6. A Celestial Hike (partly down memory lane)

It's Day 3 in the valley and still no cranes. We have explored most of the valley and are still waiting for the cranes. Word from the observatory is "still no cranes." So, after a morning phone chat with my father who lives in Thimphu, I take his advice and launch a day hike up a hidden corner of Phobjikha where the views are spectacular.

For some time in the late 1940s, my grandfather served as the Shaa Droom (more formally, Drungpa), a regional governor appointed by the king to administer Phobjikha and its subsidiary valleys. According to family lore, my father was carried on horseback numerous times in and out of the valley as child and, later, as a youth, hiked its many high passes and ridges with my grandfather on official tours and seasonal migrations.

Descending from the 12,139-foot pass between Phobjikha and Drang Haa valley to the east—along a trail that my grandfather walked many times back in the day when roads were non-existent in Bhutan—the skies open up to a heavenly light. The valley’s celebrated "Birds of Heaven" still have not arrived but I think this view is pretty celestial on its own!

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