Rocks That Rock

Rocks which tower above you.

Rocks which teach you balance.

Rocks which have stood for 2.5 billion years, dating back to the Archean age.

Rocks where you feel miniscule.

Rocks which you would love to climb.

Rocks which leave you speechless.

Rocks which truly rock!

Where are such rocks? 

Just 25 kms south west of RSI Secunderabad.

We, a group of about 20 armed forces veterans and families hiked around the hill top at Khajaguda Hills. Each rock formation left us speechless.

Sharing below few pictures and videos of the hike on 27th Sep 2026.

The Dawn

We crossed the iconic cable stay bridge well before dawn. See the 15-sec video below.

We were a bit late to catch the sunrise. But the silhouettes of the hikers convey the magic of dawn.

Towering Rocks

There are multiple rocks which tower above the hikers. The rocks look formidable. But with bright morning sun and a blue sky at the rear, it makes a perfect frame!

Climbing a small boulder using your hands and feet. See the short video below when a 75-yo does it!

Sharing below a panoramic video of the rocks at Khajaguda.

The Burger Rock

A set of huge granite rocks which have horizontal chams in multiple layers. The rock looks like a huge burger or a sandwich. You need to crawl between the layers to climb the burger rock. Few pictures and a video below.

First to climb up and crawl in to the Burger Rock. See a short video courtesy Ansh.

Chimneys and Caves

There are multiple chimneys on the hill. A chimney is a narrow vertical chasm between two rocks. Some chimneys are so narrow that a pot-bellied person can not go through. Pictures below.

Get a feel of being inside a narrow cave in the video below.

Hiking through Thorny Shrubs

There are stretches on the hill with thorny vegetation. Hiking through it needs adequate clothing and caution. Sharing few pictures below.

National Malaise

Visitors deface the walls of our monuments with graffiti. They don't spare granite rocks also! Littering is another irresponsible behaviour. See the pictures below.

Sanjeevani Shrub

Our guide Rabet had shown us the wildly growing Sanjeevani plants. He told us that the leaves will spring back to life when immersed in water for few hours. Our hiker Shyamala shared the picture below with her comment, 'What Rabet said about Sanjeevani is correct. I put it into water and few hours it's opened up and dark green like he said it'. Readers familiar with Indian Epic Ramayana, would recall that Lord Ram's brother Lakshman had been brought to life by Sanjeevani leaves. 

The Tortoise Rock - shaped like a tortoise. A similar rock in Mt Abu in Rajasthan is called the Toad Rock.

Destructive Quarrying

Over the decades, Khajaguda Hill has been quarried indiscriminately on all sides. Tell-tale marks of the holes for blasting the rocks are still visible. Rock surface has developed man-made cracks all over. Pictures below show the destructive tale.

Lakeview Point

On the western edge of Khajaguda hill, a flat space has been created by using the soil excavated during the construction of the parking lot. One can get a clear view of Khajaguda Lake or rather the remains of the lake. Most of the lake has been encroached upon for construction of high rise buildings over decades.

Society to Save Rocks

Society to Save Rocks aims to preserve and protect the spectacular ancient granite formations of the Deccan Plateau, India - a natural wonder of stony ridges and hillocks shaped into picturesque balancing forms. Volunteers of the Society accompanied and guided us on our hike. Readers may browse the Society's website for more details. We thank Dr Sudheer Bhan, Mr S Rabet, Mr Dinayat and Mr Sreecharan for giving us such a wonderful experience. 

Special thanks are also due to Rama Thoopal, Pranav, Dr Maneesh, Ansh and other members of the PBC for sharing their pictures.

We had done this hike five years ago during Covid in March 2021. A picture of that hike was the subject of an online Caption Contest titled Kaun Banega Ghumakkad. You may browse the picture story and the winning entries of the Contest by clicking the link below.

Hiking to Rediscover Yourself - Hiking in Khajaguda Hill area.

Palmette Bicycling Club (PBC)

Palmette Bicycling Club was formed in RSI Secunderabad in Apr 2019. Since then, it has conducted 172 events (including 10 treks). There was a long hiatus during the Covid period. 

PBC regularly organises bicycling and hiking outings on weekends. Credit for PBC's sustained activities goes to Gen Naozar B Patel. This 75-year-old Veteran is a fitness enthusiast and a great organiser. Thanks Naozar for yet another great outing and an excellent YouTube video linked below which summarises the hike.

Other Hikes by PBC

Am sharing below the links to two other hikes by PBC. Just click the link to browse the picture story.

Devarakonda Fort - Built across multiple hills, it stands firm even though partly in ruins. It is maintained largely by volunteers from the community. 

Bhongir Fort 1000-year-old - A picture story with videos of a fort built atop a 1000-feet high monolith.

Like the dessert which is taken after a meal, our two best shots of the hike follow. Both were shot inside  a cave. Enjoy.

Thanks for browsing. 

Did the Rocks of Khajaguda rock you? Will the rocks remain intact for the future generations?

Do leave a comment. It encourages us.

Stay connected.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Ansh Bhargava/ Secunderabad/29th Sep 2026

#khajagudahill #khajagudalake #savetherocks #fakruddingutta #hyderabad #hydraa #destructivequarrying #hiking #bouldering #caving #sandwitchrock #monkeyrock #chimney #chasm #blastingcracks #sunrise #rocksthatrock #palmettebicyclingclub #rsisecunderabad #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #tortoiserock #SocietyToSaveRocks

Coyote Gulch- Hiking in a Stream

We all hike in the mountains.
In forests.
In river valleys.
In the desert and so on.
Have you ever hiked in a flowing stream in a canyon?
And camped for two nights?

Ghumakkad's ten-year old grandson did that. Of course with his parents and friends. But it is creditable for the two families to go on a hike in water. Complete with hiking poles, loaded back pack and their three-year old  toddler too! This is a guest story written by Nikhil, my grandson. Pictures courtesy Ankur Bhargava and Abha Maheshwari. Used with permission. 

What is Coyote Gulch? Coyote Gulch is a slot canyon in the middle of Utah’s massive red rock country. See the two maps below.

There are numerous blogs about the trail which give further details.
Here is Nikhil, the author who wrote this story when he was ten years old!

Nikhil's story follows:
_____________________________________________________ 

Hike name – Coyote Gulch in the Grand Staircase Escalante Area, Utah, USA

Duration - 3 days and 2 nights

Team – Abha, Soumitra, Ankur, Akanksha, Nikhil (10), Arushi (9), Rohan (7), Naman (3)

Day 1

Drove on a dirt road named BLM255 for about 2 hours to reach the trail head.

Our trail was called the Hurricane Wash via Chimney Rock. This way we would cut down our hiking time by half, not knowing what lay ahead for us.

We reached chimney rock in time, - 11:30 - but we lost all the time that we made, to find our way to Hurricane Wash. We wasted about a mile in navigating our way to the wash over the rocky terrain. I was carrying about 17 pounds, dad was carrying about 27 pounds, and mom was carrying Naman.

We had lunch on a tall rock since everyone was exhausted and then started walking again to find the entrance into the trail. We finally found the drop to the trail around 2:30 pm. The trail was very sandy and made it more difficult to walk even though it was all flat. Gradually the ground started getting wet and gave way to visible water which led to the river.

We changed from our hiking shoes into our water shoes and neoprene socks – special socks that do get wet in the water but keep you warm once you are out of the water.

We followed the river for the next 2-3 miles to Jacob Hamblin Arch which was our destination to camp.

It was a sight to behold. One because it was so impressive and huge and secondly because we were all tired and couldn’t walk anymore :-). We all got to our respective jobs – pitching tents, filtering water, preparing to cook dinner and playing (kids).

We had Maggie for dinner and mom made mac and cheese for the picky eater Naman.

We all went to bed instantly after dinner since fires are not allowed in the park. Once inside the tent, I was bored, because I was not so sleepy. Mom and I did some stretching because my legs were hurting. That relaxed my muscles and I fell asleep. It was really warm that night. But the wind was howling – hoo whooo . It woke me up four times.

Day 2

We woke up. Enjoyed some packaged mini waffles and ate oats for breakfast.

Mom – dad and Soumitra chachu (Dad's brother in Hindi)– Abha mausi (Mom's sister in Hindi), took some pictures against the arch while we kids were busy making a castle.

We then all changed into our water gear and headed out for the day. We hiked for about 4 miles and saw two water falls, the Coyote Natural Bridge and a little gateway.

Took some pictures along the way and our precious cargo – Naman – changed shoulders couple times..

At about 4pm it was time to head back to our campsite. It had started to get cold. It was a windy day, compared to the previous day. I was leader for most part of the hike and had to set a pace.

Parents made Chole and Rice for dinner. We had to hide our bowls under our jackets because the wind was so strong that it was blowing sand all over. There was sand everywhere – on the ground, in our eyes, in our mouth, inside the tents, and in food.

We kids, were in one tent, while the grown ups and Naman were in another. We slept and called it a day. It was windier than the previous night.

Day 3

There was this one time when Abha mausi and Soumitra chachu got a little separated and I and my parents and Rohan and Arushi were all together. We kept hiking thinking that A and S are right around the corner. We hiked on the trail to keep away from the water and then again stepped into the water when there was no trail/land.

It was at one such instance that we lost our way. Mom and Dad turned around and said, “We should wait for A and S. Its been a while since we saw them” – not knowing that we were the ones who were actually lost!!! Dad said “ let me look at the map, if we are on the right track “ And guess what??? WE WERE OFF THE TRAIL. We kind of panicked a bit, because we had thought that they were the ones lost, so it would be pretty hard to retrace our steps. We had decided on a distress call code “ huku huku “ and would keep repeating it until the rest of the party replies to it. Luckily, Soumitra chachu heard us and ran to where we were - shouting “Ankur.” We followed Soumitra chachu to where we were supposed to go and got back on the trail.

We hiked through a different path once we found the rocky terrain, which had new obstacles we didn’t know about. Once within view of Chimney Rock, Naman got down from his carrier and started to scale the steep rock walls, making everyone ashamed of themselves. See the video clip below.

Naman was climbing the rocks like a spider.

We got off the path by a lot, but found our way back to Chimney Rock. Everyone was so happy when we reached the car. We (as in the whole party) hadn’t eaten anything besides an energy bar, so everyone opened all packages and started hogging.

_________________________________________________________________________

That was the end of Nikhil's story. Amazing, isn't it?

Nikhil and I had hiked together earlier. The story of one such hike in India can be browsed by clicking "Father's Day Hike".

 

Another outing where Nikhil and Ansh our eldest grandson in India, co-authored a story was 'Why Kodaikanal'. We can see two of them together in the picture below.



So, this story was special. Not because it featured an off-beat trail in USA, but because it had been written by a ten-year old hiker himself. Thanks Nikhil. And thanks Abha and Ankur for incredible pictures and the videos. May you all keep hiking!

Thanks for browsing

   -  Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Nikhil Bhargava/ 31st July 2018

#coyotegulch #Hamblinarch #hiking #canyon #chimneyrock #naturalbridge #camping #ghumakkadharsh #ghumakkadhb #hurricanewash