Harishchandragad  - हरिश्चंद्रगड

Date of Trek : 10-Dec-2011 & 11-Dec-2011

We had been planning to visit Harishchandragad since long time. Harishchandragad is a “must visit” place for every trekker in Maharashtra.

Harishchandragad is a fort located on the borders of Pune , Thane & Ahmadnagar districts.  This fort is 1424 meter high from sea level. Fort has multiple ways to climb up. Most popular three ways are

• Via Khireshwar  - Moderate difficulty level & requires high endurance
• Via Pachnai  - Relatively Simple
• Nalichi Wat – Most difficult & need professional mountaineeringexperience. You can choose to go with professional companies.

We selected a road Via Khireshwar.

We were four members in this group. We started from Pune early in the morning from 3:30 AM in my car.

Route :

Nashik Phata  –> Rajgurunagar –> From Aale Phata take left towards Kalyan. Most of the websites & Google map tells a route which is to take right from Khubi Phata & reach to Khireshwar from wall of Dam. We took this road but it road is real bad. But still I dared to took car on that road. This is not even tar road .  There is another road to Khireshwar Via Pinpalgaon. This is good road.

We reached on Dam wall from Khubi Phata at about 6:30 AM. Now Khireshwar was just 2 KM away & we are able to see the view of fort.  We had quick breakfast of Sandwiches & fruits there.

Click on images to view larger image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a beautiful view of Sunrise near dam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Google Map shows  –

View Harishchandragad in a larger map

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We reached to Khireshwar village. Parked our car near a small cafe named “Hotel Aishwarya”  .

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had quick tea at hotel Aishwarya & asked information about fort & way to fort to local villagers.

Me & Subhash in below photo with grand view of Harishchandragad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 While planning this trip we were not sure if we can get food on fort or not. We had good amount of food with us for two days along with sleeping bag & three liters of water with each one of us. With heavy bags we started walking towards fort. We got bamboo sticks in had while walking to reduce pressure on knees when you carry heavy bags.

 

Road is not very stiff slope but you have to pass though from dry water canals  & lot of big stones.

Since we were going through the jungle it was cool so we were not getting tired due to sun heat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the view of rock patch.

After one and half hour of climbing from jungle we saw this view of cliff . There is a small pass (Tolar Khind ) and  there another road comes from Pachnai village. There is a rock patch. We carefully climbed rock patch with help of poles. Steps are carved out on rock at some hard places which helps.

I can not imagine climbing this fort in rains but local villagers say there is lot of crowd in rainy season too.

 

 

There is sculpture of tiger  near tolar khind. Some people say this is indicative of leopards in this area.

Local people say there are only wild boars in this jungle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After this Tolar Khind , there is stiff rock patch. We climbed multiple small rough rocks. We also came across a trekkers group from Mumbai.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Had quick break after & before rock patch. At about 11:00 AM we reached top of the fort. Now there is no hard climbing, just long walk on plateau.

Views of valley

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are two ways to reach kedareshwar temple on top . One is very simple but long . You have to go up and down seven hills ( elevations of land ).

Another way is to go towards balekilla & from there go to temple. On this way you have to go through dense jungle & some water streams. This way is okey in winter.

Bale Killa

 

After 1.0 hr of walk we reached to  Kedareshwar temple