Dakpathar

This is a small town in dehradun district of Uttaranchal state.
You can sense a calmness in the environment as soon as you reach here, this town has its own character, you will surely appreciate this if you don't have much exposure to small towns or villages, contrary to the scenario of big cities, time is the thing that people have in abundance out here, you will find groups of people(specially ladies) chatting in small groups everywhere.

Range of mountains across yamuna river, as seen from dakpathar

you will find boisterous and enthusiastic school kids in their uniforms, thronging the streets during morning and evening, You will find a small but concentrated market of about 100 shops, you will see small goverment quarters(this is basically a huge govt colony for hydrelectric projects nearby) spread all over on one end and an imposing Shivalik range of mountains on the other one.. with a quite yamuna separating the two.. but simultaneously imparting its calmness and beauty to both.
and you will never find any rush, even the main road will remain mostly free of any vehicular movement most of the times.
And most importantly you will find peace of mind.
Because this whole town was developed by govt, so it is very well planned, so though it has calmness of a village but simultaneously it has comforts challenging any top tourist locations.
For example it has very good accomodation in form of GMVN tourist house(that sports a big size swimming pool as well) and the irrigation department guest house, then their are two parks( one general and one deer park ), one stadium and shops catering to whatever you may require.

The Park, main road and the picturesque evening sunset over the mountains

There is a great road surrounded by natural beauty, that serves as a paradise for nature lovers and probably the best place in the world
(OK..K i am axaggerating a bit.. but thats what i feel) for morning and evening walks, it is around the water reservoir/dam of combined yamuna and tons rever, with tall mountains forming the boundary for this great amount of water, the scene needs more than words for its description. This road leads you from upper dakpathar to the park.

You can easily go to the other side of the river by the bridge to be at the bottom of this mountain range, if you are lucky enough you may get the opportunity to see the release of water from the reservoir, that looks like a beautiful waterfall. even many of the localites are unaware of this.

If you wish to visit the place here are my suggestions-

• Reaching this place is very easy, frequent bus service is their from dehradun, but taking a taxi is preferable as these buses may take 2.5 hours for this 45 kms distance.
  

• Previous booking in GMVN tourist lodge is advisable, you can do it through any GMVN(garwaal mandal vikas nigam) counter, normally occupancy will be available if you just drop in there, but anyway it is better to avoid such situation.

• Enjoy the calmness and beauty of the place, you will not repent your decision if you visit nearby places like paonta sahib(boating and a big lake) and kalsi(one of the 14 stone pillars inscribed in Paali language, they were installed by Ashoka.. more than 2000 year old).

• Please refrain from entering the yamuna river or Shakti canal(boards of warning are there at sites of danger), there are two dams on them just before dakpathar and they do release water time to time, as strangers don't recognise the sirens, they may find themselves stranded and facing a huge amount of incoming water.( these two invariably take some lives every year due to sheer ignorance and stupidity of people).

• If you are planning to trek the mountains please ask for a guide, because the mountains falls in Himachal Pradesh(Yamuna serves as a boundary between Himachal and Uttaranchal), so locals there may not understand hindi, or otherwise also mountain paths can be a bit confusing.

I hope that the above inormation was useful for you, If you are interested in knowing about my interactions with this place and seeing more pictures of this place please click this.