Incredible India, Episode - #23: Bhairav Garhi Temple Trek, Uttarakhand

Hello and welcome to my blog!

Earlier this summer, sometime in June I visited a serene hill station, the Lansdowne Hill Station. I went there with a friend and during that trip we went to a famous temple in Uttarakhand located on top of a hill.

Bhairav Garhi Temple

Uttarakhand, one of the northern States of India, is also known as the Dev Bhoomi (translation: Land of Gods) and there are so many temples and shrines spread throughout this Himalayan state. Sages and monks have been coming here for millennia to perform penance and connect with the spiritual world.

One such place of worship is the Bhairav Gharhi Temple. It is a famous adobe of Kaal Bhairava, one of the reincarnations of Lord Shiva.

A beautiful Trek

The temple is located around 20 km from Lansdowne and one has to hike 4-5 km to reach the temple which is situated on top of the highest hill in the region.

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Most of the trek goes through a lightly forested area.

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Some parts of the trek have proper guard rails to protect the visitors from falling into the cliffs. Even though we are just in the foothills of the Himalayan range, we are still around 2500 meters above sea level.

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The views on the trails are just amazing, as you start gaining some heights it gets better and better.

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On the trial, you will see some more temples other than the one on the top.

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The last leg of the trek is a bit challenging as the slope gets steeper but one can rest on any of the smaller temples on the way and there are some benches along the route as well.

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You will get a 360-degree view of the area from the top.

Reaching the Temple

It took us around 2 hours to reach the top. We were just enjoying ourselves, taking frequent breaks and visiting all the temples along the way. Now it was time to visit the Bhairav Garhi Temple.

(@bhattg aap toh gye honge idhar, kaafi paas hai aapke yahan se toh?)

There were many visitors in the temple, doing a variety of activities, some were praying silently with folded hands while some doing their chants of Om Namah Shivay, others were busy doing Parikrama (doing clockwise rounds of a place of devotion)

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No temple dedicated to Shiva is complete without an idol of Nandi (the bull vahana of Shiva) facing the main shrine.

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Trek to Hanuman Temple

Around 2 km from this hill is another hill with a Hanuman Temple on top. We decided to have a go at it too. We talked to the local priest to get more info on that temple and he said not many visitors go there as the trek is much more challenging and it can be dangerous and there is no proper marking on that trek.

But we were in no mood to miss that one and we still had enough energy and daylight left to reach there.

On this new route, we could see the Bhairo Ghari temple clearly. If you zoom in on the first image on top there is a white structure on top of the hill. This is the Bhairo-Garhi temple we just visited and now we were on our way to the new Hanuman temple.

This was a less developed trek with no benches, proper markings, railing etc. And we did not see anyone else apart from us two friends on this route. I saw a deer though which got spooked so badly and disappeared as soon as I tried to reach for my phone.

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This was a much tougher trek and getting the building material on top of this hill has to be so challenging. We reached the top which took us about another hour from the Bhairo-Garhi temple. This hilltop is not as wide as the other one and just has the space for a small temple.

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The views were as amazing as we had on the other hill. Since it was just us who took the effort to climb here, we wanted to leave a mark and what better way to do it than to create a small Cairn on top.

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We offered our prayers and came down to the road from where we started this little adventure. It was a day worth spending, the views were simply amazing! The trek was not that challenging and the weather was pleasant too!

Stay tuned for more episodes...

Namaste 🙏

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Ep - #22 Lansdowne Hill Station, Uttarakhand

Ep - #21 National Rail Museum, Delhi

Ep - #20 Dadhikar Fort, Alwar

Ep - #19 Hauz Khas Fort Complex, Delhi

Ep - #18 Garden of Five Senses, Delhi

Ep - #17 Karni Mata Temple, Alwar, Rajasthan

Ep - #16 Radha Rani Temple, Barsana, UP

Ep - #15 National Zoological Park

Ep - #14 Keoladeo National Park

Ep - #13 Lohagarh Fort

Ep - #12. Alwar's Moosi Maharani Ki Chattri