Are you one of those pilgrims seeking spiritual solace? Are you an adventure enthusiast hoping to experience some breathtaking landscapes? We guess you have arrived at the right place. Today, we will be taking you all to one of the most famous temples of India, the Kedarnath Temple.
In case you don’t know who we are………
We call ourselves Travel Freaks………
Before we unveil anything about the Kedarnath Temple, let’s begin with a common notion……..
Table of Contents
1. Why is Kedarnath Temple so pious and famous?
Kedarnath Temple is located in the Rudraprayag District. Most importantly, it is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas and is considered to be pious among Lord Shiva’s devotees.
Kedarnath Temple is also related to the epic Mahabharata. It is believed that the Pandavas built the temple. All these facts made the temple quite popular not only in India but also overseas.
We were no different either, we were also as excited as you could imagine. Now your curiosity might have increased about……..
2. How are we planning to visit Kedarnath Temple?
After a fantastic trip to the Yamunotri Temple and the Gangotri Temple, it was time for our next destination, the Kedarnath Temple.
In case you have read any of our Char Dham blogs, checkout to know our experiences. You will be able to plan your itinerary. If you have any difficulty, you can always reach out to us.
Let’s come back to our story. We were in Uttarkashi and planned to depart by seven o’ clock in the morning. As usual, we were ready on time, packed our breakfast and departed for Guptkashi.
The distance was close to 200 km which took us approximately 10 hours to reach. Of course, on the way, we stopped for breakfast, lunch and two tea breaks.
On this trip, the best part was to have breakfast and lunch by the mountainside. It was a heavenly feeling for us.
It was almost five o’clock in the evening when we reached our stay at Guptkashi. There are many stay options at Guptkashi, you can find many budget options.
From Guptkashi, we will be heading to Sonprayag and from there to Gaurikund for a trek to Kedarnath Temple. Our readers can also opt for a stay at Sitapur, which is in close proximity to Sonprayag. However, we chose to stay at Guptkashi due to the number of stay options available.
Now as you have understood our planning, now let’s answer a common question…
3. What is the best way to reach the Kedarnath Temple?
This is challenging to answer in general. If you wish to visit all the Char Dham, then you can follow our route.
If you wish to visit only Kedarnath Temple, the nearest airport is the Dehradun Airport, i.e., Jolly Grant Airport, which is close to 220 km away from Sonprayag. The nearest railway station to Sonprayag is Rishikesh, which is also close to 210 km. Now, you need to plan accordingly, depending on your itinerary and budget.
The most important thing to know is that you need a proper permit to visit all the Char Dham. Please click here and register yourself before planning your Char Dham Trip. Travellers can also opt for offline permission in Rishikesh.
Now that you have got to know about the various ways to reach Kedarnath Temple let’s come back to our story.
4. How was the stay at Guptkashi?
As we said that we reached Guptkashi in the evening at five o’clock. Our stay was at the centre of the Guptkashi marketplace. The hotel had decent rooms and was well-maintained. On the back side of our hotel, we could see the Ukhimath, which was located on a different mountain.
Our readers will find many options in Guptkashi. There are many small restaurants, medicine shops and souvenir shops available in the marketplace where we stayed. Overall, we would recommend staying in close proximity to the Guptkashi marketplace.
Our manager informed us to depart for Sonprayag by three o’ clock in the night to avoid any rush while trekking up. This forced us to have our dinner early and have a few hours of sleep.
5. How was the journey to the Kedarnath Temple?
As we were instructed by our hotel manager, we departed for Sonprayag sharp at 3:00 AM on our bus. It took us close to 35 minutes to reach. We could see a large queue of buses parked by the mountainside. This made us realise the number of people who had already arrived before us.
After getting down from the bus, before we could realise anything, people started running or walking at a brisk pace. We were no different, as we understood, it was due to the queue that we had to stand.
After walking for close to 15 minutes, we stood in a queue. The queue was to get a chance for the shuttle trip from Sonprayag to Gaurikund. The queue was so long that we thought maybe it would take many hours to get our chance. However, it took us an hour to finally get our chance for the shuttle trip to Gaurikund, which cost Rs 50 per person.
After getting down at Gaurikund, you need to walk for another 2-3 km before the actual trek starts. We even observed a few stay options and cloakroom facilities. The trek is 18 km on paper; in reality, the distance exceeds 20 km.
There was a spot where travellers could opt to hire ponies or mules that would take them close to the Kedarnath Temple. From there, you need to walk for 2 km before you see the Kedarnath Temple. Children and persons weighing less than 50 kg can also opt for Kandi (a basket kind on which a child or an elderly person sit and a porter carries on the back). Dandi (four people carry a chair on their shoulder) operates in a limited number.
The actual trek from Gaurikund starts soon after the spot for hiring ponies or mules. Sometimes the road was steeply inclined, and then it declined—however, later on, the road was mostly inclined till Rambara. We would suggest our readers wear proper trekking shoes before this Char Dham Trip.
Most importantly, carry a raincoat. On the way, the rain started twice or thrice. We stopped at food stalls that were set up throughout the trek. You won’t find any issues if you feel hungry or thirsty. We stopped thrice to cover our 20 km trek. Twice to have tea and once to have noodles. How many times did you have noodles by the mountainside with rain on the backdrop?
After Rambara, there are many shortcuts that you can take to reach quickly. However, there was no proper road for the shortcuts, and they were quite steep as well as slippery. Kindly be careful while opting for shortcuts. We took most of the shortcuts and reached the spot where pilgrims got down from the ponies. The time was 10:30 AM. Phew….. It was a tough trek to cover in three hours.
After relaxing for 15 minutes there, we continued towards the Kedarnath Temple. Now that we have given you a glimpse of the trekking route. There is another way you can opt for……
6. What is the other option to reach Kedarnath Temple?
Helicopters can be another option that many might find feasible. However, proper planning is required if you wish to opt for the Helicopter route. The helicopter services require booking much before your planned departure for the Char Dham Trip.
Generally, Pilgrims can opt for helicopter services from Guptkashi, Sersi and Phata to Kedarnath Temple. An important thing to know is that the helicopter operates only if the weather is clear. Otherwise, they cancel the day’s trip. Kindly be aware of this fact beforehand.
Coming back to our story, as were in close proximity to the Kedarnath Temple, many of you might be excited to know……..
7. How was the experience of the Kedarnath Temple?
We were almost one km away from the Kedarnath Temple as we could finally see the top of the Kedarnath Temple. It was a really happy moment for us as we finally caught a glimpse of one of the most famous temples.
When we reached close to the helipad, we saw a long queue that was taking us to the Kedarnath Temple. After standing in the queue for close to two hours, if not less, we could enter the temple. It was so crowded that we could not explain. After struggling to catch a glimpse of the main idol, we could see it. It was a rock signifying the hump of a bull. We felt so joyous seeing that we could not explain it in words.
Soon after, we came out of the temple. Sat in front of the temple and immersed ourselves in the surrounding. The place felt so serene despite being crowded.
The weather started to change, and there was a slight drizzle. We went to have our lunch. There were a few restaurants available that you could opt for with Kedarnath Temple on the backdrop. It was like a dream come true for us.
After lunch, we opted to stay there for the night. Now you might be wondering……
8. What are the stay options available at Kedarnath?
We decided to stay in close proximity to the Temple. It was not luxurious; still, it was okay to stay for the night. You will find a few budget options to stay. In fact, tent options were also available. Luxury options are also available. Everything depends on your budget and schedule.
You can also opt to return on the same day. In our case, we decided to experience the ambience at night. The temperature started to dip in the evening when we came out from our stay to see the Bhim Sheela and the surrounding nature. Unfortunately, again there was a heavy drizzle when we were enjoying. We returned to our stay again by seven o’ clock in the evening.
We had an early dinner from a shop that was just beneath our stay and quickly went inside our blanket.
Many of the fellow Pilgrims complained of having breathlessness issues. They came out of the stay and kept on roaming outside.
After a few hours of sleep, we woke up at five o’ clock in the morning to start our return journey. Somehow we freshened up with the ice-cold water and started our return journey to Guptkashi.
The return journey was a little better as there was no rainfall. It was a pleasant experience till Gaurikund. We stopped five times to have tea. It was 11 o’ clock when we reached Gaurikund.
Finally, we were lucky to hire a car that dropped us directly from Gaurikund to our stay at Guptkashi. When we reached our stay, it was close to 2 PM. An amazing trip to Kedarnath Temple came to an end.
We had lunch and, later on in the evening, discussed our Kedarnath Temple experience while exploring the souvenir shops in the Guptkashi market. There was an early morning departure the next morning for our next part of the tour. We slept early to have a good, sound sleep after two days of adventurous experience at the Kedarnath Temple.
Hope we gave you a glimpse of the Kedarnath Temple and you could also plan on your own. Yes, of course, we are always there for you.
If anyone wishes to visit Char Dham or anywhere in India or Nepal, they can click here and explore the various itineraries available on their site. They provide affordable budget packages.
We are not signing off without this last question……
9. What kind of help are we gonna provide?
Let us inform you that we prepare itineraries not only for anywhere in India but also for Asia. We have been travelling since we were toddlers. So here in our blogs and stories, we will be giving you a glimpse of our journey and also helping you to plan your trip.
Read about our Uzbekistan blogs.
Read about our Kazakhstan blogs.
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Read about our Kuala Lumpur blog series.
Read about our Sri Lanka blogs.
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Read about our Char Dham blogs.
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Read about our day trip to Hyderabad.
Read about our Madhya Pradesh blogs.
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by mitkau