The Ravishing Rayakottai fort and Hidden Dam waterfalls

Sarathy PB January 14, 2021

Well the New year came with a bang and we did a lovely trek on new year and as the winter is slowly coming to an end we were planning to visit the Rayakottai fort and a hidden dam waterfall before the greenery turns to brown... On the first weekend of Jan we planned for Rayakottai fort which is a lovely hidden gem lying some 75 kms from Bangalore and offers amazing and lovely trek to every nature lover...

For our luck there was a small depression in Bay of Bengal which made that Sunday a very pleasant one to trek. We started around 6am in the morning from Bangalore and along with 5 friends my 3.5 year old son also joined for the trek with the promise he wont ask us to carry...He has done many treks before with we helping him for most of the trek but this time he was sure he gonna do this completely..

We hit Hosur around 7am and as usual our breakfast was at Moden Muniyandi Vilas and offers some absolutely mouth watering dishes in the morning.. Then I took the guys to the 700yrs old Chandra Choodeshwara temple on a small hill and its a majestic temple...The car can reach till the top of the temple..

After the breakfast we hit the roads and the roads from Hosur to Rayakottai was so beautiful, green and smooth. We reached Rayakottai around 9 am and the majestic fort was seen from the long distance... After enquiring with the locals they gave 2 route options to hike and we took the first one which was just from the car park...

Seeing the fort on a vertical hill we were wondering how long this could take and that too with a kid but trust me that I have trekked lot of various treks earlier and never found a trek this vertical still easy to climb and though the fort is situated on a steepy hill the trek was very well laid out and it never looked tired at all..Was a steady climb I should say without hurting or tiring you..

There is a temple on half way mark and has some secret caves and water ponds inside it.. We took the route to the hill and the scenic views from Temple to peak was so so green, colorful and beautiful. Will advice people to do this trek from July to Jan..

My kid really did well to walk almost 90% of the distance and asked me to lift the steepy part for the final peak.. In no time we reached the peak and it has a small temple and the views are so grand from the peak...A puppy joined us in the trek and showed us the path for most of the times. This trek will be a medium difficulty trek and can be done with kids above 5 yrs old and the path is clear and nice..

While ascending we took another route and it was so easy to get down but we realised we came the other way so have to walk 1/2 kms back to the car park from where we hiked to the temple at the start so people carefully come back to the temple and then get down..

After the trek we had lunch in Rayakottai town and then head towards Krishnagari and on the way with a 1 km offroad visited the hidden Check dam waterfalls which was overflowing due to recent rains and Thenpennai river runs full flow now, not sure in Dry season of May there might be water.. I will suggest to walk this path of 1km from mainroad as My Terrano was able to pulloff in mud of the offroad and not sure if other cars can manage..

We came back to main road around 5pm and took the Krishnagiri - Hosur road back before we stopped for a pipping hot ginger tea and discussing the happiness of the trip..We also did a small stop near Hosur to capture the magical sunset near a lake..

Route Map :

Bangalore - Hosur- Rayakottai - Rayakottai fort - KRP dam waterfalls - Bangalore