Mt Napier Circuit, Mt Napier State Park - July 2019

Mt Napier

Mt Napier is another one of those extinct volcanoes that are dotted around Western Victoria, while this place has been dormant for thousands of years it’s actually one of the most recently active volcanoes. There’s is actually a good walking track to the summit of Mt Napier but it wouldn’t be a Feral blog without a bit of hardship thrown in, so I decided to climb the mountain by an older track and then descend via the more normally used track.

The tree line at the top of the paddock is the Mt Napier State Park boundary.

After driving up an old grassy easement as far as I could go I parked the ute, grabbed my pack and set off towards Mt Napier, via the back door. One hundred or so metres after leaving the ute I arrived at the boundary of Mt Napier State Park. Now straight away I had my suspicions that things may be a little rougher than my old notes suggested, it might of been the strand of electric fence across the entrance gate, the beaten and broken park signage or maybe the total lack of anything resembling a track, whatever gave the game away things were suddenly a bit rough.

Almost from the get go I had my doubts...there is actually a strand of electric fence across here!

While the old track had been reclaimed by nature I did have an old mud map to follow and some of Mr Thomas’ old notes, so I knew that I had to initially head south until I met a picnic table in the forest. Following what I imagined to be the old track in what I imagined to be the right direction I arrived at a bit of an opening in the forest, where I indeed found a very old picnic table that was almost totally consumed by the encroaching scrub, sweet! Things now got even more cryptic for awhile as I tended west and slowly started to climb, while the ground had been covered with bracken so far I was thinking that as I climbed the bracken would thin out a bit and the old track would become more pronounced, and so it was.

Following the old track towards the mountain.

Maybe this was the picnic area I was looking for....

Yep, there is the picnic table.

Leaving the old picnic are I started to climb a bit.

While the track got more pronounced and steeper the higher I climbed I was also starting to get some views through the trees so all was pretty good again in my Feral world. After a final steep pinch I met up with the main walking track, from here to the summit trig I was now climbing the grassy slopes of the cone of the old volcano. Being fairly late in the afternoon in mid winter the sun was already starting to get fairly low on the horizon so the views as I climbed were pretty sweet. From the ragged grassy cone Mt Eccles was easily visible to the west, while to the north east the Southern Grampians jagged the clouds. Apart from the distant mountains the other notable feature on the summit of Mt Napier were the Wedgetail Eagles soaring on the thermals, these big birds are always mesmerising to watch I think.

The higher I climbed the steeper and more pronounce the old track became.

I've come up from the track on the right and will be descending on the track on the left.

From the track junction to the trig it was all pretty easy.

Mt Napier Trig.

The view south from the trig.

I was circumnavigating the cone of Mt Napier next.

With daylight quickly running out I left the summit trig to the eagles and set off on a surprisingly rough and precipitous circumnavigation of the cone. There is a little bit of easy route finding involved in this short section of the walk again, although unlike early the vegetation wasn’t the problem, around here it was the steepness of the terrain, especially getting though the old volcanoes exit vent.

It was getting fairly late in the afternoon by the time I left the top of Mt Napier.

My circumnavigation traversed some steep slopes.

Looking back towards the trig.

That's the exit vent in the foreground.

The Grampians were easily visible to the north east.

With my circumnavigation of the cone complete I dropped down the walking track to the main car park. This walking track was actually a very nice walk as it headed down a pronounced spur through some nice forest before swinging north to the car park. After arriving at the deserted car park on the north west side of the mountain I still had a bit of a walk to get back to the ute though. I now picked up another old track (although thankfully the track was still pretty good) that followed the boundary fence line of the park. With open rural land on one side and forest on the other this was a nice easy way to finish my walk, especially with mobs of roos grazing on the green grass and the Grampians in the distance.

My late afternoon descent was a good one.

The normal walking track follows a spur down to the carpark.

Late afternoon on the flanks of Mt Napier.

Arriving at the deserted car park I picked up this old track that headed along the boundary of the park.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 4.7 kilometres and climbed 226 metres on this medium grade day walk. I’d call this a medium grade as sections of the walk were basically off track so some navigation is required, there is also some steep ground to negotiate on the cone as well. All that said if anyone wants an easy visit then just climb and descend the main walking track. I was using some of Tyrone Thomas’s old notes and mud map and they were adequate enough to get me through, all though his latest notes were published back in 2007 so obviously things have changed a little on the ground since then when it comes to the old tracks.

Relevant Posts.
Mt Sturgeon, Grampians National Park, 2019.
Mt Noorat, 2017.

Mt Napier State Park, Mt Napier silhouetted through the trees.

The end is in sight.

Heading home...I love this stuff!

One more look across the plains of Western Victoria to the Grampians.