Kosciuszko National Park: Charlotte Pass to Guthega [and return]

General Information

Grading:  medium

Distance:    19 kilometers

Total climb:    660 meters

Time taken:   4 hours 30 minutes

Maps:   Perisher Valley 8525-2S  1:25 000

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:   220 kilometers

Start point map grid reference:  55H FV 19089 67358

Destination map grid reference:  55H FV 23213 73018

End point:  same as start

 

Route

 

Description

This new walking trail is the first section of the planned Snowies Alpine Walk.

We started at Charlotte Pass, and at the car park walked down the very steep track towards the Snowy River below. The start of the trail to Guthega begins on the right, a few hundred meters before the river. Much of the initial section is along raised metal causeway following along beside the Snowy River.

After a while the track starts to go up and down and through some nice stands of gum trees

Perhaps the highlight of the walk is the suspension bridge over Spencers Creek.

The track also passes beside the Illawong Bridge over the Snowy River and Guthega Dam before taking you into Guthega itself.

My walking companion (actually my wife) was pretty worn out by the time we reached Guthega, so she stayed behind in the cafe while I walked back to Charlotte Pass to fetch the car. The climb up from the Snowy River to the Charlotte Pass car park was a killer at the end of such a long walk.

Namadgi National Park: Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station Site to Booroomba Rocks

General Information

Grading : medium

Distance:  12.9 kilometers 

Total climb:  405 meters

Time taken:  4 hours

Map:  Corin Dam 8626-1N, 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  53 kilometers 

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 79143 60486

Destination map grid reference:  55H FA 81967 62279

End point:  same as start

Route

 

Description

This walk began at the Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station site car park at the end of Apollo Road. We walked down to the campsite and turned off onto the walking track towards Booroomba Rocks at map reference 55H FA 78928 60481. This is a very picturesque and easy-to-follow track that took us to the Booroomba Rocks car park. We then followed the track up to Booroomba Rocks and took in the magnificent views:

We returned to our starting point by the same route.

This is a great way of extending the otherwise short walk to Booroomba Rocks from the Booroomba Rocks car park. Sadly and inexplicably I failed to take any pictures of the track from Honeysuckle to Booroomba. My bad.

Corin Forest: Smokers Trail to Orroral River

General Information

Grading : hard

Distance:  22 kilometers 

Total climb:  795 meters

Time taken:  5 hours 50 minutes

Map:  Corin Dam 8626-1N, 1:25 000 

Start point distance by road from Canberra GPO:  51.5 kilometers 

Start point map grid reference:  55H FA 73687 67792

Destination map grid reference:  55H FA 72960 61299

End point:  same as start

Route

 

Description

This walk began at the Square Rock car park just off Corin Road. We initially followed the walking trail towards Square Rock. At map reference 55H FA 72421 66150 there is a link track off to the left that takes you down to the Smokers Trail, and we followed this. When we reached Smokers Trail we turned right and followed it alongside a creek with a number of small waterfalls. As we neared the ridge above Orroral Valley there was plenty of evidence of damage from the 2020 bushfire.

We descended along Smokers Trail down to the Orroral River at the head of Orroral Valley. While the crossing is rather nondescript, the river itself is quite pretty.

Pausing here for some lunch, we then made our way back up Smokers Trail. Instead of walking back up the link trail to the Square Rock track, we continued along Smokers Trail until we came to a marker directing us back to the car park. This turned out to be a rather interesting walking track, quite narrow and treacherous in some places, but through some very pretty bushland.

This took us back to our starting point.