Saru Tal Trek

The trek commences with a slight ascend through a dense forest of towering pine trees. It is tempting to play hide-and-seek among them, but leaves crunching below your feet give you away! The forest makes way for an enchanting clearing where you will encounter the only dhaba on this trek. If you are lucky, you will find a villager welcoming you with his melodious flute.
On reaching Sikolta, set your bags down and take an excursion to Juda ka Talab, a well-known lake among the trekking community.

The day begins with an ascent through a forest, again. This time, it leads to a wooden bridge. Cross this bridge with a cascading brook flowing underneath it, conquer a short patch of steep ascent and you will be rewarded with the picturesque opening of Karsu thatch. You will also find wooden house – like abandoned but intriguing structures.
The walk through islands of rhododendrons opens to a meadow of plain green grass of Bhoj Gadi. Set against a backdrop of purple-grey hued and snow-capped mountains, this is one of the most beautiful campsites on any Himalayan trail you will witness. Roam around the area, pose with a fascinating arrangement of stones and a log, or just sit and let serenity and meditativeness wash over you.

This day is the highlight of the trek. About an hour from Bhoj Gadi, we descend to the iconic ridge – the Phulara Ridge. A ridge is a chain of mountains that form a continuous crest for some distance. Its narrow edges drop into valleys on either side. This grants you an unobstructed view of some of the most majestic Garhwal Himalayan mountain ranges – including Swargarohini and Bandarpoonch, in 3 directions. You would be awestruck, to say the least.
Once the ridge ends, you descend into the vast, undulating Pushtara bugyal i.e. Pushtara meadows. Post the exhilaration of the ridge walk, you feel a sense of liberation as you marvel at the expanse around you.
To add to the range of emotions, is the charm of the countless variety of flowers, including the brahmakamal and fankamal, that bloom during summer. The ridge has been named “Phulara” for good reason. Also feel the excitement at spotting the rare monal pheasant, the state bird of Uttarakhand. There is a greater probability of spotting them on today’s trail.

We start the day early and start ascending towards the ridge line via the last stretch of the forest that surrounds the meadows on the eastward side. The ridge trail lies to our south. After 1.5 KM the forest ends and the alpine meadows surround the trail all the way to the Saru Tal lake.
It takes around 4 hours to cover the 8 KM trek to the Saru Tal. With an altitude gain of 550 meters, the trail is rather gradual. After spending and hour at the lake we descend back to Pushtara.

A full day of descent to civilization. We continuously descend along the trail today, as you make your way towards Taluka. After crossing the grasslands we enter the dense untouched forests and continue across them for rest of the trail. As you descend towards Taluka, you will find increasing number of trees. You will be greeted by little yellow flowers, which to some extent help you ease the sadness of reaching the end, and make you realize the worth of the treasure you have gathered in the last few days. Descending through dense forest, you will observe bands of langoors on trees. We start to come across scattered settlements, eventually reaching the quaint village where you will be greeted by curious and warm villagers and their children asking for candies. You will appreciate the architecture and smile at the simple domesticity of village life in the remote Himalayas. A vehicle will take you to Sankri from Taluka. We take a vehicle back to Sankri for the hour long drive.

We start the journey back to Dehradun and arrive by late afternoon or early evening. Trekkers can choose to journey further to Rishikesh or Tapovan to conclude the journey in a more astounding way.