Snowfall in the flowered yumthang valley. Review on Gangtok

Yumthang valley is famous for its flowers which bloom from second week of April to last week of May.

I had the oppurtunity to visit the valley in the last week of April. From Gangtok (which is another very good tourist destination)we set out by jeep to Lachung (5Hrs.)and reached late in the evening. . The stay at Lachung (8660ft.) was comfortable (but certainly not luxorious ). Lachung itself is a very good hill station commanding a great view . The lachung valley is totally sorrounded by snow clad mountains something like manali. In the morning admist a clear day we ventured out to Yumthang(11800ft.)The whole path was booming with various colours of rodendrons and the scenery was worth admiring with snow on the mountains and riot of flowery colours in the valley. The valley itself was carpeted by pink primulas. However with each passing moment the weather changed dramatically and after an initial period of rain for 20 minutes it started snowing . Though the visibility was very poor we did enjoy the primulas struggling to protrude out from the grounded snow. Due to the danger of getting stranded we rushed back to lachung which was having a mild hailstorm.

The other interesting places to visit near lachung is Katao and Damang but for both permission of the Army authorities have to be taken.

Compared to other Hill stations the infrastructure at lachung is rather basic and it is prone to power cuts( & therefore no heaters). The cold during winters is too much as the minimum temperature in the second fortnight of January may reach as low as -10 C and there may be no power.