Wilpena Pound hikes, South Australia
Map copyright Australian Department of Environment & Water. Used under CC BY 3.0 AU license.
The St Mary Peak loop is in medium blue. The detour from Tanderra Saddle to St Mary Peak is also in blue. The Wangara Lookout detour is in dark blue, at the foot of the loop.
See https://www.frc.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0034/879640/ikara-flinders-ranges-national-park-map.pdf for a zoomed-out map.
Wilpena Pound (Ikara) is a natural amphitheater formed by two curling chains of mountains in the Heysen Range (Akurra Yardli) section of the Flinders Ranges in Outback South Australia. Wilpena Pound is in the southern part of Ikara - Flinders Ranges National Park.
From the visitor center, it is possible to make a counter-clockwise loop by taking the Outside Track (outside the amphitheater) up to Tanderra Saddle, descending via the Inside Track (inside the amphitheater), and then exiting the amphitheater through the Pound Gap to the visitor center.
For my short hike, I went clockwise through the Pound Gap, took a detour up to the upper Wangara Lookout, then descended and returned the way I came.
For my long hike, I did the full loop counter-clockwise. At Tanderra Saddle, I took a detour north to St Mary Peak (Ngarri Mudlanha), the highest in the area. After returning to the saddle, I completed the loop.
There are many other walks in the National Park, as shown at https://www.walkingsa.org.au/walk/find-a-place-to-walk/park/flinders-ranges-national-park/.
The “pound” refers to the amphitheater’s former use as a livestock enclosure. This use didn’t outlast drought.
The aboriginal names on this page come from one of the Adnyamathanha languages. Today, the formerly separate aboriginal tribes are grouped together as the Adnyamathanha, or Rock People. Wikipedia says this word is pronounced /ˈɑːdnjəmʌdənə/, but I distinctly heard it pronounced with only four syllables by three Adnyamathanha people, as well as one other Australian parks worker. For more info, see: https://guides.slsa.sa.gov.au/Aboriginal_peopleSA/Adnyamathanha.
A permit is required to enter the park, so I purchased it and left the printed receipt on my car’s dashboard. Wangara Lookout can be accessed year-round, but most of the St Mary Peak loop is closed from 06:00 30th November to 06:00 1st March. I’m not sure if this is due to heat/dehydration or fire risk. I hiked in winter, to reduce the risk of heat, fire, and snakes.
Wangara Lookout
From Wilpena Pound visitor center, it’s an easy walk on a broad dirt vehicle track. Around 1 km before Hills Homestead, the vehicle track ceases, so anyone riding the shuttle bus has to continue on foot. There is a fork between two walking tracks, Sliding Rock Track and Top Track. The tracks reunite shortly before the homestead.
Sliding Rock Track is more fun because it goes between a rock face and a stream. (There is no sliding on any rock.)
Top Track offers a nice view of the sunset-illuminated red rock of Mt Ohlssen-Bagge above, as well as better exercise due to a small gain in elevation.
At the northwestern side of the homestead, I walked up a moderately steep rock slope to the higher of the two Wangara Lookouts, which offers a fenced wooden viewing platform.
This upper lookout is still far below the summit of Wangara Hill, which I didn’t hike to. I don’t know if there’s an impact track to that summit.
AllTrails reports that it’s 8 kilometers return, with 227 meters of elevation gain. AllTrails users report an average of 2 hours 12 minutes return. It took me around 2.5 hours, including breaks. The rocky part of the walk was about 10 minutes uphill, so it would be easy to do this as a detour on the long St Mary Peak loop (below).
Links
St Mary Peak Loop via Tanderra Saddle
From the visitor center, I walked north along the Outer Track to Tanderra Saddle. Most of the walk was flat or gently sloping, but it climbed more steeply to the saddle, including a few scrambles to reach the top of a boulder. Blue trail markers guided the way. I lost the trail at one point, but regained it 10 meters uphill or so.
On my way up, not far below Tanderra Saddle, I found an echidna. One Australian hiker said it was surprising to see it at such an elevation.
At Tanderra Saddle, I rested, then followed the well-maintained track north toward St Mary Peak (1171m). There was more rocky scrambling on the second half of this track, and a few small moist patches of melted frost. The Adnyamathanha leadership requests people not step on the summit, so I didn’t.
After returning to the saddle, I descended the Inside Track into the amphitheater. The track was not steep. The height of vegetation gradually climbed from waist-height to head-height to proper trees. It was a very pleasant walk, one of my favorite ever forest walks. Cooinda Camp, shown on some maps, no longer exists. I skipped the medium-length Malloga Falls - Edeowie Gorge detour because I didn’t have enough daylight or water. (Friendly Australians whom I met in a Quorn pub had recommended it to me.)
Keeping left at a few forks, I eventually reached Hills Homestead (see above). From there, I returned to Wilpena Pound on familiar terrain via Pound Gap. This time, I got much closer to a yellow-footed rock wallaby than I had on the Wangara Lookout hike. I also saw a wild kookaburra for the only time; I had heard one in the morning.
Various sources estimate the distance at between 19 and 21.5 kilometers, including the detour to the peak. Most agree that it takes around 9 hours. That’s about how long it took me, including breaks.
Various sources estimate elevation gain differently; even adjusting for out-and-back hikes, or skipping the peak, it just doesn’t make sense where these numbers came from. Reflecting on them all, my guess is it’s around 800 meters’ gain. I wish I had done an AllTrails recording to have put these inconsistencies to rest.
Links
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/australia/south-australia/wilpena-pound-to-saint-mary-peak-loop (excluding the peak - it should be titled the Tanderra Saddle loop instead)
https://www.walkingsa.org.au/walk/find-a-place-to-walk/st-mary-peak-hike-wilpena-pound/
