Varlakonda Fort - The Valley of Flowers of Bangalore

This Place amazes me as never in any treks around in Bangalore I have seen so many Flowers and of different colours and variety so will call this as the Valley of Flowers of Bangalore..

I have seen this beautiful huge rocky hill whenever I crossed the Bangalore - Hyderabad highway about 70 kms from Bangalore and on another trip enquired the locals about the place and they told there is a ruined fort and a old temple at the peak and I planned to get this trek done on a nice monsoon month

In July we planned this trip and on a nice drizzly morning started our trip and within 1 hr reached the base and enquired the locals whats the way to climb up as the hill looked huge and steep. The locals told to follow the trail to a small Lakshmi Narasima temple and post that to climb up but asked us to be careful as its quite slippery and it was drizzly..

We started to walk and on the way found a very beautiful small pond with beautiful bright pink lotus blooming and that was quite a scene.. When we saw the hill closer to the base we realised its quite a big hill and might take more time than expected.. We started the trek and hit the temple at the base at no time and then the fun came.

Initially we walked through grasslands and then the steepy part came where we have to cross rocks and have to climb up and the rains have made most rocks slippery so we had heart in our mouths when we started to climb up and at one spot we got struck and got our courage to cross the slippery path and reach up somehow.. This took us around 1 hr to reach the top from base.

I request everyone not to try this route to go up though its short especially June to December in monsoon but there is a nice trek path backside and that can be used throughout the year. This place wont suit Kids or Elders...

Once we climbed up, ohhh boy it was another world there, I have never seen so many flowers in a single place and it should have at least 6 to 7 varieties of flowers blooming everywhere in red,  yellow, orange etc..We really loved the colours and Vibrancy the place offered..

Then we found a very old temple ( Seetha Rama Lakshmana Temple )at the peak ( atleast 200 yrs old) and still Pooja is done here as the place looks very clean and often visited for Pooja.. We spent few mins doing some Meditation and decided whatever happens we wont get down the same way we came as its quite risky to get down in a slippery place especially how vertical the place is and thought of exploring another way to get down.

We saw there was a trial going towards the rear end of the hill and though it will be very long to our car park we wanted to take less risk and started to descend down. This was relatively easy descend considering the other way and we reached the base within 45 mins and please use this same way to go up as well.

We saw many beautiful landscapes coming down including a nice lake, some green agriculture fields and some dense trees. As usual we fed the dogs of the village and left the place happily with awesome memories..

The total trek was about 6kms base to base ( from longer route during Descend)

The Beautiful flower scenes of Varlakonda

Early morning Sunrise scenes

Beautiful Sunrise

The path to the Base of the trek

A Happy farmer

The Lotus pond on the way




Closer to the base

The Lakshmi Narasima temple at the base



Initial walk through the grasslands








The place where the Hike gets steep and slippery


The place where got struck

The moment of Truth hahahaha

The walls of the Ruined fort almost the top

Reaching the final hurdle to reach the peak

The Valley of Flowers


The  Seeta Rama Lakshmana Temple at the Peak




Some meditation time

The relatively easier but longer way to get down

The Pond at the backside of the base


Not sure what this is

Well deserved rest after a nice trek


Beautiful fields reminded me of Ooty Landscapes

Madhukar attaining Moksha



We always carry compassion in our Treks


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3 Comments

  1. Is the place open for trekking now

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  2. Your article will definitely inspire many nature lovers to explore the place. Beautiful pictures. While climbing up the hill, how we can find the route you had taken for descending? When I am giving a search, it is showing as temporarily closed - do we need to take permission from any govt authority?

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    Replies
    1. It's not closed and no permissions needed...Once u get closer to the base temple, just keep walking to the left where u will cross a pond and post that try climbing from the rear end of the trek from left corner

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