Phulara Ridge Trek

The trek starts from Kotgaon village. Initially, you pass through the village. As you come out of the village, you cross a bridge and enter a lovely pine forest. After about an hour of ascent, you come across a beautiful clearing called Shirpuri.

From Shirpuri, there are two trails. One to the right goes towards Kedarkantha Peak and the one to the left goes towards Hargaon. Take the left trail. A bit of a relaxed trail in the pine forest further leads to Hargaon - another clearing where you can spot shepherds' huts.

If you follow the trail straight ahead of Hargaon, it’s the one to the famous Juda Ka Talab. You can either follow this to Juda Ka Talab and then take a left from the lake or the better exciting trail which is to explore the trail to the left from this fork. This takes you through the lovely pine forests. The aroma of the Himalayan Cedar or Deodhar Cedar has filled the area as your legs enjoy a soft crunch through the forest floor. You will hear the tiny bees buzzing, resonating all around the forest. A nice half an hour on the forest path, you reach the main trail. This is the trail that comes from Juda Ka Talab. Take the left here and follow the trail in the forest.

There is another good clearing to the left where you can pitch your tents.

You will be surprised to see a ledge to your right. The sunlight cuts across the canopy beautifully here. You start seeing snow-capped peaks being visible now to the left. You will pass a small broken bridge. A stream is flowing down the hill where you can fill your water bottles.

The ascent continues from here for another 40 minutes. The Trail has Yellow Marsh Marigold and purple lilies blooming around. You come across a lovely large rock – The Gecko rock. It resembles the shape of a lizard having its head held high. The trail takes the right which leads to the clearing of ‘Sikolta’. A nice meadow patch with broken Gujjar huts.

A good ascent from Sikolta for about 30 minutes through the forest patch. The forest is a bit dark and dense. Watch out for a few trees fallen on the trail. You spot a bridge down along the trail. A small descent to the bridge and a sharp ascend through a small section of the landslide terrain. This section is just about 100 meters. A nice stream is flowing underneath the bridge where you can fill water. The bridge and the stream separate the valley. Continue the ascend for another 15 minutes to reach a bigger clearing known as ‘Karsu Thatch’. The grass is filled with yellow flowers.

As you enter this big clearing, to the right you see the Kedarkantha peak. You see the decline in the tree line from here. You need to take the gradual ascent and keep it to your left. The ascent is a gradual one for another 30 minutes. The rhodo type trees with some Bhoj trees are filled on the trail now. The flowers bloom after the monsoon. The clearings start to open up and you enter the lush green meadows. A treat for your eyes and legs, one can enjoy walking on the green cover now.

The Dhunda Top is the highest point of this hill. With a small gradual ascent of 15 minutes and a trek for another 10 minutes on the trail to the left, you enter a nice flat meadow patch. This will be your campsite. You have a stream flowing down the valley. This will be your water source.

You can go for an excursion/acclimatization walk to the top of the hill. It’s a long ridge at the top which can take you to Kedarkantha as well. From here you will see the Purola region, the peaks of Kedarkantha, Swargarohini, Devkyara, Lekha Top, Vijay Top and a few others. The sunset, rising of the moon and early sunrise is a beautiful spectacles to watch out for from this campsite.

The top of the ridge can be seen from the campsite. To start the day, there is a nice ascent. It takes about 45 minutes to reach the top of the ridge. A lot of Himalayan Monals can be spotted on this trail. I saw seven Monals on this day and when approaching the ridge.

The view from the ridge is amazing. The view of the snow-peaked mountains of 250 degrees. You can see the ridge going ahead with slight ascents to reach the end of this beautiful trail. As you are trekking, you feel the snow-capped mountains moving along with you.

After another hour of trekking, you come to the end of this trail where it takes a right turn. Few stones kept along the pathway, make you feel like you got a grand entrance to view the majestic view. The peaks from right to left are Hanuman Top, Sarutal Top, DKD, Bandarpoonch, Kalanag, Swargarohini, Hata Peak(HKD), Ranglana, Devkyara valley, Lekha Top, Vijay Top, Kedarkantha. Take the right from this point where the trail leads. An intermittent signal of Vodafone can be caught at the top. You can see multiple descents and ascents one has to take. The base of Sarutal is where you need to cross.

The trail takes a bit of descent and follows a gradual ascent. To the right is a drop. In the distance across the tall pine trees, in the valley of Purola. This section is not possible to take during the winter months because of snow. This section also does not have water sources. Crossing the snow section during April, and May itself is a difficult, tricky section. It took about an hour and 50 minutes with snow. Without snow, it would take about 30 minutes to complete and cross the Sarutal section. Watch for wildflowers and Monals through this section.

Once you cross this valley, you enter the right side of the hill. Few big mountains right in front of you. Take the descent and keep to your right. You will be blown away by the vastness of Pushtara meadows. It’s on the edge and a beautiful place to set up your campsite.

If you cross this valley, you have Taloti. A medium-sized gorgeous lake formed by the melting glaciers. Pushtara has a good amount of water on the right side. A small graveyard by the Gujjars can be seen giving a nice chill to the bones. A good place to come up with stories for the night.