Visapur fort is located at Visapur village in Lonavala, Maharashtra. Monsoon Trek to Visapur fort is one of such attraction from Lonavala, where photos from this place will touch your soul. Same thing happened with me. Visapur fort was not much known earlier. From last couple of years, monsoon photos of this place started getting viral, especially the one where water is flowing down from stairs and one has to trek in that. This has become the mark of Visapur trek. The day I saw those photos, and guess what? I got so excited to visit this place. It is one of such adventurous trek where trail route involves the waterfall. Visapur village is the base village to reach start point of this trek. Visapur fort is a part of Lohagad, it shares the fortification as a twin fort with Lohagad fort. It is situated on the height of 3556 feet. This fort is larger and higher in elevation than Lohagad fort.
HOW TO REACH VISAPUR FORT
By Air
There is no direct airport to this location. Mumbai serves as the nearest International airport located on the distance of 100 km and another airport is at Pune on the distance of 65 km from this place. One can drive from airport to Visapur fort.
By Rail
Lonavala and Malavali is the nearest railhead to reach this destination. The fort is further 5 km from Malavali station and 14 km from Lonavala station. Lonavala is major railway station where few express train from location like Bangalore, Chennai, and Delhi halts here. From Malavali station one can either walk for few minutes or can also option for rickshaw to reach the base village Visapur. The road involves the steep walking.
By Road
One can drive up to Visapur village from Mumbai, Pune and other major cities. The drive from Mumbai is very scenic and one can come across different waterfalls on route. There are three routes to reach the summit of Visapur fort, but the base to all route is Malavali. First route is from Patan village, second is from Bhaje caves, and third is from Gaimukh Khind.
From Patan village the route is bit confusing with medium grade, this route further meets to Bhaje caves route. From Bhaje caves, route takes approx. 2 hours to reach the top. Bhaje caves are also part of Visapur fort. From Gaimukh khind, there is diversion for Lohagad and Visapur fort. This is easiest trail to reach the fort. We had taken Patan village route that meets the Bhaje caves.
TREK ROUTE TO REACH THE SUMMIT POINT
Monsoon in Maharashtra is known for its breath taking view of Sahyadri, and Visapur monsoon trek is one such trek, I was eagerly waiting to take out from bucket. Everything started from Mumbai on bike, it was time to utilize all collected information of this place in to reality. It was one such place where only few pictures from social media left me to think about this place. With this wonder I along with my one friend decided to visit here on one weekend. Reaching the base of this fort was not big task, the big task was to find initial trekking route from Patan village. Though it is confusing, with the help of few villagers, it became very easy to find initial trail of this trek. Initial route is easy but confusing. It involves the vast path and some ascending trail. There are so many diversion here that takes you to different routes. One has to keep eye on waterfall route parallel to path which is being followed. Slight ascend from this trail will take you to the rocky patch. The place here was completely dipped in the mist. At some point it seems that clouds were walking with me. Water flowing through the rocks, foggy weather, and climate that chill ups your spine is what, Visapur trek is known for. Further 15 minutes trek from this rock step will take you near the statue of Lord Hanuman carved on the wall. There is also small caves on right, this caves can accommodate at least 50 people. In addition of this, there are also several temple here.
Trek doesn’t stop here, from here the stairs trail starts exactly like a viral photo. The water flowing from the stairs, people are ascending through this looks so alluring. Soothing sound of water flow that gives the glimpse of perfect monsoon adventure. This is the only spot where travellers are impatience to shoot the video, but due to huge crowd, very few people get shoot of empty place. In monsoon crowd remains continue to visit this stunning place. This stairs route further takes you to the North entrance of the fort. Moving further there is vast path on the summit and it is invisible due to fog.
Its bit tough to explore the entire corner of fort in monsoon, because of clouds. There is small cannon on top along with grinding wheel, which was used in old time. Number of water tank and food storage tank on top will make you think about fort being sustainable for long war. The clouds on top was playing hide and seek game with me, with cloud you are not able to see anything on long distance, if it disappears one can see the complete view of summit. When clouds disappears, one can easily see the fortification of fort built with great thick walls. It is long wall spread across the corner of the fort. The walls are still intact and good in condition. Top of the fort gives astonishing view of Lohagad fort along with trek all three trek route of the Visapur fort. It was another dream came true for me.
While descending, it was raining heavily that resulted in increase in water level on route. It was bit difficult task to get down, where we could hardly see the rocky patch. Somehow we managed to cross the rocky trail and reached back to base village. For beginners its easy trek so one doesn’t need to worry. We ended another dream destination with cherish memories.
BEST TIME TO VISIT VISAPUR FORT
The ideal time to visit Visapur fort would be from June mid to September in monsoon time. One can get mesmerizing view of waterfalls and stairs filled with water. One has to be careful in heavy monsoon. Winter can also be best time to visit here. Temperature sometimes falls below 10 degree here. From October to February is ideal time for camping lovers. One can camp at summit point also. However, summer here will not be the ideal time to visit here, sun rays heats up the rock and becomes difficult to trek.
To know the answer for your question watch the video in link
https://www.samstravelplan.com/2020/05/visapur-fort-trek-staircase-waterfall-in-lonavala.html
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