Batukaru is the second highest peak on Bali yet minimally visited. There are 3 trails (at least) to the top with the shortest hike from the west side Pura Shiva temple which is what we took. There’s not a lot of accommodation options nearby so if starting early that might be a bit of a problem. We stayed at Kampung Kopi Camping nearby in the village of Poedjoengan and luckily our host was able to drive us early in the morning. Getting a ride there might also be challenging as it seemed that it wasn’t easy to get a Gojek or Grab from this relatively remote location. The temple is at approximately 1180 m elevation and the summit is 2276 m, so about 1100 m of elevation gain. It is mostly steep with a fair number of roots and ‘steps’ cut into the clay. The trail essentially follows a ridge the entire way up. It is steeper off the sides of the ridge but well far enough away that there isn’t any danger to fall down a ravine. There are a few flat spots on the way up, with signs POS1, POS2 and POS3 but not much of a view as the mountain is heavily forested. There are a few sections with rope but not really needed even in the wet season after a night of heavy rain. The rope is nice on the way down. Overall, the effort is about midway between Batur and Agung. I’m 60 and my daughter is 28. It wasn’t super challenging but we are relatively fit and sure-footed. We certainly did not feel like we needed a guide despite our host at the campground suggesting we did. There is a small kiosk at the temple where they have you sign in and take the entrance fee of 25,000 per person. The last group to sign in was 2 days before us, so yes, not well travelled despite the trail being in fairly good shape. We did not see anybody else on the trail nor at the top where we thought we might run into others coming from the 2 access routes from the south It rained almost the entire way up and we mostly hiked in the cloud after 1600m, but somehow the clouds parted when we arrived at the top and we had about an hour to enjoy glimpses of what would be phenomenal views if it were clear. We could see Denpasar and the Uluwatu peninsula easily. Towards the north we could see Batur and the north coastline. To the east we could see Nusa Penida and Lombok in the distance. To the west, we could see West Bali National park and the eastern side of Java. There is no single point where you can have a panoramic view and there is a fair amount of vegetation at the top. Overall, we thought the hike was 6/10 difficult if Agung is 7/10 and Batur is 3/10. Overall, the hike is 5/5 stars because it is pristine with no other tourists, a relatively simple hike with no danger of getting lost or falling off a steep cliff, and wonderful views of the entire island if the weather cooperates. It was about 3 hours going up at a moderate pace and 2 hours down at a safe pace. The jungle with enormous trees is also quite pleasant.

I did hike Batukaru in Nov 2019 via an alternative trail that starts at Jatiluwih Temple (8.36688° S, 115.08308° E). This route is less known, used mostly by locals to go up the mountain, it follows a steep ridge up to the top and it took me 3h to get there. I uploaded the GPX to Openstreetmap and Wikiloc. But its important to know that Jatiluwih temple and Jatiluwih rice terraces are two different things, rice terraces are located on the other side of the mountain.