Maqbara, which translates as "Tomb of the Lady".
with sculptures depicting the Hindu religion and culture. The works of art are believed to have been carved between 350-700AD. The Kailas Temple found in one of the these caves is chiseled by hand from a single massive rock.
to see Aurangabad and Ellora, in and around of ellora, 
it covers Grishneshwar, Badra Maruthi temple. first we went to Aurangabad to see "Mini TajMahal" or Bibi Ka Maqbara, which translates as "Tomb of the Lady".
with sculptures depicting the Hindu religion and culture. The works of art are believed to have been carved between 350-700AD. The Kailas Temple found in one of the these caves is chiseled by hand from a single massive rock.
