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-   -   Kas - The Valley of Flowers (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/travelogues/126994-kas-valley-flowers.html)

Kas the valley of flowers of Maharashtra. Locally called 'Kas Pathar' or 'Plateau of Flowers'. Kas has been proposed as a UNESCO’s World Heritage Site (WHS). It is a place; I would love to visit again and again.
Few details about Kas as follows:

How to Reach There: Kas is around 293 k.m. from Mumbai and around 25 k.m. from Satara district. I started around 4.19 a.m. in the morning and followed the Mumbai Pune Express highway. Thereafter, followed NH 4 (Pune Bangalore highway) till Satara and left the highway around 8.20 a.m.

Where to Stay: There are lots of option available in Satara city. However, i stayed in a resort i.e., Nivant Hill Resort, which is on the Kas road. Perfect place to stay as it is away from hustle bustle of Satara city and the climate is excellent. I felt the difference when I came back to Satara city which was too warm. Night temperature is too low so better to carry some light wollen.

When to Go to Kas: Best time to visit Kas is after monsoon (Generally September and October). However, after going through a detailed pocket book by Dr. Sandeep Shrothi, i learnt that any time is good as different varieties of flower bloom throughout the year. Around kas is a village called Bamnoli and a waterfall called Thoseghar. I will recommend all to visit to Kas during early Morning and evening, when the light is best for photography. I visited three times during my one night stay i.e., mid afternoon, evening and morning. Still could not explore the entire variety of flowers.

Things to remember before visiting Kas:
Due to heavy tourist flow during weekends, the authority have started online registration (http://kas.ind.in/) for all visitors and limited to 2000 people. However, the volunteers do not care to see the registration. They only collect the entry fee if you have not deposited. However, I did my registration before heading to Kas.


Happy flower watching at Kas. Pictures through my lenses.

Another set of pictures.
Please note that all the pictures has been taken without going inside the blooming area. I have followed the track and not went inside.

Hey beautiful pics Subrat!! And a short to the point logue.

Looking at the pictures i think they'v done a good job of protecting the natural setting of the Kaas Pathar. First I thought it will just be a haphazard job and just a way of collecting money. But this definitely seems well done. Will definitely save this beautiful area from mindless irresponsible travellers.

And the valley looks breath taking to say the least! It seems quite empty though! Did you go on a weekday?

Cheers.

Thank you so much for liking. I went there on a working day (Friday, purposely) and visited on Saturday morning. I too left before the visitors come on Saturday.

I would love to give an explanation here. One picture where it looks that i am on the flowers but it is not. There are small tracks to access to flowers. So, if we apply little mind, we can get pictures like this. But people just jumped into the blooming flowers or ask their kins to jump and got a shot at the cost of destroying the beautiful habitat.

Last year during weekends, more than 20000 or 30000 people visited and did a mess. So, the forest department did those fencing and online registration.

Thanks again
Subrat

Ya definitely a good initiative. I have heard how people made a mess last year. I had visited this little piece of heaven about 7-8 years ago when barely a 100 people visited even on a sunday! It truely was beautiful. But inspite of that we saw people destroying flowers just to get "cool" pics. Sad.

And good you went early morning on a saturday! Makes sense to visit when there is no rush. I guess the Team-BHP Kaas meet never happened due to the same reason! Or did it??

Wonderful Photos .

I have a booking for this Sunday. Can you just let me know , how is the parking arrangement for cars in that area ? How far is it from the actual bloom area ?

Planning to reach by 9 am latest ...

Lovely pictures Subrat! clap: Yeh dil mange more!

We visisted on Wed 19th Sep and had the entire plateau to ourselves for the first half an hour. I am yet to process my set of pictures. Hopefully would get some time on Saturday.

What photography gear do you use? What do you use for post-processing?

Nice picturelogue Subrat. Perfectly doable from Mumbai too I guess over a weekend. Any idea how are the roads once you leave NH4

No idea about Sunday but parking is from the entry point of Kas. There is a fee collection booth and then the entire blooming area is no parking. So, you have to park before or at the end of flower area towards Bamnoli.

Thank you SDP Sir. I was there on Sep 21 and 22. Sure i will upload more pictures.

Basically, i have used here Canon 7D (two body), 18-55, 55-250 and 100-400. I carried my tele 100-400 because i did not have a macro lens. So, after maintaining minimum focusing distance i tried to capture. I basically do wildlife (as a hobby) with 300 2.8 L IS II USM. For Post-processing i use canon Digital Photo Professional software with Adobe Photoshope.

Thank you Arup Sir. Once you leave NH4, it is just 25 k.m. Satara city road is not good and also the first 5 k.m. of Kas road. Thereafter, it is excellent.

The photographas are beautiful, your skills + the natuaral beauty made it sure Dekko.Thanks for sharing.

Just tried the registration link for 28th Sep, do we need to provide the bank details or transfer money into mentioned account. My initial view was that it is only to register and payment would be at cash at enterance to site (based on receipt). Could you please clarify?

Thank you so much for liking my pictures.

I would suggest you to just register and carry the registration paper. As 28th is a Friday, there is no need for depositing money. Go there and pay the fees and collect the entry receipts.

Awesome snaps Subrat :) We had been to Kaas in December last year, but we were a bit too late as the flowers had withered. There were no fenses like these either.

Its really heartening to see the nature preserved in this way.

BTW, those lenses are awesome :) I bought the cheap extension tube (costed around Rs.500 which doesnt support auto focus) for macro photography.

Thank you so much for liking my pictures. The best time to visit Kas as a tourist is September to October.

Nature has to be preserved this way unless and otherwise we will control ourselves. Thanks about the comments on lenses.

Taken by my wife.

Nice pictures Subrat, I see that after SC ban on tiger safaris who have taken to photographing flowers and nature :D

Good to see that your telelens still worked great to get those bokeh shots of the flowers.

Awesome pics Subrat, this is a treat which I have kept myself away from till now, but I don't want to go on weekends or during holidays knowing what happens on these days, planning to take a day off from work sometime in October. Would last week of Oct be a good time to visit? I don't want to miss it this time.

Regards,