Today I will take you to my favorite Himalayan valley named Solang Valley which is located at 2450 meters. This happened last October 2024 when I went there to volunteer for a trail running event. During this few days stay, I explored the area around Solang Valley, did several km long hiking and met many new people. Today I will tell you how I spent one day in Solang Valley.
The Himalayan mountain range is present in the north of India which is located in the continent of Asia. There is a hilly state in the Himalayas which is known as Himachal Pradesh and here is my favorite valley named Solang Valley which is located at an altitude of 2450 meters above sea level. This place has the title of adventure valley because almost all types of sports can be enjoyed here.
So the thing is that our whole team had reached by car a day before because I had some work at home so I had to leave a day late. October is a winter month and it can snow in the Himalayas anytime now. Thinking about winter, one of my rucksacks got filled with warm clothes, so one bag was of clothes, one bag of laptop and the third bag was of camera. Now to reach Kashmiri Gate from home, either I should take the metro or book a taxi?
In answer to this question, I book a taxi and after reaching Kashmiri Gate about an hour, I take my 8 pm bus. This bus will go to Manali which is about 600 km away from Delhi, the bus will take 14 hours to cover this distance and the journey to Manali is always very long. Anyway, I slept and when I woke up the next morning, we had reached the Manali bus stand. Manali is at an altitude of 2000 meters and I felt the temperature here to be quite low.
Wearing the jacket from the bag, I take a bus to Solang Valley which is 14 km away, in the next 40 minutes I check in at 'Hotel Adventure Valley' located in Solang Valley. After keeping the bag, I meet my colleagues who are staying in the same hotel. The event work will start in the next 2 days, so today I am free for the whole day. Now I think how I have to spend today. Wearing shoes from the room, I leave without thinking where to go.
While walking, first of all I see the river coming from Anjani Mahadev, then from there I go about 700 meters ahead on the trail towards Anjani Mahadev temple, from where I return without going to the temple. On the way back, I see the mountain of Bhrigu Lake which is shining yellow in the sunlight at a distance. I am thinking that in a few days I will have to go to Bhrigu Lake for the recce of the route.
A black horse is happily eating grass on the velvety green grass, I look at it for about 30 seconds but it does not look back at me at all. Moving ahead from here I reach the paragliding landing site, there are a lot of tourists here. Some people are eating food, some are riding horses, some are flying in paragliders, some are enjoying the ropeway and some people are roaming around without any reason like me.
In the afternoon I have lunch outside and then come to the hotel and have coffee with my friends, in the evening we all go out for a round where we go a little ahead of the hotel in Solang and watch the sunset on the 5240 meter high Friendship Peak which is first yellow then pink and finally turns red and black. One of our friends is very daring and he will go camping on the banks of the Beas River in this cold.
Although I also like camping but when I have got a comfortable room then why should I go camping. So today I hike more than 5 km while roaming in Solang Valley. I look at the flowers, see the butterflies sitting on the flowers, shake hands with the Beatles and see the confluence of the Pir Panjal Range and the Dhauladhar mountain range behind the clouds. There is such a beautiful view of the sloping hills in front and I am lost in it.
In the end, I would like to say this much, this Himalaya gives me proof of being alive. That is why I like to come here again and again because it considers me its own and accepts me without asking me any questions. This mountain is the answer to my questions, this mountain is the secret of my restlessness, this mountain is the charger of my battery and this mountain is my life.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77D and edited in lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.