Cotter Area: Stony Creek Nature Reserve, Uriarra Forest and Mt McDonald

General Information

Grading:  medium

Distance:   13.8 kilometers

Total climb:   473 meters

Time taken:   3 hours 30 minutes

Maps:   Cotter Dam 8627-2N 1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   26 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 77061 90367

Destination map grid reference:   Cotter Campground 55H FA 77183 89391

                                                      Mt. McDonald 55H FA 76550 91170

End point:  Same as start

Route

Description

This walk began at the small car park just off Brindabella Road about 2 kilometers north of Cotter Road. From the car park I headed through the bush and across Brindabella Road to find the gate into Stony Creek Nature Reserve (map reference: 55H FA 77214 89929). Through the gate I followed a fairly indistinct track down to Grasstree Lookout, which has a bench from which to enjoy the view.

After the lookout the trail starts to zigzag down the side of the hill to the Murrumbidgee River. At first it passes through fairly open forest (with at one point a fantastic view of the Cotter Pumping Station and bridge over the Murrumbidgee) and then through fairly thick scrub at the bottom.

I followed the trail right to the bridge over the Murrumbidgee and then turned around and headed back. At map reference 55H FA 77192 89740, which is right at the first acute bend of the main trail, I followed a trail off to the side which I thought could be a trail along the bank of the river, but the trail was soon lost in a grassy opening and I returned to the main trail. I then climbed all the way back up to the car park the way I had come. This trail is quite steep in places, but is in excellent condition.

Getting back to my starting point at the car park I headed off again, this time through the locked gate at the car park down Lookout Road towards Cotter Dam. I then followed Priors Road as close as I could get to the Dam.

Continuing along Priors Road there were some nice views and reflections off the catchment.

I turned off Priors Road on to to Crusher Road and followed for some distance, taking a slight detour at one point to climb to a high point at map reference 55H FA 75733 91406, with views to the south.

Returning to Crusher Road I followed it through to the Uriarra Village Fire Trail which I then followed down to some power lines which cut through the pine forest. This is pictured below from the eastern side:

The track following the power lines was extremely wet, muddy and slippery, but it eventually comes out on Crusher Road again. From there I headed up the trail to the summit of Mt McDonald, which has a decent view towards Canberra.

From the summit I headed down Mt McDonald Road. I took a brief detour to the Cotter Dam Lookout, and then took the Lookout walking track back to the car park. The Lookout walking track was quite badly eroded along much of its length and I had to take care not to fall over stepping on loose rocks.

I'll finish with a couple of warnings about the Cotter Dam/Mt McDonald part of this walk. First, there is little shade to be found, so it may not be a pleasant walk in high summer. Second, blackberry bushes are all over the place, so cutting through the bush can be problematic.