Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve: The Pyramid

General Information

Grading: medium

Distance: 6  kilometers 

Total climb: 386 meters 

Time taken: 3 hours 22 minutes 

Map: Tidbinbilla 8627-2S 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  46 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 74391 73673 

Destination:  55H FA 74948 72338 

End Point:  Same as start

 

Route

 

Description

The Pyramid (1172 metres) is a peak on the southeastern side of the Tidbinbilla Valley between Devils Gap and Stantons Gap. Note that the Tidbinbilla map does not name the peak as "The Pyramid", but marks it with the elevation only. Note also that there is no walking track to the summit of The Pyramid from Devils Gap.

The start point for this walk is the Devils Gap carpark just off the Tidbinbilla Ring Road. We crossed to the other side of the road from the carpark and started up the Devils Gap fire trail. We followed to the fire trail to the Devils Gap signpost (about 2 kilometres from our starting point), getting some views of our destination along the way.

Just past the Devils Gap signpost on the right is a walking trail which forms part of the "Devils loop" walk. We walked down this trail for a short distance until we found a point where we thought it made sense to head bush and commence our climb to the summit. The climb was quite steep and we had to negotiate our way through some scrub and avoid prickly plants. Near the summit we started to see large boulders, some with interesting shapes.

In short order we made it to the summit which was quite rocky and covered with ferns below and small trees all around. There is a cairn that presumably marks the summit, or perhaps just someone's idea of where the summit might be.

Due to the fairly dense tree cover we could only get partial views of the surrounding area, although we tried a number of vantage spots.

We returned to the carpark the same way we had come up.