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Mt Crichton Loop Track, Queenstown

Mark Eaglesfield

Mt Crichton (rhymes with ‘triton’) is a mountain near the corner of the Lake Wakatipu between Queenstown (to the east) and Glenorchy (to the north) in Otago, South Island. It is approximately 15 minutes by car from Queenstown. A few sources spell it ‘Creighton’. You can read about my hike to Point 1723 on the rocky ridge, here.

Screenshots of the NZ topographic map are licensed as CC BY 4.0 by Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand (LINZ).

This page is about the Mt Crichton Loop Track, a much shorter and easier lowland forest track. It is on easy terrain. The two tracks share a parking lot.

Time

DOC estimates 2 hours 30 minutes. AllTrails users reported an average of 2 hours 28 minutes.

It took me around 2 hours, without substantial breaks.

Route

Round-trip, AllTrails reports 324 meters of elevation gain and 7.6 kilometers in length.

Coming from Queenstown, the parking lot turnoff is shortly after the Twelve Mile Delta parking lot turnoff. Both parking lots on the left (the lake side). There is a dedicated spot for hikers to cross the highway.

I chose to hike clockwise, so as to finish the walk at mostly higher elevations. This is because it was mid-afternoon in April when I started. I wanted to finish on the portion of the track that was further above the creek (suggesting fewer sandflies) and which probably had less dense tree cover (suggesting more light). But I was faster than expected, so I wasn’t still hiking at sunset, nor bitten by any sandflies.

A little before the halfway point (clockwise) is a hut built in the 1930s by gold prospector Sam Summers. DOC used to allow overnight stays for hikers.

For an experienced hiker, this track is a good off-day activity.

If 1 is an easy track, and 4 is using hands and feet on exposed rocks, I give this track a 1.

Other pages about this hike