Dehradun to Auli Distance: About 310 km, One Highway and One Last Climb
At eight in the morning on 24 January 2026 we stopped in Rishikesh for breakfast. We'd left Greater Noida in our Thar at half past one, and at half past eight we set off up the valley towards Jyotirmath. Rishikesh is where a start from Dehradun joins the same road, and from there to Jyotirmath we've driven every kilometre of it.
The Dehradun to Auli distance is 298 km to Jyotirmath, the town most signs still call Joshimath, on the Chamoli district administration's figure. From there it's 11 to 16 km more up to Auli, depending on which road up you take. Add the two and it's roughly 309 to 314 km.
We've never started from Dehradun itself, flown into Jolly Grant or taken the Dehradun bus. Those parts of this page, and every bus time and fare on it, are what we checked in September 2026 with the two district administrations, the state bus corporation, the operators and the Hindi papers.
| Dehradun to Jyotirmath (Joshimath) | 298 km by road, the Chamoli district administration's figure, measured to Joshimath |
|---|---|
| Jyotirmath to Auli | 11 to 16 km, since more than one road climbs from the town; about 45 minutes to an hour on a clear day, longer in snow |
| Dehradun to Auli, all of it | About 309 to 314 km. Our addition of the two rows above |
| Jolly Grant airport to Auli | About 279 km, the same district page, measured to Auli. The airport is about 20 km from Dehradun's city centre |
| Time | 10 to 12 hours to Auli. The one private bus on the booking sites we checked is listed at 10 hours 15 minutes to Joshimath |
| The road | NH-7 from Dehradun to Jyotirmath: valley road to Rishikesh, then about 250 km of hill road |
| Buses from Dehradun | UTC, 05:30 from Dehradun Hill Station to Tapovan, through Jyotirmath. DevBhoomi Travels, 06:45 to Joshimath. GMOU's new buses to the hills, halted by a dispute in mid-September 2026, then due back from 20 September on a temporary timetable |
| Taxi, one way | Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 for a sedan, from three operators' own pages |
| The climb by taxi | Rs 1,500 one way, Rs 2,500 same-day return, fixed in December 2024. We found no figure published since |
| After dark | Plan to be off the hill road between 10 pm and dawn. Three rules: two tied to the Char Dham Yatra, and a Tehri police ban announced for 10 pm to 5 am, from Devprayag to Rishikesh |
| Ropeway | Closed since January 2023 |
Dehradun to Auli distance: how far is Auli from Dehradun?
About 310 km by road, and only the first piece of that is official. The Chamoli district administration, which runs the district Auli is in, measures Dehradun to Joshimath and gives no figure from Dehradun to Auli itself. The second piece is the climb above the town, which the district counts as 16 km; the other roads up are shorter.
So any Dehradun to Auli figure has to come out longer than Dehradun to Jyotirmath, by the length of the climb, and that one check catches most of the bad numbers you'll meet. Several booking and travel pages print 149 to 172 km for the whole trip. The 149 is the distance by air.
Put "Uttarakhand" in your search, too. When we asked Google for Dehradun to Auli on 26 September 2026, its directions sent us to a hotel called Auli Himalaya in Dehradun's Dalanwala, 2.4 km away. With Uttarakhand added it found the right Auli, the hill station and ski slope in Chamoli district on the road to Badrinath. What Auli itself is like, the slope, the meadow and the rooms, is on our main guide.
Which road do you take from Dehradun?
One national highway, NH-7, carries you from Dehradun to Jyotirmath. Through Dehradun, PWD's road record still carries it under its old number as well, NH-72. From Rishikesh it follows the Ganga to Devprayag, then the Alaknanda through Srinagar, Rudraprayag, Karnaprayag and Chamoli to Jyotirmath. That's the road we drove on 24 January, and from Rishikesh itself onward a Dehradun start and a Rishikesh start share every kilometre.
The first 45 km, to Rishikesh, are valley road, and the one part of this route we haven't driven. On the district's figures Dehradun is 298 km from Joshimath and Rishikesh 253, so a Dehradun start adds about 45 km. The road runs past Doiwala and Jolly Grant airport. Its last 20 km or so, from Bhaniawala to Rishikesh, go through thick forest: two lanes, sharp bends in places and heavy traffic, as Panchjanya described them on 8 July 2026.
NHAI began widening that stretch in 2026, to four and six lanes with underpasses for elephants built in. By 21 July more than 700 trees had come down, and the Chief Minister had ordered the felling stopped. Rishikesh sits at about 340 m, lower than Dehradun, and the climbing starts after it.
There is a second way out of Dehradun, and in winter it's the one to leave alone. NH-707A is hill road from the outset. It climbs from Mussoorie through Chamba and New Tehri to Maletha, near Srinagar, where it meets the Badrinath highway, and it skips Rishikesh altogether. Anyone with a Mussoorie start is on it from the first bend.
PWD's list of road closures shows it shut twice in the storm of 23 and 24 January 2026. The first closure ran from the afternoon of the 23rd for 17 and a half hours on the Dehradun side. The second came on the morning of the 24th, the day we drove up from Rishikesh, for about three and a half hours in Tehri district.
The same list can't say whether the Rishikesh road closed too. Its forest stretch is maintained by NHAI, and from January 2023 to this September the list held no NHAI entry at all.
What separates the two roads is height. The Rishikesh road stays in the valley all the way to Rishikesh, a few hundred metres above sea level; the Mussoorie road climbs past Mussoorie at about 2,000 m. So go up by Rishikesh, the road the buses use, and keep the Mussoorie road for a dry-season return if you want to see it.
How long does it take to get from Dehradun to Auli?
Allow 10 to 12 hours, and treat it as a full day. The one private bus on the booking sites we checked, DevBhoomi Travels, is listed from Dehradun at 06:45 to Joshimath at 17:00, 10 hours 15 minutes. The climb to Auli adds 45 minutes to an hour on a clear day.
Our own clock from Rishikesh agrees. We left at half past eight, took forty minutes over lunch in Srinagar (Garhwal) from half past one, and reached Jyotirmath at 17:45. That's 9 hours 15 minutes for the hill road alone, in a four-wheel drive, before anyone adds the valley stretch from Dehradun. Map and booking sites that quote 7 to 9 hours are timing a mountain road as if it were flat, so go by the bus times.
The hours after dark decide whether one day is enough. Two of the night rules we found are Char Dham Yatra documents: the transport department's Green Card advice to commercial passenger vehicles, and the Commissioner of Garhwal's 2026 yatra-season order. Both keep vehicles off the hill routes from 10 pm to 4 am. Neither says whether a private car counts, or what holds once the yatra ends.
The third isn't a yatra order. Tehri police announced that from 1 November 2024, on their chief's direction, all but emergency vehicles would be barred between Devprayag and Rishikesh from 10 pm to 5 am, because night accidents on that stretch had become routine. So leave Dehradun by six, and sleep in Jyotirmath, at about 1,875 m, before the climb to Auli's 2,500 m and above.
Is there a bus from Dehradun to Auli?
No bus we found goes from Dehradun to Auli itself. Two services with published times leave Dehradun for Jyotirmath or beyond, and two more operators, GMOU and Rupkund Travel, started buses from the city to the hills in mid-September 2026. Every one stops short of the climb, so plan the last hour by shared jeep or taxi.
The state bus leaves at 05:30 from Dehradun Hill Station, by the railway station, not from the ISBT. Dehradun Hill Station is Uttarakhand Transport Corporation's name for the stand its Mussoorie buses use, and the Dehradun district administration puts the Mussoorie bus station at the railway station; the ISBT is a separate stop, near Clement Town. The bus runs through Jyotirmath to Tapovan, a village past the town on the road towards Niti.
UTC's route table showed it bookable online on 26 September 2026, after online booking on its Dehradun hill routes was restarted in mid-September. The table carries no fare. It also lists a 2 pm bus from Dehradun Hill Station to Srinagar (Garhwal), which is one way to split the journey.
A private operator sells the ride too. When we checked on 26 September 2026, DevBhoomi Travels had seats for the next morning's bus on both MakeMyTrip and redBus: 06:45 from Dehradun, arriving 17:00, Rs 750 in a non-AC seater. MakeMyTrip picks up near Parade Ground; redBus's operator table lists the same operator at 06:30, boarding at the ISBT or Jogiwala. Check both the day before, and don't treat one listing as a timetable.
The newest option began with a fight. GMOU, the Garhwal Motor Owners Union, is based in Kotdwar, and on this road its hill buses had started from Haridwar and Rishikesh. On 4 September 2026 Amar Ujala reported that a new permit would let it run from Dehradun for the first time. The plan was eleven buses a day as the Himgiri Express, from Chandni Chowk in Bhuddi village, through the city past the ISBT to Rishikesh, with Joshimath heading the list of first routes.
GMOU and Rupkund Travel buses started from Dehradun on Wednesday 16 September. Two rival operators stopped them, their people scuffled at Indramani Badoni Chowk in Rishikesh, and by 18 September the new buses weren't running at all. On 19 September the Dehradun regional transport officer, Sandeep Saini, had all four companies sign an agreement. The buses start in Dehradun, reach Rishikesh and leave for the hills at the usual rotation times, on what he called a temporary timetable. Normal running was expected from the 20th.
From Jyotirmath it's a shared jeep or a taxi up. We took the shared jeep in June 2025, after the bus from Delhi, from Jyotirmath up the last climb, and stayed at GMVN at the top, but we didn't note down what we paid.
The last time an official put a figure on that ride was December 2024. The sub-divisional magistrate set Rs 1,500 up, or Rs 2,500 if it brings you back the same day, for a vehicle of up to five, though one report words it per passenger. The climb's fixed fare and its fine print are set out in full on their own page.
What does a taxi from Dehradun to Auli cost?
Taxi operators publish Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 for a one-way sedan from Dehradun to Auli, on their own pages as we read them on 26 September 2026. Rajputana Cabs, a Jaipur company, gives Rs 6,000 in its fare chart for the 2026 season, and Dehradun Cab Rs 7,000. uttarakhand.cab asks Rs 9,000, with Rs 12,000 for an SUV or Ertiga and Rs 14,000 for an Innova Crysta, "in clear-road conditions"; in snow it quotes separately, once it knows the road is open.
They're asking prices. None is a government rate, and we found no dated fare that anyone reported actually paying for this run. A one-way price has to cover the car driving back empty: Dehradun Cab has Rs 7,000 one way against Rs 10,000 for a round trip. Before you pay, get three answers in writing. Does the price go up the climb to Auli, or stop at Jyotirmath? What happens if the climb is four-wheel-drive only that day? And are the driver's night halt and waiting time extra?
Between the bus and a taxi, Nav says take the bus. A seat on the 06:45 was Rs 750 when we checked in September, the cheapest sedan we found asks Rs 6,000, and it's the same road either way.
Vandana's point is the ten hours. In a two-by-two seater, with a suitcase and a child who gets carsick on the first hairpin, you can't stop when someone needs to; in a car you can.
Where we agree: count heads. Four people in a Rs 6,000 sedan pay Rs 1,500 each, twice the bus fare, and on a clear day the same car can take you up the climb. One or two adults with light bags should take the bus, booked a day ahead. A family, a winter date or anyone who gets carsick should take a taxi, with the climb to Auli agreed before paying. Either way, the first night is in Jyotirmath.
Flying into Jolly Grant? You don't need Dehradun at all
Jolly Grant is Dehradun's airport, but it sits 20 km from the city centre, on the highway to Rishikesh. That's the Dehradun district administration's figure. From the airport the Chamoli district gives about 279 km to Auli, measured to Auli itself, and Wikipedia puts Rishikesh about 20 km away. So a flier heads for Rishikesh and never goes into town.
The Chamoli district says taxis and buses run from the airport towards Auli. We found no published fare for that ride, and the airport's prepaid taxi rate list wouldn't load when we tried. The Dehradun buses with published times won't help a flier on the day either: they leave the city at 05:30 and 06:45, hours before the first Delhi flight lands.
If you land after noon the mountain day is gone, so sleep in Rishikesh. It's in the right direction, and on the booking sites we checked on 8 September 2026 the private buses to Jyotirmath left it between 04:00 and 08:45.
You may also see a Dehradun to Auli helicopter advertised. The scheduled route behind it goes from Dehradun's Sahastradhara helipad to Gauchar, a long way down the valley from Jyotirmath, and no operator's page confirmed it was flying in September 2026. The Auli package euttaranchal sells from Dehradun promises a "Scenic helicopter ride from Dehradun to Auli" and lists "Return Heli Tickets from Sahastradhara to Gauchar & Return". We'd skip it. Which cities fly into Jolly Grant and when, and the helicopter's dated record, are on our page comparing every way in.
Is there a train from Dehradun to Auli?
No train goes to Auli, or anywhere near it. Dehradun has its own station, but the nearest railhead to Auli is Rishikesh, and no train runs beyond Rishikesh yet. The line up the valley, Rishikesh to Karnaprayag, is now due in December 2029, after slipping from December 2026 and then December 2028. Until it opens, a train into Dehradun is a way to arrive the evening before. The 05:30 state bus leaves from the hill bus stand at the railway station, so you can sleep near the platform and walk to it.
What changes on this road in winter?
In winter it's the climb above Jyotirmath that fails. In the snow of 23 and 24 January 2026 the climb was shut after vehicles skidded, and tourists went back up in four-wheel drives, the district police chief said. We found no published order.
We were in Jyotirmath that evening, waiting until 23:00 for the road up to open, and then drove the Thar to our hotel below the top. It was open to four-wheel drives only that night, so our run says nothing about a sedan. How that week went on the climb, day by day, is on the page for that stretch.
The start of this road is low, in the valley all the way to Rishikesh, and the Mussoorie road is the exception described above. So from December to March go up by Rishikesh, carry a spare day, take a four-wheel drive or a local taxi for the last part, and ring your hotel before you commit to the climb. Whether there'll be snow on the slope at all is a separate question with its own record.
Auli to Dehradun: how does the way back work?
The Auli to Dehradun distance is the same road back, about 310 km, but the timetable differs. UTC's bus to Dehradun Hill Station leaves Tapovan at 04:00. The private buses down from Joshimath to Rishikesh ran from 05:30 to 11:30 when we checked the booking platforms on 8 September 2026, and UTC has a 6 am bus from Srinagar to Dehradun. Every down bus we found leaves in the morning.
Our own way down in January filled a day. We left our hotel at 08:45 on 26 January and checked in at 19:00 at MVT Resort in Tapovan, Rishikesh (Rishikesh's own Tapovan, not the bus's one past Jyotirmath), then drove home the next morning. If you're flying out of Jolly Grant, keep a spare day between the mountains and the flight: one blocked morning on the highway is enough to miss it.
What about the ropeway everyone mentions?
Leave the Joshimath to Auli ropeway out of your plan: it hasn't carried a passenger since January 2023. Nobody has announced a date for the 4.15 km gondola to run again, and the state is planning a replacement line to the Gorson slope. Auli's chairlift is an 800 m lift inside Auli, so between the town and Auli there's only the road. What's planned in its place, and the dated record of how it closed, is on its own page.
It needs saying because ten of the Dehradun to Auli travel pages we read still offer the ropeway as a way up. Several of them offer it as the answer when snow closes the road, which is exactly when a reader would act on it. A Dehradun taxi operator, uttarakhand.cab, tells readers that if the road is snowed out they "must take the famous Joshimath-Auli Gondola (Ropeway)". In snow the way up is a four-wheel drive, or a wait.
Dehradun to Auli FAQ
What is the Dehradun to Auli distance?
About 310 km by road. The Chamoli district administration puts Dehradun 298 km from Jyotirmath (Joshimath), and Auli is 11 to 16 km further up depending on the route, so roughly 309 to 314 km in all, which is our addition. From Jolly Grant airport the district gives about 279 km to Auli. The road is NH-7 from Dehradun, through Rishikesh, to Jyotirmath.
How long does it take to go from Dehradun to Auli?
About 10 to 12 hours. The one private bus listed on the booking sites we checked leaves Dehradun at 06:45 and reaches Joshimath at 17:00, 10 hours 15 minutes, and the climb to Auli adds up to an hour on a clear day. Map tools quoting 7 to 9 hours are timing a mountain road as if it were flat. Leave at dawn and sleep in Jyotirmath before going up.
How do you reach Auli from Dehradun?
By road the whole way: NH-7 to Jyotirmath, then the climb. The state bus leaves the hill bus stand by the railway station at 05:30 and a private bus leaves at 06:45, both reaching Jyotirmath, and from there you go up by shared jeep or taxi. On a clear day a taxi can do the whole run. If you land at Jolly Grant, skip the city and head for Rishikesh.
Is there a direct bus from Dehradun to Auli?
Not to Auli itself. Uttarakhand Transport Corporation runs a 05:30 bus from Dehradun Hill Station, the hill bus stand at the railway station rather than the ISBT, to Tapovan through Jyotirmath, and it can be booked online. DevBhoomi Travels sells a 06:45 private seat to Joshimath. GMOU's new buses from Dehradun to the hills, halted by a dispute in mid-September 2026, were due back from 20 September on a temporary timetable, with Joshimath among their planned routes. From Jyotirmath you go up by shared jeep or taxi.
How much is a taxi from Dehradun to Auli?
Taxi operators publish Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 one way for a sedan from Dehradun, and more for an SUV or an Innova, on their own pages as we read them on 26 September 2026. Those are asking prices, not a government rate. Ask whether the price includes the climb from Jyotirmath to Auli, and what happens if that climb is limited to four-wheel drives in snow.
What is the distance from Dehradun airport to Auli?
About 279 km, on the Chamoli district administration's figure. Jolly Grant airport is about 20 km from Dehradun's city centre, on the highway to Rishikesh, so fliers don't need to go into the city: head for Rishikesh, about 20 km away, and on up NH-7 to Jyotirmath. We found no published taxi fare from the airport.
Is there a train from Dehradun to Auli?
No. Trains stop at Rishikesh, the nearest railhead to Auli, and the Rishikesh to Karnaprayag line is now due in December 2029 after two earlier dates slipped. If you arrive in Dehradun by train, the state bus towards Jyotirmath leaves the hill bus stand at the railway station at 05:30 the next morning.
What is the Auli to Dehradun distance?
The same road back, about 310 km. The timetable is the part that differs: UTC's bus to Dehradun leaves Tapovan, beyond Jyotirmath, at 04:00, and the private buses we found from Joshimath to Rishikesh all leave in the morning. If you're flying out of Jolly Grant, keep a spare day before the flight.
Can you go from Dehradun to Auli via Mussoorie?
Yes. NH-707A runs from Mussoorie through Chamba and New Tehri to Maletha, near Srinagar, where it meets the Badrinath highway. It's hill road from the start and it closes in snow: PWD's log shows it shut twice on 23 and 24 January 2026. From December to March, go by Rishikesh instead.
What we couldn't verify
- Whether UTC's 05:30 Dehradun to Tapovan bus runs in January, and what it costs. The route table gives times and booking status, no fare.
- Whether the GMOU and Rupkund Travel buses from Dehradun are running now, and when they leave. The last report we found, on 19 September 2026, has the regional transport officer promising a temporary timetable. Its times weren't online when we looked.
- Whether the night rules hold now. We found Tehri police's Devprayag to Rishikesh ban only in October 2024 reports, with nothing on it being repeated in 2025 or lifted, and neither yatra rule says whether it binds a private car.
- A distance and a time from Dehradun by the Mussoorie road. PWD gives only the whole highway, 311 km from Tuyuni to Maletha.
- A published fare for this trip, either a taxi fare from Jolly Grant airport or a government figure. The State Transport Authority set a per-km maximum for hill routes in July 2022, but we found no figure for this route, so the prices here are the operators' asking prices.
- How far the Bhaniawala to Rishikesh widening has got. The Chief Minister halted tree felling for it on 18 July 2026. Amar Ujala on 21 July and ETV Bharat on 22 August still reported that halt, and those are the latest reports we found.
- Whether the Sahastradhara to Gauchar helicopter is flying, on which days and at what fare.
Starting from Dehradun, or just back?
Write to hello@wctoindia.com. If you've just ridden the 05:30 or one of the new GMOU buses, tell us when it left and what you paid, and we'll credit you by name. If you're about to go, send your dates and how you're travelling, and we'll tell you which bus or road we'd pick and where we'd sleep.
Sources
Distances from Joshimath and Jolly Grant, the railheads and the airport's taxis and buses: Chamoli district administration, read 26 Sep 2026. The airport's distance from the city and the Mussoorie bus station at the railway station: Dehradun district administration, read 26 Sep 2026. The climb's length by route: Nav, driven October 2024. Highway numbers: NHAI's NH-07 name for the Bhaniawala, Jolly Grant and Rishikesh widening, in Panchjanya (below); PWD's road records for NH072/007 and NH707A, both read 26 Sep 2026; Wikipedia on NH 7; and, for NH-7 from Rishikesh to Jyotirmath, the 2024 landslide survey of the Rishikesh to Joshimath (NH-7) highway. The forest stretch and its widening: Panchjanya, 8 Jul 2026; the felling halt, The Hans India, 18 Jul 2026; the felled trees and the court, Amar Ujala, 21 Jul 2026; the halt still in place, ETV Bharat, 22 Aug 2026. Elevations and the airport's distance from Rishikesh: Wikipedia on Dehradun, Rishikesh, Mussoorie, Joshimath and Dehradun Airport, all read 26 Sep 2026; Auli's height, the Chamoli district (above). Road closures in January 2026: PWD's road-closure list, its entries for 15 Jan to 5 Feb 2026. What that list covers: PWD's road record for SH024, Rishikesh to Bhaniyawala, maintained by NHAI, and the same list read department by department for 1 Jan 2023 to 26 Sep 2026, with no NHAI entry in it. State buses: Uttarakhand Transport Corporation route table, read 26 Sep 2026; online booking restarted, Haldwani Live, September 2026. GMOU from Dehradun: Amar Ujala Rishikesh, 4 Sep 2026; the buses stopped, Amar Ujala Rishikesh, 18 Sep 2026; the operators' agreement and the temporary timetable, Amar Ujala Rishikesh, 19 Sep 2026. The private bus: MakeMyTrip and redBus, both read 26 Sep 2026; private buses up from Rishikesh, redBus and Goibibo, and down from Joshimath, redBus, all checked 8 Sep 2026. Night rules: the Transport Department's Green Card portal; the 2026 yatra order, Devbhoomi Media, 19 Apr 2026; the Devprayag to Rishikesh ban, Amar Ujala Tehri, 25 Oct 2024. Taxi prices: Rajputana Cabs (its Jaipur, Delhi and Bangkok offices are on its contact page), Dehradun Cab and uttarakhand.cab, all read 26 Sep 2026. The climb's fare: Amar Ujala Chamoli, 29 Dec 2024, worded per passenger by Rajya Sameeksha. The January 2026 climb: the Chamoli police chief to ANI, via Lokmat Times, 24 Jan 2026. The railway line: Indian Infrastructure, 15 Sep 2026 for December 2029, and Wikipedia for the earlier dates. The helicopter: launch, Indian PSU, 7 Nov 2024; restart, Haldwani Live, 6 Dec 2025; the package, euttaranchal's Auli heli tour from Dehradun, read 26 Sep 2026. Figures other pages print for the trip, all read 26 Sep 2026: 149 km, MakeMyTrip's bus page (above); 150 km, Savaari; 170 km, Nainital Corbett Tourism; 172 km, MakeMyTrip's cab page; 149 km as the distance by air, and 7 hours 30 minutes from Auli back to Dehradun, Yatra's pages for Dehradun to Auli, Dehradun to Joshimath and Auli to Dehradun; 7 hours 49 minutes, redBus (above). The ropeway still offered as a way up: uttarakhand.cab (above), TicketsToTrip, Rajputana Cabs (above) and bharatexplored, all read 26 Sep 2026. The hotel in Dalanwala: Google's directions card, 26 Sep 2026. Our own trips: our trip records, and for June 2025 our own account.
Changelog
- First published.
- Corrected how we describe our own trips: October 2024 and January 2026 were in our own car, but in June 2025 we went by bus from Delhi and a shared jeep up the last climb. Rewritten around our own trips. No fare, distance or date changed.