Today we will talk about our trip in December in which @saranegi and I went to visit Kartik Swami temple on a scooter. Situated at 3050 meters, this temple is situated at such a wonderful place that behind it, the mountain peaks of Himalayas above 7000 meters are visible and to tell you the truth, if anyone sees this view, then he will never be able to go back from here. It means that his mind will remain here. So let's go today on a trip to this wonderful temple.
Kartik Swami Temple is situated above Kanakchauri village, this temple is located in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand state located in the north of India. This temple is dedicated to the Hindu god Kartik who is the elder son of Lord Shiva. This temple has another title and that is that this temple is the highest temple of Kartik Swami in the world. This temple is 140 km away from Dehradun and it took us several hours to cover the distance by scooter.
So after packing the necessary things in the bag from home, we set out on a rainy day before the new year. Our destination is 140 km from Dehradun and Google is saying that it will take 5 hours to reach there by scooter. We cross Rishikesh from Dehradun and the next destination is Devprayag which we reach in 03:30 hours. After paying homage at Devprayag Sangam, we move ahead again.
This temple is still far from our reach which is 55 km from Devprayag. Of course, sitting on the scooter in such cold, the breeze was feeling very cold but I was riding the scooter wearing 3 layers on top and 2 layers below, and yes, I was also wearing thick gloves on my hands which did not let me feel the cold breeze at all. The road was well built so the scooter was moving at a good speed. Yes, my feet had become very cold in the shoes and I could not do anything about it.
The next 60 km are covered in one and a half hours and thus we reach Kanakchauri village from where the walking path to Kartik Swami temple starts. After parking our scooter in the forest department parking, we get a slip to enter this reserve park which costs Rs. 100 per person. This trek is just 3 km from the village below and according to my calculations, it should take us a maximum of 2 hours to reach the temple. After the first 500 meters, snow starts on the trail.
As there was not much snow, there was not much problem in walking, so it did not take much time for both of us and we reached Kartik Swami temple in 2 hours. Before climbing the last 108 stairs, we took off our shoes and started walking towards the main temple. It did not take much time to climb 108 stairs and we reached the temple at 4 pm. Some other people had also reached the temple along with us.
As there was not much crowd, we visited the statue of Kartik Swami installed inside the temple and came out after taking the blessings of God where there were so many clouds that the Himalayan mountain range visible behind the temple was not visible at all. It is sunset time so the temple looks magical, the view is so amazing that everything looks golden. The sun's glow is coming from the top of the temple roof as if some miracle is happening.
Well that's all for today because I have come for route marking for a trail race and I don't have time and internet. I hope you liked this post.
Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from Sony a7iii and edited in Lightroom, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.