Trip to Chansal Pass – Rohru – Chakrata | Itinerary & Road Conditions

There was no plan of Travel to Chansal Pass this year and with just getting back from a family Trip

to Tirthan Valley few weeks ago, I never thought of it in any corner of my head… Then, a release was

pushed of the project and workload at office was lessoned a bit for me. Somehow, few friends in the

DoWWatsapp group were making plans of a weekend trip to Chansal Pass for 3 days. This meant only 1

day off for me which can be easily taken and then suddenly, I asked them “Guys, how about celebrating

the DoW Community’s anniversary at Chansal Pass on 1st June 2014??” and there it goes… Five of us went

on the road trip in next two days over last weekend to Chansal Pass withChakrata as a side on too

Cake we cut at Chansal Pass Top for DoW Community’s 1st Anniversary

Devils at Chansal Pass in Devil’s Outfits

On just a weekend budget trip to Chansal Pass, we experienced the snow, the snowfall, the rain, the

rainbow, the river, the roads or call them no-roads, the jungles, the break down of our car in no man’s

land, some great food shops, etc… What an action packed weekend trip?? Yeah, it was and after all why

not, it was DoW Community’s First Birthday …

Well, in the past one year DoW Community has passed 1000 Members and 1000 Topics and why we

shouldn’t be that happy to celebrate with a 1000+ KMs of road trip in Himalayas

Though I am going to write a detailed Travel Tale and reviews of the guest houses I stayed, but just

before that would like to share what itinerary I followed, route I took and the updates on road conditions

for reaching these places.

Lucky to Spot this Rainbow in Pabbar Valley while coming down from Chansal Pass

Itinerary for Chansal Pass – Pabbar Valley – Chakrata Trip in May/June

Well, I had 3 days in hand for this trip and I followed the itinerary as below. We crossed between the

states of Himachal and Uttarakhand few times in a single day and that was the beauty of this road

trip …

Day 1: Started the drive from Delhi/Noida – Ghaziabad – Meerut – Muzaffarnagar – Roorkee – Biharigarh

– Dehardun – Paonta Sahib – Shillai – Tiuni – Hatkoti – Rohru, Pabbar Valley. Stayed at PWD Rest

House at Rohru, Pabbar Valley.

Day 2: It was 1st June and the agenda was to cut cake at the top of Chansal Pass We drove from Rohru –

Chirgaon – Larot and reached Chansal Pass midst Rains. We cut the cake there and in fact there was one

kid form Nashik whose B’day was there too. We offered her to cut first and we had great fun up there with

that family. I can understand the feeling of kid’s cuttig the cake and parent’s watching them. They were kind

of upset as they did not have cake there on the trip but we devils are known for spreading smiles you

know … Then, me and Samar hiked up to Chansal Peak from the pass to get some amazing 360 degree

views from the top up there… Fabulous was the word up there. While coming back from Chansal we

experienced snowfall, executed DoW Causes at Larot – Chirgaon Village and that sealed the trip for

us … Had drunch at Chirgaon finally after a long day before settling at PWD Rest House at Rohru.

Day 3: Started 6 AM from Rohru and took the route as Rohru – Tiuni – Sawara – Kanesar Forest –

Chakrata – Kalsi – Vikasnagar – Herbertpur – Dehradun. We executed DoW Causes at Sawara Village,

Uttarakhand, Primary School, then spent some time at Chakrata Main Market, captured some lovely

valley views before reaching Dehradun in evening. At Dehradun, we had food at KFC and then followed the

same route back home from Dehradun to Delhi/Noida. I boarded the last metro of 11:05 PM from Vaishali

to get home at Dwarka, almost mid-night.

Over all it was quite an amazing trip experience with every day coming with a new kind of route. You can

check Google Map marked route at the link: Route Map of Google

Road to Chansal Pass ahead of Larot Village

The Valley View at Chakrata

Road Conditions for Delhi – Rohru – Chansal Pass – Chakrata – Dehradun

Following is the breakdown of road conditions for the trip to Chansal Pass:

Delhi – Meerut – Muzaffarnagar: Excellent, smooth sailing, mostly.

Muzaffarnagar – Roorkee: Mostly good roads but single lane with many diversions and idiots driving

wrong sides

Roorkee – Dehradun – Paonta Sahib: Excellent roads but single lane. Drive with care, especially at night.

Paonta Sahib – Shillai – Tiuni: Mostly bad and very roads with potholes. Punisher for a small car.

Tiuni – Hatkoti – Rohru: Mix of Average and Good roads.

Rohru – Chirgaon – Larot: Mix of Average and Bad roads.

Larot – Chansal Pass: This is about 20 KMs and horrible to very bad roads here. Extreme punisher for a

small car

Tiuni – Sawara Village – Kanesar Forest – Chakrata: Mix of Average, Bad and Very Bad roads. A mild

punisher for small cars. This route is much better of all three options that take you to Chansal Pass or Pabbar

Valley from Delhi, in terms of road conditions and views on offer. This will be my preferred with overnight

stop at Chakrata.

Chakrata – Kalsi – Vikas Nagar – Dehradun: Mostly excellent road conditions.

The Shimla – Theog – Kharapathar route is the WORST among all three routes that you can follow to

reach Pabbar Valley, avoid it. I will suggest to go from Chakrata route among all three as Shillai route was

equally bad but did not offer much scenic beauty that Chakrata – Tinui offers to heal the sufferings of bad

roads. In small cars, the speed will be slow mostly due the bad roads in Pabbar Valley or on the way to it.

Yamuna River near Asan Barrage, Paonta Sahib

Phone Signals at Chansal Pass – Pabbar Valley with Data Connectivity

I was carrying Airtel Postpaid and BSNL Postpaid and following was the signal status for all three of them:

Both of them were working fine mostly through the trip with limited signals at very few places only.

Signals were not present at the top of Chansal Pass though and after Larot Village.

Data Connectivity was always available wherever the signals were present though it was mostly 2G or

EDGE/GPRS and at places 3G too :).

Car Breakdown towards Shillai – Rohru

Other Important Updates from Chansal Pass – Pabbar Valley Trip

Fuel pumps are available throughout the route, so don;t worry much about the fuel. Rohru has 2-3 petrol

pumps itself.

Food is also easily available and at Tiuni which falls in Uttarakhand, you can get some delicious Apricots of

various kinds and at much cheaper prices too.

There are couple of ATMs at Rohru including one of HDFC Bank. So, no worries on that front too.

Checkout Pakoras at Biharigarh and Gupta Chat Shops near Roorkee.

Toll Amounts on the Route to Chansal Pass – Pabbar Valley

Muzaffar Nagar Toll Plaza: Rs 60

Pakoras at Biharigarh

I will start sharing the detailed Travel Tale of this lovely trip to Chansal Pass – Pabbar Valley –

Chakrata, the reviews of the places I stayed and places at which I ate food, soon

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