I was on my way to Kedarnath in October 2015, from Rishikesh. We were going on the Srinagar – Badrinath Highway, about 15 km past Srinagar, and around 20 km before Rudraprayag, when we spotted a temple entrance in the South Indian style. I asked the driver and he said it is the Dhari Devi temple and we were in Kalyasaur.
I remembered reading about Dhari Devi, the guardian deity of Uttarakhand, whose idol was situated in an island in the middle of River Alaknanda. The article said that the construction of a dam across the river had caused water levels to rise, and that the authorities demanded to relocate Her idol. Although locals refused, the Devi deity was dislocated from Her space and shifted on June 16, 2013 at around 7.30 PM to another place. Within an hour, the cloud burst happened above Kedarnath. Flash floods and landslides left the entire region in destruction, however sparing the Kedar temple.
I decided to check out the present situation of the temple.
Locals say that She is Dhari devi which means she controls and regulates the dhara or flow (of the river). She is said to govern all the four Dhams – Chardham viz., Gangotri, Yamnotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
Legend:
Dhari Devi is a manifestation of Mother Kali. The legend says that Dhari Devi is only the upper half of the Kali idol. Her torso is worshiped as a Sri Yantra at Kalimath Temple, near Guptkashi. As per local lore, Dhari Devi changes in appearance during the day from a girl, to a woman, and then to an old lady. It is said that only a visit to both the temples makes Darshan of the Goddess complete. 
While the mass destruction and deaths caused by the floods of 2013 may have had other reasons, the locals see it as Dhari Devi’s wrath, for shifting Her out from her home base (moola sthana).
This wasn’t the first time the idol had been tampered with. In the year 1882, when a local King tried to move the idol of Dhari Devi elsewhere, the area had faced flood and destruction.
Myth:
The lower half of the idol of Kali is located in Kalimath Temple which is North east of Dhari Devi. Kedarnath is north of Kalimath. These joint temples are aligned exactly at NE-SW direction symbolizing Kali as sleeping with her feet in NE direction and head in the SW direction.
This causes the energy to flow in the NE direction, which in jyotisha, is the direction of Jupiter (Ishana Shiva), the parameshthi guru. The upper part of the devi with the head symbolizes the calming of Kali by Shiva, the Guru. The lower part of Kali is not in the form of an idol and instead, is worshipped as the Sri Yantra. In this manner, we learn that the Sri Yantra, as established by Adi Shankara at Kalimath, is the yoni of Shakti from which all creation proceeds.
The Kedarnath Jyotirlinga is exactly North from Kalimath symbolising the husband-wife or Shiva-Shakti relationship. In this, Kedarnath being to the north is constantly calming the devi who is in the south.
The access to the temple is more than half a kilometer descent and then a walk across the bridge to reach the temporary abode of the Goddess. There is a Bhairav baba shrine on the way. The bridge has hundreds of bells tied on both sides of the rails.
Once we enter the open shrine of the Devi, a sudden intense energy engulfs and we sit there in Her presence for a long time. The devotees are under a shaded roof with the Alaknanda flowing below, while the Devi basks under the open sky. Although they say this is a temporary abode, She reverberates very powerfully here also. Even with eyes closed, the beautiful and serene face of the Devi lingers on. The sounds of tinkling and clanging of bells, the smells of incense and of fresh flowers carried by the gentle breeze which sweeps over the cold Alaknanda waters and entering us, takes us into a different world altogether.
References:
https://theindianmythology.wordpress.com/tag/dhari-devi/
http://www.ibnlive.com/videos/india/dhari-devi-disaster-619276.html
http://www.indiadivine.org/dhari-devis-wrath-the-cause-of-kedarnath-destruction/
Hidden Treasures of India 
Jai Maa!
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