Polling Village from Barot: Trek to Dev Pashakot Moolsthan

Barot was one of my earliest stops during the 60 Days of Summer of 2016. Those were the days when I used to enter the hills without a return date. In spite of various delights I extracted from the valley back then, my explorations were actually limited as I mostly remained in the main Barot area apart from a half-baked detour to Lohardi. 

Since then every year I planned to return and explore deeper into the valley but the plans never materialized for years. Anyway finally I managed to return, and as is the case nowadays, I didn’t have much time at hand. On top of that, this summer of 2025 was a bit too eventful in India.  With clouds of war hovering over the sky after the Pahalgam attacks, many were advising me to return home quickly. 

I was here after a long wait and I wasn’t going to go back without doing at least one new thing. 

Barot After 9 Years

Blogger Asoulwindow also joined me for this trip in Mandi and we took a bus to Jogindernagar skipping the diversion at Ghatasni because there were no scheduled buses  at that time. After lunch at the iconic dhaba at Jogindernagar bus stand, we got a bus to Barot and got there by afternoon (after the bus took several diversions to drop people at various other villages, giving me some good photos from my window seat). 

To my pleasant surprise, Barot did not seem very crowded. I was wondering if it has been destroyed by viral reels over the last 9 years but it actually seemed pretty desolated for some reason. Many new hotels, homestays, and restaurants had some up but most of them seemed empty. 

We almost walked past a hotel that seemed to have been newly constructed, assuming it to be too expensive. However, the owner saw us and invited us to check the rooms. The rates were pretty reasonable for a room with a clear view of the Uhl Barrage. 

We spent the rest of the long day exploring the familiar delights of Barot including the barrage, the summer daisies and the great Barot funicular. 

I was more worried about what to do the next day. We were approached by Rajiv, a local guy offering his service as a driver for local sightseeing. Hiring a vehicle for sightseeing isn’t my style but he also offered a few more options. After some discussion, we decided to visit Polling Valley and hike to the “mool sthan” of Dev Pashakot. He had a few other options but this was the shortest and least expensive at INR 2500 (divided between 2). The charge was mostly for the vehicle but he ended up becoming the trekking guide and led us to the destination.

Dev Pashakot 

If the above sounds confusing, let me clarify it a bit. Just like every other area in Himachal, Barot (Chauhar Valley) also has its local deities. Dev Pashakot is the primary deity in this region, who is also the god of rain. Back in 2014, I had done the Kamru Nag Trek, he also turned out to be the rain god. Different regions may have different deities for the same purpose.

Now, there are several temples of the deity around the valley. There is one in Barot itself while a couple more in other spots including one on the road that leads to Barot. These temples aren’t built randomly but these are spots related to various events involving the deity. 

Now, the moolsthan is literally the place of origin, where the deity first manifested. This is located a bit higher up, deeper into the hills beyond the inhabites villages, and we were planning to visit the same. 

The Trek from Polling

I woke up early in the morning, hoping to prepare for the trek. However, it was not an usual morning. I habitually check X for news in the morning and I saw something called Operation SIndoor trending. I soon realised that the India Pakistan war has started already with a lot of aerial action and missiles fired to various terrorist camps in Pakistan and naturally they were retaliating with shelling and drone attacks on the borders. 

I kept checking news and analysis throughout the day in primal excitement. This is definitely not the right way to trek but it was that kind of a day and I could not resist myself. This is also noteworthy that connectivity is now all pervasive and unlike a few years ago, the internet kept working till almost the end point of the trek (which turned out to be much longer than what was initially suggested). 

Anyway, let me get back to the trek. After breakfast we called Rajiv and drove to Lohardi. Back then I’d taken a bus to this point but couldn’t go further. This time after a glass of tea we drove further through a not so smooth road and reached the village of Polling, which was practically the end of the motorable road.

Initially we climbed up to the thickly inhabited village of Polling through a literally edgy trail. Rajiv also pointed out another distant temple on the opposite side of the river, atop a stiff cliff. It was beyond our endurance levels at that moment but he had interesting information about it to share. Apparently she is the goddess fo justice and people visit here when they have cases going on at court etc. 

Anyway, we crossed the village in 15 minutes and started hiking beyond it. Initially I thought it was a short climb above the village but soon I realised that we were in for a much longer trek.

We walked along the river, probably a tributary of the Uhl, met some locals walked further to spot a gang of shepherds with their herds and canines. Even after almost two hours there was no sign of the shrine. Finally I reached a bridge over the river and crossed it. I had marched ahead of our guide and I just assumed. Thankfully one local guy arrived and told me to not cross the bridge. 

I waited for the others and then went ahead along the river to find a second bridge, which was the one we had to cross. A bit of short but steep climb started after this point and finally we reached a bit of flat land which has been tilled recently. People from the village use this plot too for cultivation.

Beyond this field there was another small flight of stairs to the small shrine. We finally took a break here as Rajiv eagerly narrated some stories related to the deity. Apparently this is where Dev Pashakot manifested first. There were a lot of details in the stories but I may get it wrong while reproducing the same and so will not go too far.

We spent around an hour near the small temple. It was a small shrine with a pink rhododendron tree and a gigantic coniferous tree behind. Although it was way past rhododendron season, this one was still blooming, adding to the aura of this sacred spot. 

We returned quickly after that and reached the village in less than 2 hours. Overall, we ended up hiking around 7-8 KMs, much more than what I’d imagined. The war was escalating by the time we reached Barot and we planned to leave the next day.

However, the next day I had so much body ache after the trek (result of long gaps and pathetic lifestyle of late) that I had to postpone the plans by a couple of days. Finally, when I boarded the bus back to Delhi, the news of an unexpected ceasefire/pause arrived even before the bus reached the plains!   

You can also watch the raw footage from the hike