Grade: Easy to Moderate
Before me, stretched paradise! The beauty of the landscape was so striking it made me go weak in the knees. Rounded hills unfolded with careless abandon. A blue river flowed like a ribbon in the gap below. Hosts of gorgeous lillies, bright pink in colour, bloomed all over the place. There were wild orchids, rhododendrons and flowers I don't know the names of. Butterflies flitted from flower to flower, their tiny feet swathed with golden pollen. Even the air bore an unearthly scent; we thought we had descended into a different universe, that elusive utopia.
Straddling the borders of Manipur and Nagaland, the Dzükou Valley, also known as Valley of Lillies is a place of celestial beauty. It is drained by the Dzükou River. Unlike popular legend, the valley wasn't formed by meteorite impact. Differential rock weathering lead to the formation of the valley, around 2-4 million years ago. The landscape is dominated by graceful hillocks, their rounded tops rolling farther, in un-ordered rows and disappearing in the horizon. Just after the monsoon, hundreds of fuchsia Dzükou lillies fill the valley. The Angami Tribe of Nagaland are the principal inhabitants of the valley.