The Valley of Flowers stretches over an expanse of 87.50sq.km in Uttarakhand, in the upper reaches of Garhwal in the Zanskar range of the Himalayas. It was declared a national park in 1982. Because of the rich diversity of plant species that grow there, the UNESCO has listed it as a World Heritage Site. Legend has it that when the Pandavas were on their way to Swargarohan in the Himalayas, Draupadi saw an exquisite flower floating in a river. She asked Bhima to find out where the flower had come from. Bhima set out alongside the river through valleys of rhododendrons, oaks, firs, pines, deodars and silver birches in search of the flower. He came upon it in a saucer-shaped valley, where millions of flowers of different shapes, sizes and hues grew in wild abandon.
Except for the people who lived in the vicinity, hardly anyone had heard of the enchanting valley of flowers that Bhima had seen. To the locals, it was a bhyundar or the playground of fairies and nymphs.
In 1931, English mountaineer Frank Smythe, who led the first successful expedition to Mt. Kamet, accidentally stumbled upon the place on his return journey. Amazed at the incredible sight of hundreds of thousands of blossoms in a riot of colours against the backdrop of the massive Rataban peak and the meandering river, Pushpawati, he and his team camped in the valley for two days, collecting seeds, bulbs, tubers and plants to take back with them.
Back in England, Smythe wrote a book called The Valley of Flowers describing the place as ‘a valley of peace and perfect beauty where the human spirit may find repose’. His book made the valley so popular that tourists from all over the world began to visit it and soon the place came to be called the Valley of Flowers.