Short hikes in northern Tasmania, AU
From west to east, I hiked to Marion’s Lookout in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP; to the obscure Minnow River lookout on Mt Roland; and around Legges Tor in Ben Lomond NP. Circumstances were limiting me to shorter hikes than I would have liked.
Make sure to research:
how you pay for and display park passes in general in your parked vehicle
how Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP differs from the rest of the pass system
use of the shuttle bus and rules for driving on the limited-access road to the Cradle Mountain trailheads
Marion’s Lookout via Overland Track, Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP
Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park is in the Central Highlands, far from any town. The day-hike past (or around) Dove Lake to the summit of the titular Cradle Mountain (1545m) is one of the most scenic in Australia.
I hiked about half that distance, to Marion’s Lookout (1223m), where I got my first good view of Cradle Mountain, before returning. It was autumn, so the other highlight of the hike was seeing the yellow-orange fagus (Nothofagus gunnii) around Crater Lake. According to AllTrails, there is 438m elevation gain over 6.9km, out and back.
Access is complicated. I wanted to start early, so I drove to Ronny’s Creek parking lot, which is about a 20-minute drive from the park’s northern entrance. (The alternatives were the parking lot at the northern end of Dove Lake, where the few available spaces were already full, or taking a shuttle from the visitor center later that morning.) I then took the Overland Track boardwalk through a meadow and then a forest to the northern end of Crater Lake, then ascended the slope east of the lake to the ridge containing Marion’s Lookout. One the ridge not far below the lookout, there was a steep portion with some chains fixed to the rocks.
Other pages
my short route: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/australia/tasmania/ronny-creek-to-marions-lookout
full route (from the other trailhead):
Minnow River lookout on Mt Roland, from O’Neill’s Road parking lot
Mt Roland (1233m) is a small mountain in the Kentish Council of northwestern Tasmania, 15 minutes by car from Sheffield. I parked along O’Neill’s Rd off Claude Rd, wrote my intentions in a logbook, then hiked uphill. The track was at first a wide 4WD track through a pleasant forest, but it eventually became a narrow impact track which required me to push past bushes. The impact track leads to the pass between Mt Roland to the north and Mt Vandyke to the southwest, and there is a rest area with benches.
From that first rest area at the pass, I hiked along the gentle Mt Roland ridge’s boardwalk for 10-15 minutes to this nameless triangular rest area (960m). It had benches and at least one table, and I hereby name the Minnow River lookout. Shortly after that, I turned around, because the sun would soon set. In the forest on my return, I heard a kookaburra and a yellow-tailed black cockatoo. My hike probably had an elevation gain of around 700m over 11-12km.
Pages about this track:
Loop around Legges Tor, Ben Lomond NP
Ben Lomond Alpine Village is around 70 minutes east of Launceston, up a steep dirt road in Ben Lomond NP. Most of the park is forest, but this high-elevation area has only shrubs.
Arriving in the autumn before the snows, I found the village nearly deserted. I parked on Ben Lomond Rd near the toilets/shelter, then hiked in an hour-long loop clockwise around the summit of Legges Tor (1572m). My route uphill from the village took me through some incomplete construction. Further uphill, I came within a minute’s walk of the summit, but the sun was setting and it was very windy, so I instead turned left (west) to take what seemed like the simpler of two routes downhill to the Summit Link Track. I followed this as it curled east and then south, to a different part of the village, and finished by walking around a paved road.
Based on AllTrails’ measurements for an out-and-back hike, my route probably gained around 140m elevation over around 5km.
