Char Dham Yatra — Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath & Badrinath

The principal ghat of Haridwar, held to bear a footprint of Vishnu and the site of the Kumbh Mela bathing. At dusk tiered lamps are lit and swung over the water while bells sound from both banks, and leaf boats with flowers and a flame are set on the current.

• Take a place on the steps before dusk
• Float a lamp on the river
• Hold the chains if you bathe — the current is strong

A five-stage waterfall on the far side of Mussoorie, right on the Barkot road. A short stop here breaks the drive at about the halfway point, and there are stalls and tea above the terrace.

• Look down on the falls from the road terrace
• Stop for tea
• Stretch your legs before the second half of the drive

The stretch from Nainbagh up to Barkot runs beside the young Yamuna the whole way, through terraced fields and pine. It is the first proper sight of Garhwal on the trip and worth a couple of stops.

• Stop at a riverside viewpoint
• See the terraced hillside farms
• Photograph the Yamuna near Barkot

The source shrine of the Yamuna, dedicated to the goddess and standing below the Bandarpunch massif. The present temple has been rebuilt more than once after avalanche damage. The actual glacier source at Champasar is higher up and not part of the pilgrim route.

• Take darshan at the shrine
• See the Divya Shila rock beside the temple
• Rest at the temple courtyard before the descent

A hot spring beside the temple whose water runs close to boiling. Pilgrims lower rice and potatoes tied in muslin into it and carry the cooked food away as prasad.

• Cook rice prasad in the spring
• Bathe at the Jamunabai Kund
• Watch the steam against the cold air

The last road head, at about 2,650 m, where the trek begins and ends. It has its own hot springs, a line of tea shops and the pony and palki stand.

• Eat before starting the climb
• Arrange a pony or palki if needed
• Soak tired feet in the hot spring afterwards

The temple the town is named for — Uttarkashi means the Kashi of the north. It holds a large stone lingam and, in the courtyard opposite, an old brass trident that is one of the oldest objects in the valley.

• Take darshan of the lingam
• See the Shakti trident opposite
• Walk through the old bazaar

The ghats and the footbridge below the town, where the Bhagirathi runs wide and grey with glacier silt. A quiet evening walk and a good place to sit before the Gangotri run.

• Walk across the footbridge
• Sit at the ghats at dusk
• Look up the valley towards Gangotri

India's best-known climbing school, a few kilometres out of town, with a small museum of Himalayan expedition equipment and photographs. Worth a short stop if the timing works.

• See the expedition museum
• Look at the training wall
• Read the Everest expedition displays

An eighteenth-century white granite temple beside the Bhagirathi, built by a Gorkha commander and rebuilt since. This is where Ganga is said to have come to earth in Shiva's hair. The glacier snout at Gaumukh, the physical source, lies 18 km further up and is a separate trek.

• Take darshan at the temple
• See the submerged Bhagirath Shila offshore
• Fill a vessel with water from the river

Just below the temple the river drops through a narrow rock gorge into a pool called Surya Kund. The slab of rock beside it is where King Bhagirath is said to have sat in penance until the Ganga descended.

• Walk down to the gorge viewpoint
• See the rock and the falls
• Listen to the river through the gorge

Two stops on the drive up: Gangnani, with a hot sulphur spring where pilgrims bathe before going higher, and Harsil, an army-and-orchard village in a wide deodar valley about 25 km short of Gangotri.

• Bathe at the Gangnani spring
• Stop for tea at Harsil
• Photograph the Bhagirathi peaks from the valley

The reservoir behind the Tehri dam, one of the tallest dams in the world, which flooded the old town of Tehri in the 2000s. The road runs along its edge for a good stretch and there are viewpoints on the way.

• Stop at a lake viewpoint
• See the dam wall from the road
• Photograph the flooded valley

The confluence where the Alaknanda meets the Bhagirathi and the river becomes the Ganga. The two currents arrive in visibly different colours and take a moment to merge below the steps.

• Walk down to the sangam steps
• See the two rivers meet
• Visit the Raghunath temple above

Where the Mandakini, coming down from Kedarnath, joins the Alaknanda. The road forks here — one arm to Kedarnath, the other to Badrinath — which makes it the hinge of the whole eastern half of the yatra.

• See the confluence from the bridge
• Stop at the Rudranath temple
• Take tea before the last climb

A stone temple of massive interlocking blocks, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and the highest of them. It survived the 2013 floods when much of the settlement around it did not, protected by a boulder that split the flow above the walls. That rock still stands behind the temple.

• Take evening darshan
• Attend the aarti
• See the boulder behind the temple

A paved and railed path rebuilt after 2013, following the Mandakini through Jungle Chatti, Bhimbali and Linchauli. There are tea stalls, medical posts and toilets at intervals. The last two kilometres open out and the temple comes into sight against the peak.

• Start at first light
• Drink often and walk at a steady pace
• Rest at the medical posts if you feel breathless

A small shrine on the ridge about half a kilometre above and behind the main temple, dedicated to the guardian of Kedarnath. The climb is short but steep at that altitude, and it gives the best view down over the whole valley.

• Walk up the ridge path
• Look down on the temple and the river
• Go in the evening light if you have the energy

The first aarti of the day, before the crowds come up from Gaurikund. Cold, quiet and the best time to be inside the temple.

• Attend the early aarti
• Take a last circuit of the temple
• Photograph the peak at sunrise

A temple in Guptkashi town showing Shiva and Parvati in a single half-and-half form. In the courtyard, water from two spouts shaped as a cow's mouth and an elephant's head runs into the Manikarnik Kund. The name Guptkashi comes from the story of Shiva hiding here from the Pandavas.

• See the half-and-half image
• Look at the Manikarnik Kund spouts
• Sit in the courtyard with the valley view

A brightly painted temple above the Alaknanda, one of the Char Dham of India as well as of Uttarakhand. The black stone image of Badrinarayan is said to have been recovered from the river and installed by Adi Shankaracharya. The head priest is traditionally drawn from Kerala.

• Take darshan of Badrinarayan
• Bathe at the Tapt Kund hot spring below
• See the temple lit at night

The town on the shoulder above Vishnuprayag where the Badrinath deity spends the winter, and the site of one of the four maths founded by Adi Shankaracharya. It is also the junction for Auli and the Valley of Flowers.

• Visit the Narsingh temple
• See the Kalpavriksha mulberry tree
• Stop for lunch before the last climb

The confluence of the Dhauliganga and the Alaknanda, the first of the five prayags counting down from Badrinath, set in a tight gorge below the road.

• View the confluence from the road
• Photograph the gorge
• Stop at the roadside shrine

The last inhabited village on this road, occupied only for the summer months. Vyas Gufa, where the Mahabharata is traditionally said to have been dictated, and Ganesh Gufa are a short walk up through the lanes, and the villagers weave and sell wool at stalls along the way.

• Walk up to Vyas and Ganesh caves
• See the Bhim Pul rock bridge over the Saraswati
• Buy local wool from the village stalls

The hot sulphur spring on the riverbank directly below Badrinath temple, where pilgrims bathe before darshan, and the Mata Murti shrine a few kilometres along the Alaknanda dedicated to Badrinarayan's mother.

• Bathe at the Tapt Kund
• Visit Mata Murti temple
• See the Alaknanda from the footbridge

Two more of the five confluences on the way down — the Pindar joining at Karnaprayag and the Nandakini at Nandaprayag. Both are easy roadside stops and break the descent.

• See the Pindar meet the Alaknanda
• Visit the Karna temple
• Stop for tea at Nandaprayag