7 Things to Do in Dhanaulti, the Quiet Hill Station Between Mussoorie and the High Himalaya

Dhanaulti sits in Uttarakhand's Tehri Garhwal district, about two hours beyond Mussoorie along a ridge road that keeps climbing through deodar and oak forest rather than dropping into another valley. It has grown popular precisely because it stayed quieter than Mussoorie, without ever quite disappearing off the map. Here are seven ways to spend a day or two there.

1. Walk the Eco Park's forest trails

Maintained by Uttarakhand's forest department, Dhanaulti's Eco Park is split into two adjoining sections, Amber and Dhara, covering around 13 hectares of maintained forest with marked walking trails, a small lake and viewpoints over the surrounding ridges. It's an easy, well-signed introduction to the area's deodar cover rather than a wilderness experience, and works well as a first stop.

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2. Try the zip line and rope activities

An adventure park attached to the Eco Park area runs a zip line, a Burma bridge and other rope-based activities aimed mostly at families and first-time adventure travellers. None of it is extreme, but it's a reasonable way to break up a day of walking, particularly for children.

3. Climb to Surkanda Devi Temple

Around an hour's drive from Dhanaulti near the village of Kaddukhal, Surkanda Devi Temple sits at roughly 2,756 metres and is reached by a steep climb of about 300 stone steps over 2.5 kilometres, taking an hour to ninety minutes each way. The temple is counted among the 51 Shakti Peeths of Hindu tradition, and on a clear day the climb is rewarded with views that can stretch to the Bandarpunch and Chaukhamba peaks.

4. Walk through the apple orchards

Dhanaulti and the surrounding villages sit within one of Garhwal's apple-growing belts, and the roads out of town pass through working orchards that are easy to walk through, particularly during the harvest season from late summer into autumn. It's an unhurried way to see the area's rural side away from the main viewpoints.

5. Camp beside the ridge

A number of forest-department and privately run campsites around Dhanaulti offer tented stays among the deodar cover, typically with bonfires and simple meals included. They're a popular alternative to hotel rooms for travellers who want a night under the ridge's clear, relatively unpolluted skies.

6. Detour to Kanatal for the view

A short drive further along the ridge, the smaller settlement of Kanatal offers similar forest and mountain views with even fewer visitors than Dhanaulti itself, and makes a reasonable half-day addition for travellers not in a hurry to move on toward Chamba or Tehri.

7. Break the journey toward Tehri Lake

Dhanaulti sits roughly on the route between Mussoorie and Tehri Lake, one of Asia's larger reservoirs, formed by the Tehri Dam on the Bhagirathi river. Travellers continuing that way can combine a night in Dhanaulti with a stop at the lake for boating or simply the view, rather than treating the two as separate trips.

Traveller tips

• Dhanaulti is around 2 hours from Mussoorie and roughly 6 to 7 hours by road from Delhi, making it a feasible extension to a Mussoorie trip rather than a standalone long-haul destination.
• The climb to Surkanda Devi Temple involves genuine stairs and altitude; carry water and allow a couple of hours round trip.
• Summer and early autumn offer the clearest mountain views; winter can bring snow and limited visibility on the ridge road.
• Mobile network coverage is patchy beyond the main market area, particularly around the Eco Park and toward Kanatal.