Kuari Pass Trek

The Kuari Pass trek, popularised historically as the Curzon Trail after the British viceroy who walked it in 1905, begins with a short drive and walk out of Joshimath into the terraced farmland surrounding Dhak village. The road narrows quickly into a village track lined with walnut and apricot trees, and the settlement itself, a cluster of stone-and-timber Garhwali houses stacked along a sunlit slope, offers an easy, low-effort introduction to a trek that builds gradually rather than punishing anyone on day one. Farmers here grow potatoes, rajma, and amaranth on narrow terraces cut into the hillside, and the pace of life, unhurried and rooted in seasonal rhythm, is noticeably different from the pilgrim traffic of routes like Hemkund Sahib on the far side of the valley. A short walk beyond the village leads to a viewpoint over the Dhauliganga gorge, offering an early look at the ridgelines the trek will follow over the coming days, distinctly drier and more open in character than the dense, flower-carpeted valley trails found elsewhere in this region. Homestay accommodation in Dhak gives trekkers a genuine window into local Garhwali domestic life, with meals often cooked over a wood fire and shared conversation covering everything from apple cultivation to the changing pattern of monsoons. Evenings are spent going over the week's itinerary with guides, many of whom are from villages just like this one and speak with real familiarity about Kuari's ridge trail, its exposure to weather, and the wide Himalayan panorama that awaits near the pass itself.

Leaving Dhak's terraced fields behind, the trail commits properly to the climb, rising through a forest of oak and rhododendron on a series of steady switchbacks that gain height without ever becoming technical or exposed. This stretch is at its most spectacular in spring, when the rhododendron canopy turns entire hillsides shades of crimson and pink, though even in autumn the twisted, lichen-draped trunks give the forest a striking, ancient character. Langurs are a frequent presence overhead, and the trail's relative quiet compared to more heavily trafficked Garhwal routes makes wildlife encounters feel more likely here than on busier trails nearby. As the forest opens intermittently, views back down toward the Dhauliganga valley and across to the snow line on distant ridges begin to appear, a preview of the far more expansive panorama that Kuari Pass itself will eventually deliver. Gulling camp sits on a forested shoulder just below the true treeline, chosen by generations of shepherds and more recently by trekking groups for its flat ground and reliable water source from a nearby spring. The site carries a settled, slightly sheltered feel compared to the fully exposed high camps still ahead, and the evening's relative mildness makes it a comfortable place to properly absorb the change in scenery since morning. Campfire conversation typically turns to the trail's namesake, Lord Curzon, and the strategic reasons the British used this ridge route to survey the frontier, a detail that adds an unexpected layer of history to what is otherwise a purely scenic forest walk.