Gunung Batukaru

Date: August 29, 2026

Distance: 9.41km

Elevation gain: 1347 m

Gunung Batukaru is the second-tallest mountain on Bali. Like the other mountains on the island, it is a holy mountain to the local Balinese people. It offers a challenging but rarely-visited hike through the jungle, with views and temples at the top as a reward. 

There are several routes as described on gunungbagging.com. The most popular is the Pura Batukaru route from the west, but this route has some access issues, so I took the next most popular route, from the east near Jatiluwih. This had the advantage of letting me visit the Jatiluwih rice terraces, located on Batukaru’s southern slopes. 

I woke up early and took a taxi from Ubud, which took just under two hours. There is a checkpoint at the town of Jatiluwih where I was charged 75,000 rupiah. The trailhead is the Pura Luhur Bhujangga Waisnawa Gunung Sari Temple at 880 metres, which was quite spectacular. The trail was easy to follow as it passed some more temples, then it became more overgrown. 

Soon I was walking through a lush forest. This forest seemed far more pristine than those I'd seen on Java. At one point there was a shrine with two carved tigers. 

The trail continued upwards, eventually reaching a ridge. I only saw two other people on the trail. In the distance I occasionally heard wild boar. 

The last few hundred metres to the summit were quite overgrown. 

The summit was a flat, cleared area which would have excellent views in good conditions. There were a few Hindu shrines where people had left offerings. A few groups were resting on the peak, having come up from the western route. 

I rested on the summit for a while then returned the way I came. From the trailhead, the rice terraces were a couple kilometres away. The walk took me back to civilization, with many shrines along the way. 

The rice terraces were spectacular and worth a couple hours of exploration. 

At the end of the day, I tried to use Grab and Gojek to call a taxi back to Ubud but none were available. I ended up going to the nearest hotel and asking the staff for a local taxi. One was soon found and I made my way back to Ubud. Because of the way my schedule worked out, I only had a couple hours to rest and clean up before leaving for my next adventure, Gunung Agung…