What to do this week, the forecast for Saturday was a little ordinary in Melbourne so we decided to head north west for about 300 kilometres to Halls Gap in the Grampians NP. As usual it was a late start, we didn't leave home until 10:30am, by the time we pulled into Halls Gap it was well and truly lunch time. By the time I'd finished the paper, a steak sandwich, and two coffees it was almost 3pm, better get walking!
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The way a lot of my walks start.
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| Off we go. |
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Having walked here numerous times over the years I wasn't to worried about the late start, we were planning on doing the Wonderland Walk as written up by John Chapman In the first edition of his Day Walks in Victoria book. Due to the late start I decide to do the walk in the opposite direction to his notes, mainly to have the sun at my back on the climb up to The Pinnacle.
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Rock turret along Stony Creek.
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Some of the new infrastructure post floods.
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| Elephant Hide. |
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Firstly we meandered up the valley of Stony Creek, the track and indeed the creek being completely rooted re routed due to the huge floods that swept through a couple of years ago. Parks have obviously put a lot of time and effort repairing the track, but its going to take time for the banks of the creek to re vegetate, erosion has deeply scarred Stony Creek.
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The Elephant Hide above The Venus Baths.
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Passing the kids swimming in the Venus Baths we continued up Stony Creek, passing over some deep erosion scars in the steep valley. After going past another couple of potential swimming holes we got to the turn off to Splitter Falls, judging by the lack of water in the creek I figured that the falls would be a little underwhelming and I wasn't wrong, after inspecting the bare rock wall we headed back to the intersection and continued up to the Wonderland Picnic Ground.
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The slightly optimistic Grand Canyon.
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| The top exit of the Grand Canyon. |
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Escaping the crowds at the car park we headed up through the slightly exaggeratedly named Grand Canyon, Parks Vic have spent a fortune on hardware between here and The Pinnacle to make the track fairly family friendly, but no matter how many ladders and stairs they put in you still have to climb them. After negotiating the Grand Canyon we kept climbing, at one stage passing an old post and rail fence, I'm not sure of the history of that.
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More hardware on the track to The Pinnacle.
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| The old post and rail fence. |
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Silent Street was our last obstacle of any note before reaching The Pinnacle, a small slot canyon that gets narrower the further in you go, eventually depositing us back in the sun light a stones through from The Pinnacle. We kicked back on top for awhile taking in the view, with me scurrying around the rocks taking photos in the late afternoon light. It was close to 6pm when we eventually left and headed down the direct route along the escarpment to Halls Gap.
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Mt Rosea from The Pinnacle.
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Sam was feeling a bit crook and the million over size steps were taking a toll on her as we descended, being slightly vertically challenged has its advantages but negotiating large steps isn't one of them. Needless to say it was slow and steady on the way down, I was happy because it gave me plenty of time to take photos, the setting sun lighting up Boronia Peak on the other side of the valley. The more mellow light also bought out the colour in the rock turrets that we threaded our way through as we descended. After what seemed like a million steps we eventually got to the bottom and re joined our outward route at the Halls Gap camping ground.
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A rare soft section of track, the majority of the walk is on rock.
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| The steps, stone to begin with. |
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Then metal.
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| More steps. |
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| The sun setting on Boronia Peak. |
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| Parks new child free policy! |
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After getting a tourist photo of the roo's grazing in the caravan park, we jumped in the car and headed off on the 300 kilometre return journey, two tired walkers getting home at 11 pm.
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| Did I mention that Sam loves steps. |
The Dirt
We followed the notes out of
John Chapmans Day Walks in Victoria walk number 4. I have the first edition of the book and since then there has been some changes due to natural disasters, large sections of track have been re built and re routed and the side track up Mackays Peak isn't there any more. The walk itself is 10.08 kilometres according to my GPS, and we climbed 683 metres. With the climbing taken into account I suppose the walk would be rated easy-medium, the track is well marked and there's a lot of hardware making the route easy to negotiate, in what is fairly rugged topography.
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About to meet the outward route, going down more steps.
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| Kangaroo's grazing at the Halls Gap caravan park. |
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