The temple is located on the Garhwal Himalayan range[1] near the Mandakini river, in the state of Uttarakhand, India.

Due to extreme weather conditions, the temple is open to the general public only between the months of April (Akshaya Tritiya) and November (Kartik Purnima, the autumn full moon).

[2] The temple is not directly accessible by road and has to be reached by a 17 kilometres (11 mi) uphill trek from Gaurikund.

[6] At a height of 3,583 m (11,755 ft), 223 km (139 mi) from Rishikesh, on the shores of Mandakini river, a tributary of Ganga, is a stone edifice of unknown date.

Bhima, the second of the five Pandava brothers, then saw the bull grazing near Guptakashi ("hidden Kashi" — the name derived from the hiding act of Shiva).

The Pandavas pleased with this reappearance in five different forms, built temples at the five places for venerating and worshipping Shiva.

Consequently, the bull was torn asunder into five parts and appeared at five locations in the Kedar Khand of Garhwal region of the Himalayas.

One of the earliest references to Kedarnath occurs in the Skanda Purana (c. 7th-8th century), which contains a story describing the origin of the Ganges river.

The text names Kedara (Kedarnath) as the place where Shiva released the holy water from his matted hair.

[14] Kedarnath was definitely a prominent pilgrimage centre by the 12th century, when it is mentioned in Kritya-kalpataru written by the Gahadavala minister Bhatta Lakshmidhara.

Kedarnath Teerth Purohits are the ancient Brahmins of this region, their ancestors (Rishi-Muni) have been worshiping the lingam since the time of Nara-Narayana and Daksh Prajapati.

Since the time of Guru Shankaracharya Ji, the Rawals and priests of the Jangam community from South India worship the Shiv Linga in the temple, while the puja on behalf of the pilgrims is done by these Tirtha Purohit Brahmins.

[8][13][14] According to a tradition recorded by the English mountaineer Eric Shipton (1926), "many hundreds of years ago" one priest used to hold services at both the Kedarnath and Badrinath temples, travelling between the two places daily.

There are four temples around Kedarnath itself, namely- Tungnath, Rudranath, Madhyamaheshwar, and Kalpeshwar which form the Panch Kedar pilgrimage sites.

Such a head is seen carved in another temple nearby constructed on the site where the marriage of Shiva and Parvati was held.

The present (2013) Raval of Kedarnath temple is Shri Vageesha Lingacharya from Davanagere district, Karnataka.

[26] The Kedarnath valley, along with other parts of the state of Uttarakhand, was hit with unprecedented flash floods on 16 and 17 June 2013.

[27][28][29][30] Although the temple withstood the severity of the floods, the complex and surrounding area were destroyed, resulting in the death of hundreds of pilgrims and locals.

People took shelter inside the temple for several hours, until the Indian Army airlifted them to safer places.

[21] The Uttarakhand Chief Minister announced that the Kedarnath shrine would remain closed for a year for clearing the debris.The experts, who were asked by the Archaeological Survey of India to examine the condition of the foundation in wake of the floods have arrived at the conclusion that there was no danger to the temple.

The second way is By Road, you can drive to Kedarnath from nearby cities like Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun, and Delhi.