Yelagiri TN, 12 places to explore!

If you're thinking about visiting Yelagiri but wondering what's there to see, this post is just for you. It lists the official and unofficial places of interests in Yelagiri, so that you can decide if the visit is worth or how to kill time once there.

As you enter Yelagiri you will see below two displays put up by government, which lists the places of interest.

Above 9 points translate as follows (translated by Varun Varadarajan). As you might have noticed, there's some ddiscrepancyin the two official display boards.

1. Telescope Centre
2. Athanavur Boat house
3. Athanavure Children's Park
4. Nature's Park and Musical Fountain
5. Paragliding
6. Murugan Temple
7. Swamimalai
8. Nilavur Boat House
9. Adventure Centre

1. Telescopic Centre: This comes few kms before you enter the Yelagiri town. Usually open during day time and with a telescope you are supposed to be able to see far away objects. I don't fancy this and didn't stop during last visit. There is a small fee (Rs 10 per head I guess) to use the telescope.

2 & 3. Punganur lake, Boat house & Children park:  Punganur lake, surrounding walking track, a tree top view point, Children park are worth a short visit/ Open from 6 AM to 6 PM, there is an entree fee of Rs 5 per person, Rs 10 for camera. Parking fee extra (we went at 6.10 AM and parking fee collector wasn't at duty yet :) ). This place is covered in a separate post here

4. Nature's park & Musical fountain: This is located right opposite the turn that takes you to Punganur lake. Opens little later in the day than Punganur lake. Moderately ticketed, has some nice flowers, trees and aquarium. Much better maintained that Punganur lake

 

Check this post for photos of honey bees extracting nectar from yellow flowers at Nature's park, Yelagiri. Musical fountain here won't be operating most of the time, so don't keep any hopes on that.

5. Paragliding: As per my understanding it is not happening at Yelagiri at this moment.

6. Lord Murugan temple and a small waterfalls behind it is at the foothills of Yelagiri. Certainly worth a visit.

7. Trekking to Swamimalai- Take some local guide (your hotel should be able to arrange). Had done lots of trekking during my 2011 visit to Yelgiri, so didn't trek much in my last visit in Nov 2014 [details]

8. Nilavoor: Didn't try this one, as the feedback we got was "nothing is there". Google map shows a lake & a park, few websites list a tribal village & temple. Tripadvisor reviews say it is very small lake. Feel free to explore.

What is not listed in the above boards are 4 things:
9. Lotus pond: A small pond on Mangalam road- photos, details and map of lotus pond in this post

10. An under construction Shiva temple. Somewhere off the Mangalam road, we spotted this Shiva temple, which is still under construction



11. Roadside temples
We spotted these roadside temples during a random ride. Can't tell you where exactly it is, but if you search for Kottur bus stop on google maps and explore that road, you will find this temple.

12. Banyan Tree & View point
During our random exploration we also found a view point and a big banyan tree- you will find many view points all around Yelagiri, if you're willing to little beyond the paved roads.

So, that's it folks. Have a nice visit to Yelagiri.