Kartik Swami Temple - Rudraprayag - Dhari Devi Temple

Hi everyone! After not being very active on this platform, I'm finally back with a post about my journey to the Kartik Swami Temple and Dhari Devi Temple.

After planning for months with my office friends, we finally decided to visit these places on motorcycles on May 18th, which was a weekend. We had to complete the trip within two days because we needed to be back in the office on Monday. There were six of us, all colleagues, and we were very excited because this trip had been in the works for months.

The journey was about 200 km from, our starting point Almora which is in Kumaon district, to Rudraprayag in Tehri district, totaling more than 400 km round trip. So we deicided to leave for this trip on 18 th of May it was weekend and we also had a to complete this trip within two days because on monday we have to be in office. We knew we could do it if we started very early in the morning. Our plan was to reach Karnaprayag by 2 PM and then visit the Kartik Swami Temple, which was a 3 km trek with an elevation of 3000 meters. It was an easy trek , estimated to take about 2 hours. After visiting the temple, we would head back to Rudraprayag by night, stay in a hotel, and sleep there. The next morning, we planned to visit the Dhari Devi Temple and then return to Almora by evening.

The route for our trip was: Almora - Someshwar - Kausani - Garur - Baijnath - Laskar Khet - Gwaldam - Simli - Karnaprayag - Pokhari - Kartik Swami Temple - Rudraprayag - Dhari Devi Temple - Almora.

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Our trip started on Saturday, May 18th. We decided to leave at 6 AM from Almora to stay on schedule, but as we all know, someone always gets delayed. Due to the excitement, we couldn't sleep properly the night before, but almost all of us were on time. However, we still had to load our luggage onto the bikes and do some last-minute maintenance like chain lubing, which caused us to leave around 7 AM.
The weather was really nice in the morning, with a very cold breeze. Since it was summer, it felt really refreshing. We took our first break 26 km from Almora, which was a quick pee break. As the sun was rising, we started to feel the heat, so we decided to take off our warm clothes.

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Our second break was at Kausani, where we had breakfast consisting of aloo parathas, samosas, and some daal.

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After this break, we decided to stop directly at Gwaldam because if we took frequent breaks, we might get late. The ride to Gwaldam was filled with beautiful scenery. The roads were narrow, but traffic was light, and the views were spectacular.

To be honest, we were a bit tired after riding for so long. We stopped for a fuel break before reaching Gwaldam, filled our water bottles, and washed our faces because it was getting really hot to ride in the sun. The winds felt like we were inside a microwave—they were really hot. As we were descending, we could see a massive river on our right side, which was pindar river with thousands of gallons of water flowing.

After reaching Karnaprayag, we headed to Pokhari, which was 26.9 km away. The road was narrow, and it took us almost an hour to reach Pokhari. We took a break there as we were all hungry, and it was almost 3 PM. After having our food, we quickly got back on our bikes and set off for Kartik Swami Temple.

The route from Pokhari to Malkhi Village was around 14 km. We reached Malkhi Village in 30 minutes, around 4 PM. We left our luggage in a shop, took some prasad, and began our trek to Kartik Swami Temple. The jungle was very dense, and we could see the temple perched at the very top of the mountain. At one point, we were all exhausted. The trek wasn't as easy as it seemed, especially after riding all day. However, we managed to complete the climb, and the scenery was epic.

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Upon reaching the temple, we were all very happy and forgot about our fatigue. We sat there for an hour, then started our descent at 6 PM as the sun was about to set. We still had to reach Rudraprayag, which was around 22 km away. After descending, we packed our luggage and traveled to Rudraprayag. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Rudraprayag, where we found a hotel and had dinner. We were so tired that we went straight to bed after dinner, as we needed to visit Dhari Devi Temple the next morning.

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The next morning, on the 19th of May, as we have planned to visit Dhari Devi Temple and then head back home. We had chai in the morning, took a bath, and decided to have breakfast after visiting the temple. Dhari Devi Temple was about 19 km from Rudraprayag on the highway. We checked out of the hotel at 7 AM and left for the temple, reaching it in 25 minutes.

The temple is located in the center of the river and looked very beautiful. We took prasad, but there was a long queue, so we waited for an hour to get inside. Once inside, we received the prasad and sat there for 5 minutes, praying to God to fulfill the wishes of our loved ones and keep them safe.

Finally, having visited both temples, it was time for our journey back home,the return journey was a detour so i will share it in my next blog..