I went to Yamunotri as part of pilgrimage along with my parents. We went to Gangotri before coming here and I have been to Badrinath and Kedarnath as well so did not feel an ecstasy on visiting this place. My purpose to visit religious places are never just for ’’darshan’’ of deity but for watching nature in its various forms too. Frankly speaking, Yamunotri is less exciting than any of the other three ’’dhams’’ if you leave the religious purpose. I would say everything is at a lesser scale than any other ’’dhams’’ be it altitude, force of the river, mountain views, amenities and resultantly the crowd of pilgrims. But that doesn’t mean its importance in Hindu religion is any lesser.
We stayed at Hanumanchatti at Tourist guest house with modest tariff and decent food but no power. Just to mention that in state of Uttaranchal the best bet of staying option Govt. owned tourist guest house by the names of KMVN or GMVN (they stand for Kumaon/Garwahl Mandal Vikas Nigam). Hanumanchatti is the base of 12 km trail to Yamunotri temple which is nestled at the base of a mountain Bandarpoonch. There are Mahindra jeeps available using which one could go upto half-way of this trail and from there can take poinies or just climb but mind you the trail is not very inviting notwithstanding the pony shit! The jeep ride is horrifying as driver don’t start unless its jam-packed and after that it being roller-coaster! The temple is decent with warm-water ’’kunds’’ where taking bath is sort of necessary and I would recommend too as weather is cold even in summers. After that perform your puja the way you want. Apart from kund there is one more place where warm-water comes out and that is where priests cook rice and give as ’’prasad’’ which one could take with them to their home. It is believed that rice doesn’t rot. As far as I remeber, there is no place to stay at the temple itself so one must come down to Hanumanchatti before day ends again by same pony/foot + jeep method.
As always with hill regions, there is very little parking space (we had to bribe 100/- for a policeman to take care of our car) and fuel is difficult to get so keep this in mind.
Thanks, Roopesh