Kaas Plateau - The Valley of Flowers...

About Kaas Plateau: The Valley of Flowers...

Last Saturday, I visited "Kaas Plateau" with my friends. It was in my "must visit" list from the past 3 years and finally we planned this trip to "The Valley of Flowers". Kaas Plateau, also known as "Kaas Pathar" (in Maharashtra), is located around 145 kms from Pune city of Maharashtra, India. This place is rich in flora and is significantly known for its biodiversity. During the months of August and September, the valley provides habitat to more than 800 different species of flowers and plants. After monsoon, for a stretch of 2-3 weeks; from end of August till mid-September, the plateau blossoms with different varieties of flowers and attracts many tourists and nature lovers from across the country. In 2012, UNESCO approved it as the "World Natural Heritage Site" and since then this plateau grabbed more attention of the local tourists.

Our Journey...

In our trip to Kaas, we left Pune at 8 am in the morning and reached Kaas at around 12:30 pm (took 2-3 breaks in between). Since it's a UNESCO approved site, to manage the crowd and to avoid damages, the officials have restricted the number of visitors to 3000 per day. Along with that, there are four time slots of 3 hours each for visiting the place. Since it was not a pre-planned trip and that we planned it in just 2 days and also we were 14 people in total, so to manage everything we kept some travel time in buffer and booked our tickets for the 1-4 pm slot. We reached Kaas at 12:30 pm and parked our vehicle 1 km ahead of the main entrance gate. After that, we started walking and reached the main gate at 1 pm. Since the plateau was located at high altitude and unfortunately we had overcast conditions, which ruined some of my plans to capture good pictures of the place. But still the beauty of the valley was of a different kind and we took a stroll across the path created for walking and enjoyed our time
 
After covering most of the area, we left for Pune at 4pm and reached there by 9 pm in the night (took dinner break in between).

Here are some of the photos I clicked in foggy weather. Hope you like them! :)

 

Near by places to visit...

1. Mahabaleshwar Hill Station (35 kms)
2. Koyna Sanctuary (20 kms)
3. Tapola (50 kms)
4. Wai (30 kms)

How to reach Kaas Plateau from Pune...

1. Pune-Bangalore Highway -- Katraj --Shindewadi -- Khed Shivapur -- Nasarpur phata --  Kapurhole -- Shirwal -- Bhumj -- Satara -- Kaas (20 kms from Satara)
2. Pune-Solapur Highway -- Hadapsar -- Saswad road via Diveghat -- Saswad village --
   Narayanpur --  Kapurhole --Shirwal -- Bhumj -- Satara -- Kaas (20 kms from Satara) 

Best time to visit...

Best time to visit Kaas Plateau is after the rains from end of August till October. However, the rarest species of flowers normally blossoms during the months of August(late) and September(mid).

For Photography enthusiasts this is the perfect place to capture some ever-lasting memories. So pray to god for sunny day and click some extra ordinary pictures! :)

Timings...

There are four slots of 3 hours each for visiting the valley-

7am - 10am
10am-1pm
1pm-4pm
4pm-7pm

Maximum 3000 people can register to visit the place per day. 

Ticket Details...

Rs.50 per person for 3 hours on Weekdays
Rs.100 per person for 3 hours on Saturday,Sunday and Government Holidays.

Photography charges for DSLR camera : Rs.100
Vehicle parking charges extra.

My Take...

This is one such place which you wouldn't want to miss when in Pune. It's a UNESCO site and is the only one of its kind! A perfect place for nature lovers and photography enthusiasts!! :)

Note: Few details have been taken from Google for accuracy.

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