Jeevan Gupta on Trek

Dayara Bugyal Trek Guide and My Experience

How to plan Dayara Bugyal Trek? Goa to Dayara Bugyal (Uttarakhand) for Dayara Bugyal Trek.

Hi everyone, I hope you guys are doing well. If you’re here you are probably planning for a Trek, most likely Dayara Bugyal Trek. In this article, I will be sharing my Dayara Bugyal trek experience. I hope this article will help you enjoy your trek, plan your trek in a better way, set certain ground expectations, boost your morale, and add up to your upcoming trek excitement.

According to me, a human should move out for a few days from their regular routine, their comfort zone. Preferably a solo trip. Doing something different from a regular routine is very essential for good health, relationships, the mind (i.e mental health), and for you as a human.

Jeevan Gupta on Trek

Why Trekking? Why should you Trek?

In my opinion, one should go for a trek at least once a year. The experience you will get from trekking in mountains is unfathomable. But do not think of it as a hill station tour, trekking is not at all just a sightseeing tour.

Trekking makes you physically and mentally fit: The pre-trekking physical preparation will encourage you to build an exercise habit or maybe motivate you to push your current boundaries and help you achieve new milestones. It builds your core, and your endurance and improves your overall strength. 

Staying with mother nature, in pure air, blissful surroundings, and mesmerizing views. Staying away from a chaotic life, digital screens, and all sorts of pollution. All this helps you regain your mental peace and gives you a whole new perspective on life. Trust me you get to learn a lot from mother nature.

You can take a look at a guide to get fit for a high-altitude trek.

You get to experience places, the beautiful view. Which you use to see on social media. Seeing those places live, and absorbing the aroma by yourself is a completely different experience. Seeing a picture on the phone and just saying wow is nowhere close to the experience of living in those places for a few days.

You get a chance to meet amazing people. When you trek with a group even if you are a solo trekker you get a golden opportunity to meet positive, confident, and happy people. In seconds you all will become a family, you will care for each other, you will laugh like mad with each other and I can just go on.

Not just this, there are many more positive impacts of trekking

My Awesome Dayara Bugyal Trek Mates
My Awesome Dayara Bugyal Trek Mates

Why Dayara Bugyal Trek?

For me, I chose Dayara Bugyal Trek because it’s one of the best treks to start with (especially for beginners). This trek is categorized as an easy-moderate class. There are a bunch of other easy-to-moderate trek options too, like Kedarkantha Trek, Kuari Pass Trek, and Deoriatal Chandrashila Trek.

All these treks are awesome too, but I choose Dayara Bugyal because I wanted to see a lot of snow. This trek is perfect for it because it is the only winter trek with the biggest snow expanse ( I mean it, it was more than I expected).

Dayara Bugyal
Dayara Bugyal

My traveling plans from Goa to Uttarakhand and back to Goa:

For a smooth safe journey, I recommend you decide on a mode of transport and book your seat well in advance (like almost a month or more).

The question you should have is how early should I reach the pickup point/place.

For the Dayara Bugyal trek, my pick-up point was the Hotel Grand Legacy, Dehradun. I reached Dehradun early morning on the day of the scheduled pick-up. I was there at the pickup point 1 hour before. But I will suggest you not do this. Instead, reach the pickup city (Dehradun) at least 24 hours before. This will allow your mind and body to adjust to a new environment, take some rest, boost the energy which you lost while traveling, and help you enjoy your trek to its fullest.

Even if you are traveling to Dehradun by flight I will still suggest you arrive 12 hours before your scheduled pickup. 

About the stay, I am not sure which one is good or bad. I can tell you where I stayed and what the experience was like. I stayed in Hotel Vishnu Inn which is 150m from Dehradun railway station. The ambiance is quite good, the rooms were clean, and overall I liked it.

If you want to explore Dehradun, there is a shared auto service (the budget-friendly option).

Dehradun to Dayara Bugyal

From Uttarakhand, the Indiahike team will arrange transport for you. It will cost approx 1000 rupees per head and will take around 8 hours to reach Basecamp Raithal.

Dehradun to Raithal is one of the most awesome drives I have experienced so far. Fresh air, beautiful view, sharp sun but still pleasant, some adventure turns, and most importantly you will get a trailer of what you are going to not just experience but will leave in, for the next few days.

In my case, I missed half of the fun, since I got motion sickness. I never had motion sickness before while traveling in the ghat section.

Unfortunately, due to back-to-back traveling, my body gave up. That’s why I recommend you reach Dehradun a day before. Especially when you are traveling by train and coming from south India or central India (I mean long travel).

Dehradun to Raithal road trip
Dehradun to Raithal road trip view.

Dayara Bugyal Trekking

Dayara Bugyal Meadow
Dayara Bugyal Meadow

Raithal (basecamp – my experience)

On Day 1 of your trek, you will go to Basecamp Raithal, from Dehradun. An 8-hour long engaging drive. Don’t take it lightly, this is the time you will build a bond with the rest of the trek members. When I was having a tough time due to motion sickness. My trek mate was my moral and mental support for the entire journey. The best part is not even for a minute you will feel like you just met them and don’t even know many of their names. The trek mates were just awesome.

Raithal campsite mountain sunset view
Raithal (basecamp) evening mountain sunset view

So, due to motion sickness, I was fully drained out by the time we reached the base camp. But the time I stepped out of my transport vehicle, my first reaction was OMG!, in just seconds my energy rebounded. It didn’t take me 10 seconds to forget I had horrible motion sickness. My trek mates were unloading the tempo traveler since the driver wanted to leave ( in short there was small chaos). And I was like I’m too busy to absorb the calmness of beautiful mountains in front of me, so I’m going to ignore them for a while.

I was starving and was looking for tea and tasty Indiahike food. I have to say this hats off to the local cooks. What a delightful experience – hot tea

, snacks, and mountains with the charm of sunset.

Trust me. It was a mesmerizing evening with hot tea and breathtaking mountains. So even if you think of canceling your plan, come back to this article and imagine yourself experiencing the images I have attached to this article.

Raithal basecamp mountain view
Raithal basecamp mountain view

Gui (campiste – my experience)

The next day, early in the morning you will start with a trekking journey towards the Dayara Bugyal top. On day 2 you will trek from Raithal to the Gui campsite. It’s almost a 3km – 4 km long trek, and you can expect it to take at least 5 hours. The trek is not that difficult actually, does not have much of an ascending trail but you might find it difficult since it is your first day and probably the first time.

Also, I suggest you do not unload your bag, do carry your bag by yourself. That’s when you are going to have the actual and full trek ex[eprince. Go for the unloading option only if you have some genuine issue and really can’t carry the bag while trekking.

Gui campsite tent setup and view
Gui campsite tent setup and view

Talking about my experience, before starting the trek we had a group pic. Our actual intention was to follow the before and after pic trend. But failed to do it, because when we finished the trek and came back to Raithal on day 5 we completely forgot about the group pic.

Coming back on Rathil to Gui trek experience. I and 2 other trek mates met the local women. I believe they are carrying their mule’s food. When we asked them what will be the weight of the load they are carrying on their back. One of the women said it’s almost 40 – 60 kg. That was jaw-dropping. For a while, I thought. Being young and having a continuous routine of going to the gym I couldn’t carry that much weight for 10 min and they were almost 30 plus carrying weight on rough terrain. Their core strength and technique of carrying a load are awesome. Not to forget their simplicity, beauty, and cuteness with rosy cheeks.

Just before reaching the Gui site, I saw some snow. I went crazy and was acting like a baby for a while. It was not fresh snow but still, I was trying to scrap it out, trying to leave my palm and foot mark, etc (can’t say what all I did here). When we reached the Gui campsite, only a few trek mates including me experienced light snowfall. On the Gui campsite, I got the chance to learn how to pitch and un-pitch our tents (the next morning). It was a fun activity. 


Another thing that goes hand in hand and is one of the adorable parts of the trek. The evening experience, it was just getting better and better on every trekking day. NOTE: If you are going in winter do not forget to carry a sufficient warm layer. If you forget to carry a warm layer and specially thermals, nights are going to be horrible.

Raithal to Gui first snow experience
Raithal to Gui – first snow experience

Chilapada (campsite – my experience)

On day 3, you will be trekking from Gui to Chilapad. This is going to be a short and easy trek. You just need to cover a 2 km distance and that too is a mostly flat trail through the forest. If you are going to the Dayara Bugyal trek in winter around late December or early Jan. You will have your first experience of trekking in snow. I mean a clean sky on the top, green forest on the sides, and white-friendly snow on the floor. Not to forget the seek peak mountain views.

Chilapada campsite
Chilapada campsite

Another thing, the night at Chilapad campsite will be testing your cold bareness, so be prepared. Drink lots of water in the evening so that you don’t need to go out to pee at night. Coming out of a sleeping bag, or tent, and going out to pee is a horrible thing you would like to do. It will be damn cold out.

Trust me you can’t avoid it, you are lucky if you don’t need to pee at midnight. Mostly you can’t avoid it, especially if you are taking Diamox. So just go out, relax, come back, and sleep.

The dinner at Chilapad was one of the best experiences I had on my trek. Background: So on the Gui campsite, after having dinner, and going to bed. Most of the trek mates started having chit-chat with their campmates. Since the camps were close to each other and there was no other noise pollution. Everybody was listening to each other, especially the ones who were tired and wanted to have a peaceful good night’s sleep.

Coming back to dinner time in Chilapata. We all played games and had a lot of fun. But the actual fun began when we started discussing who was talking about what last night in Gui. Most of us don’t know who exactly was having chit-chat last night. So all started recalling what they heard and guessing who might be the person. These happen with the excellent mimicking skill of the tent mate.

Nayata (my experience)

From Chilapad you need to get up early like 4 am. Because it’s the 4th day, the summit day. To build up your expectation and help you prepare. You will be covering almost a 9 KM distance – from Chilapad to Dayara Bugyal meadow, then Dayara Bugyal top and final ascent to Nayata campsite. So fill up your water bottle (if possible an electrolyte in one bottle will be very helpful), keep handfuls of dire fruit, have sufficient breakfast, and carry a good amount of lunch. You will be reaching Natayat around 5-6 pm until then you won’t get any water source ( if you are going in winter it will be all turned to ice mostly) or food ( in case what you are carrying get over)

But in case the water or food gets over, don’t worry. You will have other trek mates who will be more than happy to share some with you. 

While trekking towards the Dayara Bugyal meadow just after crossing the forest. You will reach where you will see some huts and magnificent panoramic mountain views. You will get enough time to relax, take pictures, and absorb what you see.

View point

From this viewpoint now you will be entering the Dayara Bugyal meadow start. When I reached the viewpoint and started trekking toward the Dayara Bugaya meadow, my smile was getting bigger and bigger as the snow expanse was exposing itself. At this time the only thing I was missing was snowfall. So we all were close by and there was lots of fresh snow all around us we started playing. Throwing snow on each other, drawing smilies on snow, and the fun just goes on.

Dayara Bugyal meadow beginning
Dayara Bugyal Meadow beginning

I was happy and satisfied with what I got so far. I thought it over and now we just need to reach Dayara Bugyal’s top and start ascending. But then our trek leader mentioned, “Oh no, it’s just the start of Dayara Bugyal meadow, the actual meadow is about to come”. And I was excited about the actual meadow stretch. When I saw the actual Dayara Bugyal meadow there were no words to describe my state of happiness and satisfaction. It was more than what I was expecting, what I got was beyond my imagination, even though I have gone through a lot of images before starting the trek.

Dayara Bugyal Meadow
Trekking through Dayara Bugyal Meadow

As we reached the Dayara Bugyal top, the snowfall started. Wow, it was an amazing experience. I was damn happy with my decision to winter trekking. All the effort I put in was worth it. 

Now let’s talk about the snowfall. The kind of snowfall we experience during this track is worth having its article. That day it snowed for almost 13 hours or more. The entire ascending part, until we reached the Nayata campsite (actually until the next morning) it was snowing. You can imagine it from the images below.

Nayata campsite
Nayata campsite

And then comes another one, the best memory. Good, healthy snow fights with trek mates. Even after tracking for almost 10 hours and being so tired and hungry, we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to have a snow fight. I will suggest you as well, if you get the opportunity to have a snow fight or slide through the snow on a slope just do it. Don’t think about anything else. Something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Raithal – (trekking back to Raithal)

The next morning at the Nayata campsite, snowfall stopped and we were getting ready to start the descent. Till now, on all the above campsites we were pitching and un-pitching the camp. On Nayata we didn’t pitch the tent nor did we unpitched it due to heavy snow, the long day of the trek, and so on. It was good news for us though. 

So as soon as we started the trek, it started raining. I have experienced almost 3 session treks in one go. Starting with a clear sky in a normal winter, snow trekking, and now monsoon trekking. Even though this was fun, one thing I want you to be prepared for. Descending is more difficult than ascending, especially in monsoon.

Take care of your back, you might have slight back pain. Don’t worry, it will go away after you take a rest at the Rathail campsite. 

We also had a session where we all hugged one tree in the forest. It was such a calming experience, it was as good as getting a hug from your mother. 

Interaction with mother nature
Peaceful interaction with mother nature.

Dehradun

And finally, you have achieved a major milestone in your life. Your trek is completed and you will be preparing to travel back to Dehradun and then to your respective destination and probably old life. Indiahike team will arrange the transport for you, it will cost you more or less the same amount you gave while coming to Raithal.

There is one thing I would like to mention and want you to keep in your mind. You are now returning to your typical life. You might be happy or maybe not- not an issue, you might want to do another trek next year, or maybe not – even that fine. But remember, something has changed, it’s not the same, it’s you. You are not the same. A lot of things have changed in you. As for me, I became calmer, more forbearing, got a different approval to look at things (be it any stuff), different level of respect toward nature, and became more human.

Checkout out my other Travel Experience

If you have any questions or comments feel free to reach me at.