In the month of August which falls in the monsoon season, we decided to visit one of the best waterfalls in Rajasthan which is the Menal waterfall, it is situated on the Udaipur-Kota national highway in Menal village, the place is 70 km from Chittorgarh. We started off in our personal car from Udaipur and luckily the weather also became rainy, it started drizzling as soon as we left from Udaipur, what else you can desire for in a road trip. We left at around 7 AM from Udaipur for Menal waterfall and as we had time at hand we decided to visit one more beautiful place ‘Nilia Mahadev’ which is an ancient ‘Shiva Temple’ situated in the garb of nature. Nilia temple is situated in village Balderekha, near Bassi on NH27 Chittorgarh. You need to take right and you will find a gate with the name ‘Nilia Mahadev’ written on it. One narrow unmetalled road takes you to ‘Nilia Mahadev’.The place is amazing, you could see the stream of water flowing along the unmetalled road, you can even enjoy a bath in that stream. A small waterfall welcomes you after you reach the temple. There are mountains all around, and the temple is small but has superb architecture. There is also a facility to cook food or snack.
Nilia Mahadev
Journey to the Menal Waterfall
After enjoying at Nilia Mahadev we headed for Menal waterfall, in the afternoon we reached Menal, it was raining heavily when we reached, we had to use umbrellas to protect us, you need to walk a few distances to reach the waterfall so the umbrella is a must in the rainy season. You need to walk a few metres long path which has railing and garden on both sides and an ancient stone structure on the entrance to reach the waterfall. as soon as we entered the gate we were stunned to see the exemplary piece of architecture in the form of multiple temples most from the 11th century. The historic temples and other monuments were so beautiful, especially the Mahanal temple of Lord Shiva, this temple has various god and goddesses carved on it, it also resembles the Khajuraho temple due to the resemblance of the carved idols. These structures and temples were built by saint Bhavbrahma during the rule of Chahman ruler Prithviraj Singh2 in 1169 AD. The area also has two smaller temples dedicated to Lord Ganesha and Goddess Gauri.
The cherry of the cake came when we passed through a small gate(watch video below), as we passed through the small gate we had heaven in front of us, there were lush green mountain ranges with clouds flowing through them and the mesmerising Waterfall was the treat to the eyes, the milky white water falling from a height of 150 feet and flowing through the dense forest looked so splendid.The clouds gathered over the waterfall made it look like a fairytale world.
View after you pass from the second narrow gate
Mahanal Temple Menal
There is a designated place with railing to view the waterfall, no one is allowed to go down the waterfall due to the number of casualties happened in the past, a corridor leads you to the area beyond the waterfall where the stream of water flows which falls as a waterfall. You can enjoy the bath in the stream but carefully, we enjoyed bathing in the stream and it was the most enjoyable moment of the trip as there were drizzles too while we were bathing.
Best spots to view the Menal waterfall
View From the Forest Department Chowky
View from the Menal Resort
The public designated spot to view the waterfall is nearest to the waterfall but the best view of the waterfall can only be had from ‘The Menal Resort’ situated on a hill nearby, the resort has a waterfall view area which gives a perfect view of the waterfall, the area gives you the front perpendicular view of the waterfall which is just amazing, you can sit for hours to watch that view. We had tea and snack watching the phenomenal view of the waterfall.
Another spot from where you can have a great view of the waterfall is the ‘Forest Department Chowky’ which has a fancy railing and offers a great view of the waterfall as well as the flowing water through the forest. You can have good clicks of yours at this point and you can also relax in the sitting area.
How to reach
You can reach Menal by adopting Udaipur-Chittorgarh-Kota highway(NH 27), menal is just 75 km from chittorgarh and around 90 Km from Kota. From the highway only you will find a diversion on the service road to reach the waterfall. It’s better to have your own vehicle, you can also take roadways buses which goeas till Chittorgarh and from there you will need to change if you are travelling from Udaipur.
Take a virtual tour of the amazing Menal Waterfall, Watch the video below.
Things to carry
You must carry one pair of clothes, umbrella, flat footwear, there are shops for tea and snacks but it will be great if you can carry your own.
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Aditya Sanadhya
Aditya is a passionate blogger from Udaipur city, he gave up his corporate job to pursue his passion, he creates blogs and vlogs related to travel and food, apart from this he creates creative content for social media in the form of memes, videos, blogs etc. Aditya is a founder and major contributor to Udaipurbeats.
