On Walkabout At: Cradle Mountain, Tasmania – Part 1

Prior Posting: The Road to Cradle Mountain

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The next morning I woke up to head back to Cradle Mountain in order to hike up to its summit.  My wife on the other hand who was enjoying our cabin and the first bed we had slept on in over a week, decided to sleep in and relax at the Gowrie Park caravan park for the day.  So I was going to head over to Cradle Mountain by myself.  When I stepped out of our cabin early in the morning this was the view of the scenic Mt. Claude I was welcomed with:

The temperature was very pleasant outside but the cloud cover worried me.  Yesterday when we left Cradle Mountain a thick cloud cover had rolled in and in the morning time the thick cloud cover still remained.  As I got into my vehicle and headed down the road to the park it actually started to rain.  I was now really concerned that the fickle Tasmanian weather would make my attempt to summit Cradle Mountain impossible.  However, in a perfect example of how unpredictable the Tasmanian weather can be by the time I arrived at the park and drove up to Dove Lake, this is how the weather looked over the 1,545 meter (5,069 ft) summit of Cradle Mountain:

At Dove Lake I had no problems finding a parking spot like I did the day prior because I was the first person to drive to the lake that day.  The trail to the summit of the mountain begins at the lake and is also the start point for one of Australia’s most famous hikes, The Overland Trek:

The Overland Trek stretches 65 kilometers across some of the most beautiful scenery that Australia has to offer.  On a return trip to Tasmania I am definitely going to do this hike.  Today I just planned to hike to the summit of Cradle Mountain.  The trail to the summit of Cradle Mountain is an off-shoot trail from the main Overland Trek trail that is a very popular day trip hike:

Shortly after I pulled in a few more cars parked in the parking lot which was my cue to get going and beat the other hikers on to the trail before it got crowded.   The first part of the trail went slightly up hill and then around this small lake pictured below:

This picture below is from the shore of the lake looking back towards Cradle Mountain in the background:

Here is just another view from the shore of the lake as I continued to walk around it:

From the lake the trail began to climb steeply above the lake:

I soon had a good view of the lake along with Dove Lake in the background:

The trail continued to climb up towards Cradle Mountain and looking back towards the north I had a beautiful view of the lake and Cradle Valley, which I drove up to reach Dove Lake:

As I looked ahead of me I still had plenty of more climbing to do on this trail:

Once I reached the top of this portion of the trail I was surprised to see yet another beautiful lake this far up the mountain:

As I walked along the trail I was able to enjoy a really nice reflection off of about half the lake:

I was pretty high up now on the trail and even Cradle Mountain didn’t even look so high as before:

Here was the view looking back towards the Dove Lake parking lot where I started the hike:

From the lake the trail started to climb once again and the lower lake and Dove Lake below me became smaller and smaller:

Once the trail leveled off I was now on a high plateau that led towards Cradle Mountain:

The trail on the high plateau was very boggy with a lot of mud:

Off in the distance the giant mass of the 1,559 meter (5,115 ft) Barn Bluff became larger and larger as I hiked up the trail:

The trail then headed towards the rocky crags of Cradle Mountain:

I then arrived at a little hut that was at the intersection of the Overland Trek and the summit trail to Cradle Mountain:

I actually ran into some people who had stayed the night in the hut and were heading out further down the Overland Trek. One of the hikers was in his 70′s and hiking the trek with his grandkids, which I thought was pretty cool. I hope I will be healthy enough when I am at that age to do something like that with my grandkids as well.

From the hut I headed up the summit trail towards Cradle Mountain.

Next Posting: Cradle Mountain, Tasmania – Part 2