Canberra Nature Park: Bruce Ridge Nature Reserve

General Information

Grading:  easy

Distance:   8.4 kilometers

Total climb:   176 meters

Time taken:   2 hours 10 minutes

Maps:   Canberra 8727-3N 1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   4.5 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  street address

Destination map grid reference:   none

End point:  Same as start

Route

Description

This walk began at the carpark across the road from 160 Dryandra Street O'Connor. We walked up the management trail to the right of the carpark until we came to a promising-looking bike track, which we followed. Bruce Ridge is a maze of quaintly-named mountain bike tracks but there are occasional maps to consult and trail markers to guide.

We pretty much followed tracks at random, but with a general intention of paralleling Gungahlin Drive before heading back along the top of the ridge. We passed through some very nice eucalyptus forest that looked quite stunning in the morning sunlight:

Eventually we came to an underpass beneath Gungahlin Drive leading to the Calvary Hospital complex.

We walked through and had a look, but were put off by a sign on the hospital gate saying "No Smoking/ No Urinating". Returning to the track we followed a trail with a series of tight switchbacks along the Belconnen Way side of the Reserve, which had some nice views of Black Mountain.

We then followed a management trail up to the nearest of two very large water tanks on the Ridge, and from here at the highest point of the ridge we could get some good views in several directions.

Getting back on to bike tracks me made our way along the top of the ridge and then back down to our starting point.