Our first proper view of Ukhimath happened early morning, that is, on the 28th Dec. 2008.
We could appreciate our pretty GMVN-cottages in the foreground of The Garhwal ranges, notably the Kedar ranges.
Guptakashi, the gateway to Kedarnath was visible on the opposite bank of river Mandakini, from a height though.
The previous evening we could only see it with its street lights on. Anyway, we hurried up for reaching the Saari village ( 14 kms from Ukhimath) in our TATA Winger.
It took just half an hour,as we reached Saari and were soon surrounded by prospective guides and pony-walas. While having a super-rushed breakfast in one of the shops, we negotiated with a couple of pony-walas.
The mules were a God-send for our senior members and ladies, who were sceptical about the 3 kms long trek, while climbing a thousand feet, at such a high-altitude. The mules cost Rs.300/-per head up and down. The initial plan was to have a couple of mules walking alongside us, so that whoever feels like giving some rest to himself/herself may climb atop them. But the implementation of this plan went awry right from the start. The mules just won't give us company and decided to move on their own, leaving us far behind. Thin air, steep climb and an awkwardly paved pathway proved to be a big deterrent for us, right away and we hired up 7 mules, for 9 adults and one child( my 7 yr old daughter Alakananda). 
Yours truly and a few more members, including my daughter started doing the hard trekking. We were rather slow to begin with, at the same time trying to acclimatize ourselves. While those of our group members on mule-backs scampered on faster than us. We gamely moved on, resting frequently. I used the opportunity to do some still-photography and some video-shooting as well. There were 2 distinct landmarks on the way. The first one is the Lord Shiva temple, where-from, one needs to take the left arm of the 'Y' junction for convenience.
The other landmark is a water-reservoir ( hawdi), where one can freshen up a bit using the cool water. Otherwise, it is a steep, back-breaking and exhausting climb, with a breath-taking view of the gradually receding Saari village and the view of the surrounding Himalayan ranges. 
Ultimately, after about 2 hours( including our resting time and shooting breaks), our small group reached the highest point of the climb. Here we came across a sign-board of a Deoria lodge, with an arrow-head towards our left. But, to reach Deoria Taal, we took the right path, a few paces of decent, through over-head foliage and viewed the heavenly Deoria Taal for the first time from there.
This is the lake which is mentioned in Mahabharat, where the Yaksh ( Dharm dev) asked Yudhisthira 5 questions, and on correctly answering them, the later could help bring the other Pandava brothers back to life. 
Even in the fag end of December, we were lucky enough to get a very clear view of the mighty Himalayan ranges, prominently, the Chaukhamba peak reflecting on the lake along with the surrounding sky and vegetation. 
Other famous peaks like Neelkanth, Hathi and Ghora parvat were also clearly visible.
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