Ankushagiri Fort
2 hrs 6 min away
Parking
Park just before the temple in the shade of the trees by the road.
Trail Description
The hike starts near the Thimmarayaswamy temple at the base of the hill.
You go past the temple, keeping the temple on your left and the shed/mantapa to your right. There are steps going up the hill.
Ruins of an old Temple
As you start hiking up you'll soon come across a ruined temple to your left. A few footsteps off the the trail. By looking at the structure -- the structural parts below are in granite and the more intricate designs in brick and mortar -- it might be a temple from the Vijayanagara era.
To go up you retrace back to the trail going up.
To the treepool
As you cross past the first clear section of rock you will again go through a patch of vegetation, soon after which there's a small pool with a vertical rock on the other side and a tree sort of connecting on side to the other.
This is a nice spot to chill for a bit, but there's some trash in the water.
To Mantapa
You continue your way up the hill and soon reach a mantapa with a small water body not far from it (though it may dry up in the summer)
To the hilltop
Beyond the mantapa, the way to the hilltop is sort of obvious. There's a ruined temple near the top.
Shaded spot near the pool
On your way back down you can also rest under the shade of the trees that a further up from a largish pool. There's space for 5-6 people to rest here.
Cleanliness
Not the cleanest of hills, but it's not too bad. Maybe a 3.5 on 5 for cleanliness. It would be possible to clean up the hill in 2-3 trips with a group of hikers.
Crowd
Since the the temple near the base is busy on weekends, some of the temple crowd also comes up. There will be other people around on weekend, but it won't feel like a crowd.