Moonlight Circuit, Mount Worth State Park - January 2016

Well we're back home from our sojourn to the red centre, I've got enough photos of red rocks and dirt to last me a couple of months I think. Basically we arrived home and I headed off to work a few hours later, there was certainly no down time in front of the telly over Christmas. Apart from this little stroll this weekend has been taken up with all the mundane chores that I've neglected over the last couple of weeks, the biggest chore this weekend was removing all the red mud and dust from the ute, it looks like an axe murderer has gone crazy in my drive way now with all the bright red water flowing down the drain. Anyway I did manage this beautiful stroll on Saturday, Mount Worth State Park is a great little park, after the barren Central Australian scenery the lush temperate forest of Mount Worth provided quite a contrast.

Heading through the well maintained Moonlight Creek Picnic Ground.

Mount Worth is only about an hour and a half from my front door, so I'd almost consider this walk a local walk and consequently I was at the trail head at the Moonlight Creek Picnic Area nice and early, yep 12:00 pm, well lunch time is pretty early for me anyway. There is a choice of a few different walks in this park but if you want something of a reasonable length then it'll involve a climb up Moonlight Divide Track before dropping down into a valley. I decided to drop down into the valley of Moonlight Creek after my walk up the divide, and then walk back along the creek.

Leaving the ute I soon located the start of Moonlight Divide Track, this grassy firebreak makes for great, if not a little steep, walking. Lower down the fire break passes through impressive Mountain Ash forest, luckily this park has escaped the fires that seem to rip through the bush at frequent intervals now days, so the Mountain Ash are in fairly good nick. Maybe it was because I've just returned home from more arid climes but I really enjoyed the green today, making numerous feeble attempts to do the trees justice on camera. Climbing higher the fire track is a little more undulating, the flora now a little more stunted but the ferns and wattles still providing interest.

The Lyrebird Forest Walk is another good walk in the Strzelecki Ranges, this bench has been placed on the climb up Moonlight Divide Track.

Higher up on the grassy Moonlight Divide Track.

Eventually I turned north along Link Track, another wide grassy firebreak. Link Track starts off fairly level before making a final steep plunge into the Moonlight Creek valley, the steep grassy surface making me glad I'd bought my new walking poles along. After arriving at Moonlight Creek the route started to follow the trickling water back towards the ute. Even though the creek was barely flowing the walking along this leg was scenically interesting, there was extensive views of the magnificent ferns and trees lining the sides of the valley and the occasional tantalising glimpse of the small creek through the trees.

There are a lot of ferns lining Moonlight Creek.

The track along Moonlight Creek has deteriated a lot over the years and in parts was fairly overgrown and rough, gaiters came in very handy to combat the thistles that populated some of the sections, the thistles seeming to like the sections of the walk where the forest canopy was open. Apart from the overgrown and eroded track there was a couple of substantial trees down which required scrambling over or around, all in all it was reasonably adventurous walking. The track passes by the site of the old Broomsfield and Seymours Mill, both these sites have now been almost fully reclaimed by the bush. Signposted just off the track along here is also a pretty little waterfall on Moonlight Creek, unfortunately the shade, some other walkers who wanted to stand in the creek in front of the falls and more relevantly, my lack of talent, means that I didn't manage to get a good photo of the pretty cascade so you'll have to trust me when I say that they looked good!

Once following Moonlight Creek the route becomes a lot rougher.

Moonlight Creek Track.

Reaching Maslins Mill site the track suddenly turns into a super highway, it looks like parks have spent a fair chunk of the budget on this section of the walk. The now wide and clear track crosses over Moonlight Creek for awhile, winding through more lush ferns and tall forest before crossing back over the creek and shortly after I arrived back at Moonlight Creek Picnic Ground and the ute. 

You will have to believe me but there is a nice little waterfall hidden in the shadows.

The Dirt.

I really like this walk, if parks could find a bit of money to upgrade the track all the way along Moonlight Creek it would make it even better, with a reasonable climb, changing vegetation, a challenging section, a small waterfall and some historic sites the walk packs a fair bit into its 9.6 kilometres. I climbed 334 metres on todays ramble so there is a bit of effort involved, I'd rate this a medium walk although if the track along Moonlight Creek received a bit of love it would be an easy walk. 

The section of the walk along Moonlight Creek winds up and down across a few side gullies.