My First Snowy Experience

Its mid of January 2019 and its snowing in most of the hill stations in Himachal Pradesh like Shimla, Auli, Manali, Khajjiar etc. These places are filled with snow and quite a wonderful time to go and enjoy the snowfall. I missed my chance to go to the mountains this winter so here I'm reliving my first travelling experience to snowy hill station Dalhousie-Khajjiar. It was mid of December 2017 when it was snowing in Dalhousie. A sudden plan with office buddies (Saurabh, Ram, Ushank and Sandeep) was made to visit Dalhousie-Khajjiar on X-MAS weekend. We made the reservations at the earliest and boarded the bus to Dalhousie.

We checked in to the hotel at approximately 2:00 pm as our bus was delayed by 5-6 hours. After lunch we rested for some time and then explored the local mall road of Dalhousie. We witnessed the sunset there, bought some souvenirs for family and friends and went back to hotel. The temperature during the day was normal but at night it dropped to some extent. The weather forecast suggested no snowfall in the coming days to our disappointment but we were hopeful to see some snow from the previous one.

Khajjiar : Mini Switzerland of India 

We left the hotel around 10:00 am in the morning for Khajjiar. Our hotel manager booked us a taxi for the day which would take us to Khajjiar and Kalatop Wildlife Sanctuary. After 10 minutes of driving through the curvy hilly road we stopped by a hill spot to see the beauty of Himachal up close. Never ending mountain range, beautiful clouds scattered in the blue sky and the chilled air was enough to give us goosebumps.

Mountains and Clouds : On The Way To Khajjiar

We spent some time admiring the view and taking pictures in this amazing environment before heading again on our way to Khajjiar. The roads were covered with snow on either side all thanks to the snowfall a couple of days earlier. Our eyes were glued to the mesmerizing view that we were getting from the taxi window. We again stopped at a place which was already crowded with tourists because of snow. One side of the road was heavily filled with a pile of snow. There were two little houses and a mountain with forest in the background. We've not even reached our destination and the scenery had already made my day.

House By The Mountain

We played in the snow for some time. Our hands were freezing cold but that's why we'd gone there. To be honest I'd never seen that much snow in my entire life till then and I was filled with joy. We all played in that small area filled with snow like kids do. We photographed ourselves playing in the snow and then went on further towards our destination.

Credits to Saurabh for this gif

So after an hour of driving we finally were at Khajjiar. It has some guest houses and restaurants along with an artificial lake in the middle. The whole area was covered with pastures and surrounded by meadows and forest with mountain range in the backdrop. The lake was in bad condition. The area was crowded and the temperature was normal as the sun was high in the sky. Horse riding and other sports activities like Paragliding, Zorbing etc were also available for entertainment. We had some refreshments to start off before exploring the grassland further.

Guest House and Restaurants

The view there was just stunning. I was spellbound to see the beauty of it. You can see how huge the entire area is by looking at those tiny tourists. Those tall pine trees covering the entire ground, clear blue sky and birds flying above the clouds was worth watching.

Meadows and Forest View of Khajjiar

We went on further towards the lake. There were little shopping stalls providing memoirs of Khajjiar. We bought some for our family and friends. As I mentioned earlier the lake really was in bad condition. The weed covering the lake was nearly destroyed.

Kids Having Fun At Lake

We spent some more time by the lake before heading towards the meadows. Near the meadow and forest area there was a small house which was a delightful sight. The little old fashioned house paired well with the green forest and grassland. Couple of meters from their a big pine tree's trunk was lying on the ground which gave us a good spot to rest for  a while and take some candid (planned) pictures. We went into the woods to see how tall they actually were. It was around 12:00 pm but it was pretty dark among those thick layers of pine trees.

A Couple By The Cottage & Little Seller : Snapped By Ram

Time went quickly while we sat there enjoying every moment, watching people doing different activities and capturing those moments forever. It was around 2:00 pm when we had to leave from there for Kalatop wildlife sanctuary which was nearly half an hour drive from there.

The Curvy Road Covered in Snow

The Road Block :

It took us only 10 minutes after we left from there to realize that there is no way we could visit Kalatop today. The only road connecting Khajjiar with Dalhousie was blocked. The traffic came from either side in huge numbers resulting deadlock situation. We took this as an opportunity to explore the road covered with snow on foot. We grabbed our essentials and asked the driver to meet us on the way. There was cool breeze in the air. We walked between cars and among people who were trying to figure out ways to clear the mess.

We found a place which was covered with lots of snow and we started having fun there. Ram went creative by drawing a heart in the snow along with creating a snowman. Ushank wanted to take a huge pile of snow back to hotel as souvenir and Sandeep was juggling with the snow balls. While they were busy doing their stuff, me and Saurabh went ahead to find a point to watch the gorgeous mountains. We clicked some selfies there before rest of the group joined us.

Candid Moments Captured : Credits Ram

Play Time In Snow:

After walking for around 20 minutes we took a left turn and saw something very delightful. Many tourists were gathered on top of a huge pile of snow. We also climbed the snow somehow escaping the slippery path holding each other tightly and taking support of near by woods in the snow. Everyone was playing in the snow like a child. We also unleashed the child inside us and started throwing snow balls on each other. Though I had to take care of camera as well but that didn't stop me from having fun.

We slided from the top of the pile to the bottom which in turn made our clothes wet but we didn't realized till it started feeling cold. Snow went inside the shoes due to which our feet were freezing but joy of playing in snow overcame it somehow and we continued playing there.

Ushank, Saurabh and Sandeep went to the top of the pile to play in snow while Ram stayed with me at the lower area for some candid photography.

Some Joyful Moments

We moved from there and  reached a point where a couple of vendors where offering tea and Maggie. Some people were warming themselves near by the fire. We joined them and warmed ourselves little bit.  The price of Maggie was surging as the demand was increasing with increasing traffic. Everybody was willing to pay to get a tea and Maggie in that chilling environment. At one point the price of one Maggie went to Rs 100 and people were ready to pay for it. Anyways by the time we ordered the vendor already was out of stock and we had to settle with tea only. There were also some people who allow you to take photos with bunnies by paying 10 Rs. per person.

Dope Shot                                                                                            Maggie Man ( Credits : Ram)

After half an hour our taxi driver came by from the traffic somehow which marked the end of our play time. It was already 5:00 pm and we still were an hour drive from our hotel so we left from there with beautiful memories. We went to central market place of Dalhousie, had snacks there before heading back to the hotel.

Bonfire :

Back in the hotel we had dinner and were enjoying the warmth of cozy bed when the landline phone ranged. It was our hotel manager who informed us that a small bonfire was being organized as it was the X-MAS night. So we joined a small group of people who were already enjoying the warmth of fire. We sat there enjoying the music under the starry cold night talking with the other group about their trip to Kheerganga Trek. Everybody left after half an hour when the fire was about to go off while Ram and Saurabh joined me as we attempted capturing star trail for the next one hour. Well it wasn't successful but we learnt a couple of things from it. 

                                                              Credits : Saurabh

During our stay in Dalhousie we also explored some other near by places which included the local mall road famous for street shopping and sunset view, Bhalei Mata temple and Chamera Lake in Chamba district. We boarded a bus back to Kashmere Gate ISBT. I didn't get to experience the snowfall yet it was  a memorable journey and will always be remembered for all the fun I had with friends.

Disclaimer : No animals were harmed during this trip.

Happy Travelling.

Deepak.