Places to visit in Uttarakhand
100 places to visit in Uttarakhand, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Nanda Devi National Park, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, Valley of Flowers National Park and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Uttarakhand volume.
3 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 2 National monuments · 40 Famous places to visit · 14 Offbeat places · 41 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Uttarakhand (3)
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Nanda Devi National Park
The bowl of glaciers ringed by peaks that was closed to protect what was left of it, and reopened only at the edges.
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Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks
A world heritage site in two pieces twenty kilometres apart, the Nanda Devi sanctuary and the Valley of Flowers.
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Valley of Flowers National Park
A high meadow in Chamoli that comes into flower for a few weeks each year.
National monuments in Uttarakhand (2)
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Badrinath Temple
One of the four dhams, painted in bright colours against grey rock, with a hot spring at the steps.
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Patal Bhuvaneshwar
A limestone cave temple near Gangolihat, held to enshrine Shiva and thirty three crore demigods with him.
Famous places to visit in Uttarakhand (40)
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Adi Kailash
The lesser Kailash, near the Tibet border, and a pilgrimage for those who cannot cross.
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Almora
A Chand kingdom capital on a horseshoe ridge, with a bazaar of carved wooden fronts and a view of Nanda Devi on a clear day.
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Auli
Meadow at three thousand metres facing Nanda Devi, skied in winter and walked in summer.
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Bhimtal
Bigger than Naini, with an island in it.
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Champawat
The first Chand capital of Kumaon, with a Baleshwar temple older than the town, and the tiger Corbett shot in 1907.
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Chandi Devi Temple, Haridwar
Chandi Devi on the Neel hill, facing Mansa Devi across Haridwar.
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Chandrashila
An hour above Tungnath, and the whole Garhwal range.
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Devprayag
Where the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda become the Ganga.
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Dhanaulti
Deodar, and the Eco Park.
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Dhari Devi
The upper half of a goddess on the Alaknanda, moved for a dam in 2013, and the floods came that June.
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Gangotri Temple
Where the Ganga is said to have come down.
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Jageshwar Temples
A hundred and twenty four temples in a deodar grove.
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Jim Corbett National Park
India's oldest national park, opened in 1936, and where Project Tiger began in 1973.
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Joshimath
One of the four Shankaracharya mathas, and a town that is sinking.
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Jyotirmath
The northern of the four seats Shankaracharya founded, and where Badrinath's god winters.
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Kainchi Dham
Neem Karoli Baba's ashram on a hairpin bend near Bhowali, visited by people who then built things.
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Kamet
A blunt white pyramid on the Tibet border, second highest in Garhwal and a good deal harder than the first.
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Kasar Devi
A ridge temple where Vivekananda meditated in 1890 and, seventy years later, half the counterculture followed him.
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Kausani
Gandhi called it the Switzerland of India, from the ashram.
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Lansdowne
A Garhwal Rifles cantonment where nothing changes.
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Madhyamaheshwar
The navel of Shiva among the five Kedars, in a meadow above Ransi.
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Mana
The last village before the Tibet border, with a bridge Bhima is said to have laid.
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Mansa Devi Temple, Haridwar
Mansa Devi on the Bilwa hill, one of the two shrines that look down on Haridwar.
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Meru Peak
Three granite towers above the Gangotri glacier, the middle one climbed only in 2011.
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Mukteshwar
Chauli ki Jali, and a drop to the valley.
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Mussoorie
The queen of the hills, a ridge of colonial cottages looking north to the Gangotri range and south to the plain.
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Nainital
A lake in a bowl of seven hills, found by a sugar trader in 1841 and a summer capital within twenty years.
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Nanda Devi
The highest mountain entirely inside India, closed to climbers since 1982 and none the worse for it.
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Nanda Ghunti
Nanda's veil, a peak above the Roopkund trail and the Bedni bugyal.
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Neelkanth Mahadev
A climb through forest to where the poison was drunk.
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Om Parvat
A peak of 5,590 metres on the line between Pithoragarh and Nepal.
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Pithoragarh
Called little Kashmir for the valley it sits in, and the last town on the old trade route to Tibet.
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Ram Jhula Bridge
An iron suspension bridge over the Ganga above Rishikesh, crossed on foot all day long.
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Ranikhet
Cantonment, golf course and no noise.
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Rudraprayag
Where the Alaknanda meets the Mandakini, and the road forks for Kedarnath one way and Badrinath the other.
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Surkanda Devi
A hilltop shrine above Dhanaulti at 2,756 metres, where the head of Sati is said to have fallen.
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Tehri Dam
The tallest dam in India at 260 metres, holding the Bhagirathi back above New Tehri.
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Tehri Lake
A town drowned to make it.
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Triyuginarayan Temple
Where Shiva and Parvati were married, with a fire that is said to have burned since.
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Tungnath
The highest Shiva temple in the world.
Offbeat places in Uttarakhand (14)
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Dharchula
A border town on the Kali with Nepal on the far bank, and the last bazaar before the Kailash Mansarovar road climbs.
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Gangotri National Park
Fifteen hundred square kilometres around the Gangotri glacier, with Gomukh in it where the Ganga starts.
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Gaumukh
The snout of the Gangotri glacier, retreating.
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Har ki Dun
A hanging valley, and villages that worship Duryodhana.
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Hemkund Sahib
A gurudwara at four thousand metres, beside a lake.
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Kedarnath
A peak in the Gangotri group of the Garhwal Himalaya, south of the glacier.
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Kedarnath Temple
Stone at thirty five hundred metres, sixteen kilometres on foot from the road, open only half the year.
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Mana Village
The last village before Tibet, and Vyas Gufa.
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Munsiyari
At twenty three hundred metres facing the five peaks of Panchachuli, and the road end for the Milam glacier walk.
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Nanda Devi Base
The sanctuary is closed, and the approach is still the walk.
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Roopkund
A glacial lake at five thousand metres holding several hundred human skeletons, most from a single ninth century event.
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Sunanda Devi
Nanda Devi East, the lower of the twin peaks of the highest mountain in Uttarakhand.
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Swargarohini
A massif of four peaks in the Garhwal Himalaya, west of the Gangotri group.
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Vasudhara Falls
Water that is said to avoid the impure.
Hidden gems in Uttarakhand (41)
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Bandarpunch
The monkey's tail, a long summit ridge above the Yamunotri valley.
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Beatles Ashram
Chaurasi Kutia, painted over by everyone since.
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Bedni Bugyal
A high meadow above Wan, with Trisul over it and Roopkund beyond.
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Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary
Three hundred kilometres of Himalaya from Zero Point.
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Changabang
A white granite tooth in the Nanda Devi sanctuary, and a hard climb on every side.
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Chaukhamba
Four summits above the Gangotri glacier, seen from Chopta on a clear morning.
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Chopta
The meadow they call mini Switzerland, and mean it.
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Daksheswara Mahadev Temple
Kankhal, where Daksha's sacrifice was held and Sati walked into the fire.
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Deoria Tal
A lake above Sari with Chaukhamba reflected in it on a still morning.
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Dunagiri
A Garhwal peak with a long approach, and a village of the same name below it.
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Gaurikund
The hot spring where the walk to Kedarnath begins, and where Parvati is said to have waited.
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Gopinath Mandir, Gopeshwar
A twelfth century temple in Chamoli with an iron trident in the courtyard nobody can bend.
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Govind Pashu Vihar National Park
High park in the Tons valley where the snow leopard and the western tragopan both live.
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Har ki Pauri
The ghat where the Ganga leaves the mountains for the plain, and where lamps are floated every evening.
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Kalanka
A peak on the Nanda Devi sanctuary rim beside Changabang, and a hard one.
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Kalpeshwar
The only one of the five Kedars open all year, and the only one where Shiva's hair is worshipped.
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Kedarkantha
The winter trek everyone's first.
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Kempty Falls
A fall above Mussoorie the British developed as a picnic spot in 1835, and it has been one since.
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Laxman Jhula
A suspension footbridge over the Ganga where the river is still cold and green from the hills.
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Mana Pass
One of the highest motorable passes in the world, beyond Badrinath and beyond Mana village.
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Mukut Parbat
A peak beside Kamet, first climbed by a New Zealand party that included Hillary's friends.
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Nag Tibba
The serpent's peak, the highest in the lesser Himalaya of Garhwal, and a weekend walk from Dehradun.
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Naini Lake
A pear shaped lake in a bowl of hills, and the reason the town exists at all.
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Nanda Kot
Nanda's fortress, the peak that stands guard outside the sanctuary.
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Nilkantha
The peak that stands over Badrinath, and catches the first light before the temple does.
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Panchachuli
Five peaks in a row, the five cooking fires the Pandavas are said to have lit on their last journey.
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Rajaji National Park
Elephants where the Ganga leaves the hills.
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Ramganga Dam
An embankment dam on the Ramganga, standing inside Corbett itself.
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Rishi Pahar
A peak in the Nanda Devi outer sanctuary, above the Rishi Ganga.
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Robber's Cave
A gorge outside Dehradun where the stream disappears underground and comes back.
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Rudranath
The face of Shiva among the five Kedars, reached only on foot through rhododendron.
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Satopanth Tal
A triangular lake above Badrinath where the trinity is said to bathe, one corner each.
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Sattal
Seven lakes joined, and birds all winter.
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Shivling
A sharp fin of rock above Tapovan that looks exactly like what it is named for.
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Tapkeshwar Temple
A cave temple outside Dehradun where water drips onto the linga from the roof.
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Thalay Sagar
A dark rock summit above Kedartal, and one of the hardest walls in Garhwal.
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Tirsuli
A peak on the Nanda Devi sanctuary rim, closed with the rest of it.
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Trisul
Three peaks in a line, the trident of Shiva, and the first summit above seven thousand metres ever climbed.
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Triveni Ghat
The evening aarti, smaller and closer than Haridwar's.
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Vasuki Parbat
A peak above the Gangotri glacier, named for the serpent, and a hard technical climb.
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Yamunotri Temple
Rice cooked in the hot spring and carried home.
Collecting in Uttarakhand
What are the best places to visit in Uttarakhand?
LOQAH lists 100 places in Uttarakhand. The best known include Nanda Devi National Park, Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers National Parks, Valley of Flowers National Park, Badrinath Temple and Patal Bhuvaneshwar. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Uttarakhand?
100, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Uttarakhand?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Uttarakhand before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Uttarakhand and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
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