The Kaas Plateau also known as the & Kaas Pathar & quot; which is situated on the high hills of Sahyadri range in western ghats, 22 kilometers from Satara City in Maharashtra state of India.
It is known as Maharashtra’s valley of flowers. The area of plateau is approximately 1,000 hectare. The plateau is laden with wild flowers during the months of September and October.
The whole plateau looks like a carpet in various colors. These flowers bloom on their own and stay for about 2–3 weeks (depending on the monsoon and other weather factors).
It has been declared as Biodiversity World heritage site by The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It’s a unique place for flora researchers, nature lovers, and photographers.
Travelogue
In our search for visiting a unique place, we zeroed in Kaas Plateau as our next destination. As usual, we had questions and curiosity in our mind about the place.
But finally we decided to give this place a try which eventually turned out be a surprise package for us. We have now added this place in our excursion as a must place to visit.
The journey towards Kaas started in a dramatic way which was very obvious as our special companion from Delhi was arriving in the morning and we were supposed to leave by 10.30 a.m.
It was a story in itself that how a distance in Mumbai which is supposed to be covered in one and half hours took almost double the time to cover.
Due to this delay we decided to postpone our visit by a day but there was Ganpati festival on Monday which we have to celebrate with our closest family friend in Mumbai.
So, we decided to stick to our plan and booked a room in a hotel at Satara. Finally, our much awaited trip to Kaas started at 12.30 p.m. from Panvel first by refueling our car to full tank and air check up at nearby fuel station.
We straight away headed towards Pune via Expressway and were cruising at a decent speed on the highway. So, after covering the distance till Pune, we decided to take a halt for filling our empty stomach and getting afresh.
We took a break of around one hour and had a decent lunch and left from Pune at 3:45 p.m. Our journey from Pune till Satara was surrounded by greenery and hills which were so amazing and soothing to eyes.
Even the rain and sun were playing games with us which in a way were making their way for a beautiful rainbow that accompanied us for some time.
While cruising along the highway we were just discussing that it’s so amazing that by covering just 150 0dd KM we had a green, clean, & serene environment from that of a hustling and bustling city like Mumbai. We took the first right turn from the highway as per the direction and were in the city just 2 Kilometers away from the highway. The hotel was just near the ST Stand which was an easy task to find and we landed up in the hotel at 6:10 p.m.
Total Distance Covered - 240 KM (Panvel to Satara).
We were lucky enough to get a room from where we had a spectacular view of the sunset. It’s amazing to see colourful sky while the sun was getting past the hills.
We saw the sunset with our evening tea and that was a lovely combination. We were relaxing in hotel remembering the journey covered and were eagerly waiting for the next day.
After having a good dinner at the hotel we went to the bed and fell asleep in no time.
The next morning started on a positive note and everything went as per our scheduled plan.
We got up on time and were ready for our excursion to Kaas Plateau. We had our breakfast in the hotel room and were out at 9:00 a.m. to get the answers that were in our mind.
We started for Kaas Plateau from Satara and in 15 minutes we were near the hills. We started climbing the hill and halted in mid way to see the beautiful view of the city.
While going in the lap of nature we switched off our car AC and opened our windows to enjoy the climate. The more upward we moved the more beautiful picturesque it became and it felt like heaven.
It feels like a perfect portrait painted by the great almighty. We were moving zig-zag, up-down, on the hills and after around 15 KM from Satara we reached a hill top.
We stopped there as we didn’t want to miss any opportunity and what welcomed us was a glimpse of Kaas with a bed of yellow flowers.
This was the Yevteshwar plateau full of yellow flowers and valley on both sides of the hill. The table top mountain and lake view on both sides of the plateau was amazing.
We stopped there for half an hour, clicked some pictures and headed for our destination. We were now clear that something spectacular is coming our way.
After driving on mountain for another 10 KM, we reached our destination at 10.00 a.m. The moment we saw the Kaas Plateau – it was like awe!!! For few minutes the time paused for all of us and we felt blessed by the purity of the place.
We hardly see such natural colours in our day-to-day life and this place was full of colours. The blue, white, purple, pink flowers, green herbs & shrubs were so mesmerising that we had just fallen for them, it was like love at first sight.
Everybody can get hypnotised by the beauty of flowers, earthy fragrance, and the fragrance of flowers.
We started exploring the plateau and went deep into it and were enjoying the atmosphere. It’s a magic box where at every juncture you had something to unfold.
We were blessed with a very pleasant weather with cool breeze flowing through the plateau. We were capturing the scene through our lenses as much as we can.
While exploring the place we came across a small pond surrounded by colourful flowers. It was an awesome sight and we spent a lot of time there.
The carpet of white flowers looked like gems strewn all over the place. After spending some time we came back to the entrance to see other sides of the plateau as well.
While most of the areas were fenced to protect the nature, but entry to the visitors were allowed at one point. It felt like god have well knit the carpet with colourful flowers. We spent rest of our time there admiring the creativity of nature. Apart from tourist we saw botanist, professional photographers, and drawing artists all over the place.
It was a very refreshing experience which is still afresh in our memories after coming back home. The visit had given us a new dimension and has added colours in our life.
Fact File about Kaas Plateau
Distance: From Panvel (Navi Mumbai) via Pune – 240 KM (Travelling time 4 – 5 hours)
Best time to visit: Mid September till October end
How to reach there: Nearest Railway station is Satara and from there by Private vehicle. There is scarcity of public transport.
Entry Fee: Very nominal and extra charges for camera
Parking: 1.5 KM from the entry point
How to roam: By walk only
Food: No stalls available at Kaas Plateau
Public convenience: Not available at Kaas Plateau
Places nearby: Kaas Lake & Waterfalls
This travelogue was first published by Cloud9miles.
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