Valley of flowers is the name of the Himalayan area in Uttaranchal, India. In 1931 the English mountaineer Frank Smythe stumbled across the Bhyundar Valley, an 8 km long glacier corridor in ChamoliGarhwal. This area, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and carpeted with over 500 species of flowers, soon became a protected site.
It was declared a national park in 1982. The Valley of Flowers stretches over an expanse of 87.50 km². This part of Uttaranchal, in the upper reaches of Garhwal, is inaccessible through much of the year. The area lies on the Zanskar range of the Himalayas with the highest point in the national park being Gauri Parbat at 6,719 m above sea level.
There is no settlement in the national park and grazing in the area has been banned. The park is open only in summers between June and October, being covered by heavy snow during the rest of the year.
