Chopta

A closer look at Chopta

Chopta is not a town. It is a bend in the road at 2,680 metres with a handful of tea shacks, a forest rest house and a scatter of camps, and it exists in the traveller’s imagination because of what surrounds it: kilometre after kilometre of bugyal — high alpine meadow — rolling away under deodar, oak and rhododendron, opening at every turn onto Nanda Devi, Trishul, Kedar Dome and the great triangular wall of Chaukhamba. Somebody once called it the Mini Switzerland of Uttarakhand and the name stuck, which is a pity, because the comparison undersells it.

The reason most people come is Tungnath. Three and a half kilometres of paved path climb from the roadside to 3,680 metres, where the highest Shiva temple in the world stands in a saddle of grass and stone. It is the third and highest of the Panch Kedar, said in the Mahabharata to be where the arms of Shiva’s bull form surfaced, and the walk up takes a comfortable two hours with plenty of places to stop and get your breath. Ponies cover part of the route for those who want them. A further kilometre and a half above the temple is Chandrashila, a 4,000-metre knuckle of rock that gives a full 360-degree Himalayan panorama and is worth the pre-dawn start it demands.

The other walk everyone should do is Deoria Tal, a small lake two and a half kilometres above Sari village on the drive in. On a still morning the entire Chaukhamba massif lies reflected in it, which is the photograph you have seen if you have seen any photograph of this region at all. It is an easy climb, suitable for children and unhurried walkers, and we usually fit it in on the way to Chopta or on the way back down so it costs you no extra day.

Chopta is about seven to eight hours from Haridwar by way of Devprayag, Rudraprayag and Ukhimath, and the last stretch through the Kanchula Korak musk deer sanctuary is genuinely beautiful driving. Accommodation is simple — cottages and fixed camps rather than hotels — so we book well ahead in season and are honest with you about what to expect. March to June is the rhododendron and meadow season; September to November gives the clearest mountain views; and from late December the whole thing turns into a snow trek, which is a different and very rewarding trip that we run for guests with the right gear and appetite.