Wander through India : UttaraKhand : An Ode to Himalaya and Spirituality ( Towards the hills , Trigujinarayan beckons )

Day XI : Phata –Trijunirayan-Nandaprayag

73. After a night of drizzle we woke up to splendid blue sky and fleeting white clouds. Today we were supposed to visit Triyuginarayan , nestled up above the valley of Guptakashi. The road leading to the village was unmetaled and narrow twisting and turning on the mountain side climbing all the while. I wonder how do people manage to commute to places like these in the rains; there is definitely no bus connectivity to these places , it’s the land of jeeps and max trekkers.For today it was all blue sky glorious sunshine and white peaks in the distance amongst the green mountain side .

74. Triyuginarayan was reached by around 1130 hrs and quickly had a darshan of the temple, there are many trekking spots in and around the surrounding mountains which I am sure those who stay close by can explore.

75. The place is credited as being the location of the marriage of Lord Shiva with Maa Parvati and witnessed by Lord Vishnu. The ancient temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu and the celestial mandap are the highlights.The akhand dhuni (perpetual flame) burns here all the time. A serene place however the priests I found to be over zealous to make you pay monetary offerings whichi somehow did not go well with the entire ambience.

76. By around 1400 hours we were back at Phata and decided to reach Karna prayag itself rather than staying at Rudra prayag that we had originally thought , the road to Karna prayag deviates from Rudra prayag and one has to retrace the path till there . The sector from Rudra prayag till maybe 25 kms is totally deteriorated and pot holed and thereafter the road condition improves substantially.

77. Karna prayag was reached by 1830 hrs and it somehow did not appeal to me, too much traffic and there is one single road on which everything rested. We did not get any accommodation at the GMVN guest house and based on their recommendation pushed on till Nanda prayag where we were accommodated in the TRH out there.

78. That bought us to the end of an eventful day and we had crossed the mountain range which differentiated between the Kedarnath region from the Badrinath region.

ODO for the day stood at 93070