Uttarakhand, the land of god and goddesses, better known as devbhoomi also famous for its tourist attractions which are known and crowded hill stations like Nainital and Mussorie. But Uttarakhand has lot more to discover, there are many beautiful villages which are so beautiful and peaceful you can't even imagine.
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| From Seetla to Mukteshwar |
Couple of months ago, I visited one such village name of that village is mukteshwar. I visited there with my family and it was an amazing experience being at such soothing and splendid place. The village has a moderate weather in summer season which makes it a perfect runaway from these hot summers. A perfect sunset, glimpse of Himalayas and much more can be witnessed at this peaceful location. So, in this blog i will talk about my trip to Mukteshwar and what all places i visited and the experience. So, without wasting much time lets move to the beginning of my trip.
Why Mukteswar?
Before the beginning of the trip, a night before we were having a discussion deciding the place as the second wave of covid was over, everyone was traveling. So, we did not wanted to land up in a crowded place. So there was confusion while deciding the place, we were initially planning for kausani or kasar devi. But these are quite far from Haldwani and we won't be able to enjoy in a 2 day trip. And on the other hand, when you are travelling family by your own vehicle you have to always keep in mind the delays during the trip. So, keeping that in mind we picked up mukteshwar as there was availability of room and it is just a 3 hour drive from Haldwani, so we can manage to reach there by time.
So trip began on Saturday, we woke on time but it was yet not sure that we will be leaving today. It got finalised by 11 in morning. And everyone got ready we packed our bags. It took us a lot of time and it was around 2:30 when we left for Mukteshwar.
Haldwani to Mukteshwar
The route was simple, we had to go to bhimtal road. From there to ramgarh road via bhowali and then there are two ways to reach mukteshwar. One road is nathuakhan road which is well built and it is easy to drive there and other one goes from Mukteshwar to seetla. Basically Seetla is considered as a part of Mukteshwar. This is the place where you find all the resorts. It is at a distance from mukteshwar village. So we were going towards seetla without using the road that links to mukteshwar as it is not well built.
We began from haldwani and reached bhimtal in no time as this road is the one which we have drove on multiple times. The beautiful view throughout the way. A bhutta break in between was expected for sure as mumma loves it. We talk a Bhutta break near Amritpur, i have mentioned this in my Haldwani blog you can check it out. After bhimtal we took turn on Bhowali road and actual journey started from that point as bhimtal seems like second home. I have visited this place multiple times but this road was magical. Turning off the car AC opening the window mirrors and enjoying that cool breeze was an amazing experience. Apart from that road was well built easy to drive on and there was no vehicles on the road. It was so soothing empty roads which made me feel like this is a perfect place to visit for peace not nainital as it was very crowded post covid days.
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| Nathuakhan road |
We drove to Nathuakhan road. The view of mountains, terrace farming on those mountains were clearly visible. The place is famous for apple plantation you will find people carrying box of apples throughout the way. I was sitting in the front seat my camera was on but moreover i was enjoying every bit of the trip. I must have said it before as journey is better than the destination. But in this case i was loving the journey but the destination also was a perfect place.
The Satkhol Retreat
After a drive of three and a half hour we reached our homestay, the Satkhol Retreat. We have a family friend there who are building their own resort next to the retreat, so, my family members decided to meet them and looking at the building while i went straight to the roof of the retreat because of two reasons, one on a fine sunny day, you can see a clear view of Himalayas from this place. However, it wasn't the best day to find that view. But i got a glimpse of a perfect sunset which i have uploaded on my instagram account you can check it here.
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| The Satkhol retreat |
After sitting for around an hour there, i started feeling a bit cold as the sun was setting. So, I went to the room took some rest, then it was a chit chat session with the family, continued by dinner and then card games to call it a night. So i went to bed around 12:30 and i wanted to shoot a perfect sunrise video as well as wanted to get the glimpse of the view of Himalayas. So, i woke at 4:30 am waited for the sun to rise got a glimpse of sun and then it got behind the clouds. So, no view of sun and no view of Himalayas as well. This was the only thing i wanted to see which i wasn't able to.
This was all about the place so far now, we will move towards the tourist attraction in mukteshwar. I was not able to capture the view of Himalayas but you can see that in picture below. After all this I have shortlisted few spots that I wanted to visit on this trip. So we got ready, had breakfast and then took the road towards Mukteshwar.
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| Himalayas view from mukteshwar |
Places to visit in Mukteshwar
As said the road was not well built but it was very beautiful. The surrondings, the trees, it looked like perfect unexplored place. It was route from the jungle. And it was very beautiful. We stopped at few place to get a glimpse of the picture perfect view.
So far the trip has been amazing, I got what I was looking for the perfect peaceful place. Now I wanted to visit the famous places which are must visit. Before, beginning of every trip, I do my research for the place, always shortlist the places i would like to visit and leave few as then only you would like to visit the place again. So, these were the places which I shortlisted. The Mukteshwar dham temple, Chauli ki Jali and Bhalugaad waterfall. All these need to be covered by 6 in the evening and it was around 10 in morning when we left the retreat.
These were the places i visited and it was a wonderful experience, let us move to this places one by one to give you a clear idea about these.
Mukteshwar dham temple
Apart from the beautiful valleys of Mukteshwar, mukteshwar is most visited because of its famous mukteshwar dham temple a lot of devotees visit this place. When we visited this temple we found a lot of traffic near the temple, there was no separate parking space. All the vehicles were parked on the road making it tough to find a good parking spot.
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| Mukteshwar dham temple |
There are two gates of the temple that i have seen. As on the first gate there was a lot of crowd, so, we went towards second gate unluckily there was no parking space as well. so, we went ahead on the road to find a good packing spot, but we ended up reaching the dead-end. We got stuck there as many cars were behind us and this wasted around an hour.
After lot this struggle we reached back to the temple and entered through second gate. We got the parking this time, there was no crowd on this gate. We followed the stairs to the temple. The Temple is built on a nice place. Trees all around. It is built at a good height. One need to climb 50-60 steps to reach there. It is a good place to visit if it is less crowded. Again temple was a bit crowded. Keeping covid-19 in our mind we stayed there only for few minutes and went toward chauli ki jali.
Chauli ki Jali
This place is just next to the Mukteshwar dham temple can be side on the back side. After climbing the stairs when you reach the entrance of the temple. There is a path in the jungle in the right. You can follow that path, however, there are multiple paths like these. Follow any one to reach Chauli ki Jali.
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| Chauli ki jali |
Chauli ki Jali is nothing but a hill top with few rocks, names written on the rocks, various adventurous activities were going around. The place was very crowded but the view from the place was breath taking. The place is on a height and when you look down from the place you just see mountains all around. And if you are lucky enough you can get glimpse of Himalayas on a clear sunny day. This place is nice if less crowded you can try various activities, a variety of food stalls were also present there. So, the place was good. But all that matter is the time you are visiting this place.
Bhalugaad waterfall
After this we left from temple, to visit bhalugaad waterfall. This waterfall is extremely beautiful but is not in mukteshwar, it is somewhere between Mukteshwar to Bhimtal. But this place is very beautiful. Just a quick tip. Do not visit on weekends as we did, it was very crowded on that day.
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| Bhalugaad waterfall |
So, we drove to the waterfall and reached the entrance gate after driving for an hour or more. On the entrance there was a ticket of Rupees 50 to enter the waterfall and the gatekeeper told us that you have to walk for approximately 1 km to reach the fall. So, we asked our parents not to visit with us as it is offcourse not a straight route. So, we started walking on an incline road and we were very tired.
After 400 meters we got a person who was conducting zip line at that point to another point which can cover almost 400 meters more. So we thought using the zip line is a good option. He was asking a lot of money but being the localites we can bargain well and it was done at a low rate, as low as 200 bucks for each person. That was an amazing experience, there was nothing to be scared of it was just fun. But it was very small hardly took 30 seconds to reach the other point. My heart was like dil maange more!
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| Towards Bhalugaad waterfall |
Moving forward we again started walking towards the fall. Trust me the route was not at all simple. One need to cross the river from rocks or get your foot in water which no one was doing to save the shoes. We climbed, jumped over the rocks and did a lot of exciting stuff to reach the final destination, the waterfall. And it was another 1 km after the zip line. It was almost 2 km distance from the entrance gate which was not told by the gatekeeper. But the fall was a treat to watch. Although the place was crowded, people were bathing, some people were also smoking and drinking on the way to fall by sitting on rocks by the side of river. And this is one thing i would like to add on, everyone can smoke drink at any room, hotel, their hometown, anywhere. But do not spoil places like these people looking for good place soothing vibes does not want to smell your cigarettes at all. So, a humble request guys those who want to do activities like these please do not spoil such places. Stay safe and keep other safe as well.
Moving forward, we reached the waterfall. As it was very crowded we just sat there for sometime like half an hour. But that half an hour was amazing. The sound fall was so energetic. The flow of water, people jumping from the height. But we decided just to sit by the corner of the place. We took of our shoes sat there for sometime. And then walked back to the car. Which was again a 2 km walk.
From there we went to Bhimtal ate Maggie there, which is best I have ever had. Will let you know about this in detail in bhimtal blog post soon. Do hit the subscribe button to get notified for my upcoming blog posts.
After the tasty Maggie we left for home tired and happy as trip gave us everything we needed. A break from work, refreshment and excitement, a bit of adventure. Overall, the trip was amazing. The place was beautiful, there was some magic in the air. In morning time i had to even wear a jacket while waiting for the sunrise. So, you can imagine how cold it was in the morning in the month of June. So, it gave me a perfect break from those hot sunny days in Haldwani.
Hope, this helps you when you visit this place.
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