Vashishta Gufa

Most visitors never get this far: the cave sits 22 to 25 kilometres up the Badrinath road, one taxi ride more than a morning in Tapovan usually allows. By tradition the sage Vashistha, guru of Rama, meditated here; Swami Purushottamananda kept his own austerities inside the cave from 1928 until his death in 1961, and the trust that carries his name looks after it now. Around 200 steps drop through a fig grove to the riverbank; inside, a deep and completely dark passage ends at a single Shivling. Silence is strictly observed. The Arundhati cave next door and a quiet Ganga beach below fill out a half day. Free, daylight hours, shoes off.

Sit in a sage's cave above a silent bend of the Ganga, well clear of Tapovan's noise