Here is a video from the 1,805 meter summit of Australia’s Mt. Buller:
You can read more about my visit to Mt. Buller here.
Tag Archive for 'High Country'
A place a have gone to many times that is a day trip away from Melbourne and yet feels like a world away is to the lovely Mt. Buller:
Mt. Buller is about a three hour drive from Melbourne and the closest major ski resort to the city. The mountain is about a 45 minute drive from the small, but historic city of Mansfield that lies on the plain at the base of the mountain:
Mansfield and the Mt. Buller area is well known in Australia for its stockmen heritage that keep The Man from Snowy River legend alive:
Besides it stockmen heritage Mt. Buller is also famous for its wintry weather that provides some pretty good skiing for a mountain so close to Melbourne. Here is a picture from the top of Mt. Buller during the ski season just last year:
This year the mountain received so much snow that the ski resort opened the earliest in its history. In fact it is not uncommon for Mt. Buller to receive a dusting of snow even in the middle of the summer on Christmas Day:
Mt. Buller is the tallest mountain in the area, taller than both the nearby Mt. Stirling and The Bluff, but it is easily the most striking peak in the region with its 1,805 meter summit rising abruptly up from the plains that lies to the west. The best thing about Mt. Buller is that anyone can access the mountain due to the well maintained paved road that goes to the ski resort on the top of the mountain:
During the ride of the winding road to the summit of Mt. Buller it was good to see how much the bushland around Mt. Buller has recovered from the 2006 bushfires which devastated the mountain and even threatened the ski resort:
Something that is quite humorous when driving up the mountain is to see the animal warning signs with kangaroos and wombats wearing skis:
And yes that is an American license plate on my Jeep you see. It is possible to get an import license to ship your American vehicle to Australia for a limited amount of time like I did.
Besides the animal warning signs there is a gnome crossing sign as well:
And even a gnome home built into this gum tree:
No one has never accused Aussies of not having a sense of humor, that’s for sure. After about a 30 minutes of driving up the winding and twisting road we got to the top of the mountain wear the ski resort is located. Unlike American ski resorts that are located at the bottom of mountains, in Australia the ski resorts for the most part have to be located at the top of the mountain. The Thredbo Ski Resort in the Snowy Mountains is the only resort I can think of that is actually located at the bottom of a mountain in Australia.
Anyway I drove through the resort and pulled into the parking lot where the trail head to the summit of Mt. Buller is located:
As you can see it is only a 4.1 kilometer round trip hike to the summit of Mt. Buller so it is a pretty easy stroll with some great views of the surrounding high country such as Mt. Buffalo in the far off distance to the north:
The trail begins with only a slight ascent up the mountain and eventually gets high enough to where my wife and I could make out the 1,749 meter (5,738 ft) summit of Mt. Stirling:
We also had a great view overlooking the Mt. Buller Ski Resort:
Mt . Buller was first skied in the 1920′s which back then there was no ski lifts to take skiers up the mountain. It wasn’t until the 1950′s that a first generation lift system was built to help take skiers to the top of the mountain. Today there are ski lifts that access every corner of the mountain.
Along the way up the trail it passes right by a one million gallon water basin that was constructed to provide water for the resort back in 1965:
Between snowmaking and water usage at the village the Mt. Buller Ski Resort uses 400 million liters of water a year. The precipitation that falls on the mountain every year is not enough to meet that need thus there is a pumping station further down the mountain that pumps water up the mountain from Boggy Creek.
Here is a view of the summit of Mt. Buller from the reservoir:
On the top of Mt. Buller like other high country mountains in Victoria, grass lands is abundant because the higher altitude is generally too cold for trees to take root. This abundant grassland is what made the Victorian high country such a prime cattle grazing spot in the summer months for the region’s stockmen. Though the top Mt. Buller is mostly grass that doesn’t mean a few hardy gum trees weren’t able to take root at this high altitude:
These gum trees known as Snow Gums can only be found in Australia and have been found to grow at altitudes as high as 1,800 meters. Past the snow gums the trail then starts to make a steep ascent up the mountain where we could really make out the rocky features of the mountain:
There are stairs that help make the ascent easier and at the very top is a fire look out that has an incredible view of hundreds of square miles of bush land in the region:
It is believed that the first westerner to climb Mt. Buller was the botanist Ferdinand Von Mueller in 1853. He climbed the mountain as part of his expedition to record flora in the region. At the time much of the flora had never been recorded by western scientists. Some readers may remember that Von Mueller was also responsible for planting the variety of species of plants in the Town Hall Gardens of the then gold mining boom town of Beechworth just north of Mt. Buller.
From the summit of the mountain easily the most striking mountain that can be seen is the rugged slopes of the 1,725 meter high plateau known simply as The Bluff:
The next most prominent mountain would be Mt. Howitt, which rises to the East of Mt. Buller:
Off towards the south we both could make out the 1,482 meter (4,862 ft) summit of Lake Mountain that was devastated in early 2009 by the massive bushfires that also destroyed the beautiful town of Marysville at the base of the mountain:
Here is the view towards the north with Mt. Buffalo once again off in the distance:
Also towards north Mt. Cobbler can be seen. Here is a closer look at this scenic mountain that I need to get around to climbing some day:
Finally here is the view looking towards the west which is dominated by grazing land and a few rolling hills which the rugged peaks of Mt. Buller slopes down towards:
There is actually a trail from the summit to where you hike down to the bottom of the mountain from here, but I just didn’t have the time to do so on this day, but I would love to do it some day in the future. Mt. Buller is just one of those mountains I just never get tired of visiting and I’m sure most other people probably feel that way to once they get a chance to experience this great mountain.
From the Mt. Buller area there are a number of four wheel drive trails I have taken my Jeep on that really provides some stunning views of the beautiful Victorian Alps. I have taken the four wheel drive road from Mt. Buller that takes visitor to the beautiful campground at Sheepyard Flat along Howqua Creek. Further down this road from the campground is the trail head to the hike up the massive plateau known as The Bluff that is absolutely an excellent day out hiking. However by continuing passed The Bluff the four wheel drive road actually becomes a circuit around the imposing Mt. Buller:
All along this road there are a variety of views of the scenic Mt. Buller which begins with views of this great mountain from the South:
Mt. Buller rises above the tree tops in the distance.
A closer look at the 1,707 meter (5600 ft) summit of Mt. Buller.
Also along the road are a number of other great views of the rugged Victorian Alps:
Along one of the spurs off the main four wheel drive road to Mt. Stirling is a road that descends steeply into a valley where there is a short trial to the Bindaree Falls:
The bush here was quite overgrown when I visited and the trail in need of some definite maintenance:
However, these conditions shouldn’t be too surprising considering how remote this area is. When I got to the falls there really wasn’t much to see as there was just a trickle of water coming down the side of the rock outcropping:
There is a small natural cave here so I could definitely see at one time this place being used as a camp site for the Aborigines whenever they foraged deep into the Victorian Alps.
If you haven’t noticed from the prior pictures, these mountains were hit with a severe bushfire back in 2006, but the forest continues to grow and recover with signs of life continuing to sprout out everywhere:
As the road goes further past The Bluff it actually loops back around Mt. Stirling which is famous for its Man From Snowy River fame.
The 1,749 meter (5,738 ft) summit of Mt. Stirling in the distance.
As Mt. Stirling got closer and closer as we continued down the road, The Bluff behind us became less and less imposing:
The Bluff can be seen in the distance.
As I approached the slopes of Mt. Stirling the bushland was once again greatly burned due to the bushfires from two years prior, but still clearly the vegetation was making a come back.
The drive along the slopes of Mt. Stirling just has some spectacular scenery to include one of the most rugged hikes in the Victorian Alps which is to Mt. Howitt and the hiking across the Cross Cut Saw:
Out in the very far northern distance I could even make out Mt. Buffalo:
Another prominent peak that can be seen is Mt. Cobbler:
Here is a closer look at the summit of this scenic, but isolated mountain deep in the Victorian Alps:
Along the road I came to the turn off to the Mt. Stirling summit and the road was sealed due to some work they were doing restoring the area so I didn’t have a chance to get to the top of the mountain, and instead would just have to make do with a picture of its summit from a far:
By now my wife and I had completely looped around Mt. Buller and were on the North side of the mountain which provided some great views of this peak:
From the North side I could even make out the Mt. Buller Ski Village on top the mountain. During the summer time it is hard to believe this place gets enough snow during the winter to support skiing, but it does:
All in all if you have a four wheel drive vehicle or even a vehicle which just a little ground clearance this trip around the mountain is a good day out. Just make sure you bring some food and water in case you get stuck and definitely bring a good map to ensure you don’t get lost. It is important to use common sense when driving or hiking in the Australian high country.
Here is a short 360 degree video from the 1,986 meter summit of the tallest mountain in the Australian state of Victoria, Mt. Bogong:
You can read about my bushwalking trip to the summit of Mt. Bogong here.
Prior Posting: Mt. Bogong, Victoria – Part 1
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As I ascended up the Staircase Spur of Victoria’s highest peak, Mt. Bogong I was beginning to actually get pretty tired because I had now been walking straight up for about three hours on this trail plus I was even beginning to feel the altitude a little bit due to my shortness of breath:
Anyway as I broke through the tree line and was rewarded with views of the surrounding Victorian Alps:
I may have had my first views of the walk, but I now had no trees to block the cool wind that was blowing over the treeless top of Mt. Bogong:
As I walked up the trail I couldn’t help, but imagine the Aborigines long ago walking up here in the summer time to scavenge among the rocks of this large mountain to find the bogong moths they loved to eat:
These moths have a high fat content and thus were very healthy for the Aboriginals to eat who did not have much fat in their diet. The word bogong comes from the Aboriginal term “bogong” that is used to describe the rocky granite outcrops in the Victorian Alps and is thus this mountain’s namesake:
As I continued up the mountain I could see the summit of Mt. Bogong looming ahead of me, but this final stretch would be the most tiring of the entire hike due to the steep ascent and the continuing effects of the altitude. Trust me, this is much steeper then it looks, but I do have to say that I liked the red color from the surrounding grasslands as I trudged up this ridgeline:
Often times when walking through the Australian bush like this I see plenty of wildlife and on this walk I had so far only seen birds. It is not unusual for me to spot a wallabies or kangaroos while walking in the bush, but unfortunately on this trip I didn’t see any. However, something I hadn’t seen before so high up above the tree line in the Australian Alps was a lizard:
I have no idea what kind of lizard this is, but it was living high up in the cool region of the high country. I figured a lizard would want to live somewhere warmer, but I guess he has some how adapted to living at such a harsh climate.
Here is the view looking back down the ridgeline of the Staircase Spur that I had just hiked up:
Directly in front me at this point was a monument constructed in memory of the three skiers, George Gadsden, Edward Welch, and John McRae who got trapped in a blizzard on this mountain and died back in 1943:
Here is a closer up picture of the plaque on this memorial:
This wasn’t the first time people have perished in the freezing cold blizzards that hit the Victorian high country every year. The most well known person to die on these mountains is probably a fella by the name of Cleve Cole who died on this mountain back in August 1936 and a hut on the mountain was constructed in his honor to assist any other skiers that get trapped in the area because of a blizzard.
Cleve Cole
There was no possibility of a blizzard happening on the summer day I hiked up Mt. Bogong, but there was plenty of dark clouds hanging around and the weather was quite cool. It is not uncommon for snow storms to happen in the Australian high country even in the warmer months.
As I got towards the top of the mountain I actually walked right by a number of springs that had water bubbling up out of the mountain. That crystal clear water I saw in the creeks further down the mountain all start up here in these springs:
With such springs and a vast grassland it is no wonder why the stockmen used to drive their cattle up here to graze during the summer months. The stockmen can no longer graze in the high country any longer, which continues to be a point of contention in Australia due to many people thinking the stockmen are part of Australia’s natural heritage and that the grazing reduces the risk of fire danger. The environmentalists on the other hand say the grazing harms the environment and so far the environmentalists have won out on this debate.
Just ahead of me I could see the cairn that represented the summit of this 1,986 meter (6,520 feet) mountain:
As I trudged up the last stretch of the trail I couldn’t help but be impressed by the rugged scenery around me:
And then finally I was on the top of the mountain and was rewarded with great views all around me. For example I could see off in the distance to the south the most impressive peak of the Victorian Alps, Mt. Feathertop:
It had taken me about four hours to reach the summit of the mountain and this was actually the most tiring of all my hikes I have done in Australia.
Looking westward I could see the end of the ridgeline that composes Mt. Bogong. If you look closely in the picture below in the distance on the far right of the photograph is Mt. Buffalo:
As can be seen in the above photograph as well is the fact that the weather was turning colder, windier, and cloudier which was my cue to get off the mountain before some nasty weather struck, but now before taking in one last view of the valley where the city of Mt. Beauty lies that I had saw earlier in the day when crossing over the Bright-Tawonga Road:
Finally something I found of interest on the summit of Mt. Bogong was these unusual yellow flowers I had never seen before on any of my hikes up in the high country:
I have no idea what type of flower this is or even if it is a native Australian species but it was an unusual plant I had never seen before except on the summit of Mt. Bogong. So if anyone knows what plant this is feel free to leave a comment because I would like to know.
With the poor weather moving I hurried back down the mountain. It had taken me four hours to get up the mountain and it only took me about 2.5 hours to get back down. Counting the half hour I spent on the summit it was about a 7-8 hour day on the mountain and incredibly I had saw only one hiker, an older gentleman who had stayed at Cleve Cole Hut the prior night before hiking down today. He thought I was nuts hiking up to the top of Mt. Bogong and back in one day, but I did it. I have done tougher hikes before in Colorado so this wasn’t as bad, but I was still quite tired and I still had a four hour drive to get back home. It was worth it though and I highly recommend everyone into bushwalking to take the time to hike the mountain, but I think next time I do it I will bring my sleeping bag.
Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria has a number of great mountains to hike such as Mt. Buller, Mt. Buffalo, Mt. Macedon, Mt. Hotham, or Mt. Feathertop. However, the state’s highest mountain Mt. Bogong at 1986 meters (6,520 feet) is also no where near as visited as much as the various other peaks I listed in Victoria. A lot of this has to do with Mt. Bogong’s remote location in the Australian Alps.
Reaching Mt. Bogong takes about a four hour drive from Melbourne up the Hume Highway before getting off on the Great Alpine Road. About an hour drive up the Great Alpine Road is a turn off to Mt. Bogong via the Bright-Tawonga Road. This road twists and turns up the mountains where a lookout on the summit of this road provides spectacular views of Mt. Bogong:
From here it was just a short drive back down the mountain and across the valley the valley to the campground that the trail head is located at:
The campground like many areas in the Australian Alps was just extremely scenic and would just be a lovely place to spend a weekend camping. However, on this trip camping wasn’t on my agenda, just getting to the top of Mt. Bogong was. The trailhead at the campground is actually the beginning of a four wheel drive road known as Mountain Creek Road that takes bushwalkers to the actual trailhead to the top of Mt. Bogong, which was 2 kilometers away:
Due to the amount of rain that had fallen recently I wasn’t about to try and drive to the trail head on this muddy road:
Once I started walking further up the road, it actually began to dry out pretty well:
There was also a river crossing along the road where fortunately Parks Victoria was kind enough to build a bridge for hikers to walk across:
There are a number of streams that flow from the slopes of Mt. Bogong that need to be crossed along the trail and it is just incredible how clean this water is:
I usually drink some of the clean water while hiking around Australia and the water at Mt. Bogong is about as refreshing as it gets. After trudging through mud and water along the four wheel drive trail, I finally came upon the trailhead to Mt. Bogong, which is known as Staircase Spur:
Six kilometers to the top of the mountain doesn’t seem that far, but as I would find out this was a long six kilometers because Staircase Spur did live up to its name because it was literally all up hill from here.
The first part of the trail took me through a very dense forest of gum trees:
I just love the smell of eucalyptus and it was especially strong in this forest. These trees were no where near as big as the monsterous mountain ash trees in southern Victoria, but they were still scenic none the less. There was also a lot of wildflowers that carpeted the side of the mountain as well to add a splash of color to the surrounding scenery:
Besides the incredibly lush foliage there was also a number of birds I could see and here in the bush around me such as this kookabura:
As I continued my steady ascent up the mountain I eventually came to a large section of the forest that had been scorched by a bushfire two years prior:
The forest was actually recovering really well from the fires as the Australian bush typically does. About two hours into the hike I came to one of the cabins on Mt. Bogong that is free of charge for hikers to use:
These huts that are spread around Australia’s Alps are really one of the great features of hiking in Australia due to the safety and convenience they provide for bushwalkers. I wasn’t staying at the hut but I sure was going to use it to take a break at because I was actually pretty tired by the time I reached this hut due to the fact I had literally been walking for two hours straight up.
I stayed at the hut for about 30 minutes eating my lunch before heading back up the trail again. Past the hut the trail becomes quickly engulfed with these scenic snow gums:
The further up the mountain I hiked the more the snow gums began to thin out thus providing with my first views of the hike:
As I broke through the tree line I could see I still had a long ways to go as the high ridgeline of Mt. Bogong loomed in front me:
Next Posting: Mt. Bongong, Victoria – Part 2
The Herald-Sun today has a whole gallery of pictures Men from Snowy River rounding up cattle in the high country. The Howqua River lies in the lower slopes of Mt. Buller and is quite a scenic area that has recovered from recent bushfires. The river is also located near the popular The Bluff bushwalking trail. Mansfield which is the main population center in the area is famous for being the location where The Man From Snowy River movie was based from. The real Man from Snow River, Jack Riley however wasn’t from the Mansfield area, but can be found along the Alpine Way and the Murray Valley Highway.
One of my favorite places in all of Victoria is without a doubt the small hamlet of Harrietville in northeast Victoria. Harrietville is not a major tourist attraction and most Victorians probably would not even recognize the name of this town, but I have spent more weekends in the Harrietville area then I have in any other part of the state since I moved to Australia two years ago.
I like this area because it is the closest I can get to feeling like I am back in my home state of Colorado due to the town being located at the base Victorian Alps:
The most beautiful mountain in all of Victoria, the 1,922 meter high Mt. Feathertop rises dramatically over the town:
The best views of Mt. Feathertop can be seen from the east of town where the mountain is at its most spectacular:
Harrietville is located along the Great Alpine Road which is one of the best drives in the entire country.
Harrietville also just happens to be the last town in the Ovens Valley that the Great Alpine Road passes through before it begins its steep ascent up the Victorian Alps and to the Mt. Hotham Ski Resort:
The ski resort is what brings many of the tourist that do come this town during the winter season. The town has a ski shop and plenty of accommodation to support people looking for a place to stay off the mountain:
Besides skiing Harrietville is really a great bushwalking destination as well. Quite possibly the best hike in all of Victoria and one of the greatest in all of Australia is located on the mountain slopes on the outskirts of Harrietville. The Razorback Trail is featured in every major hiking guidebook of Australia and rightfully so with its stunning views of the Victorian Alps:
There is much more to the town then just the ski season and bushwalking though. The town also has an interesting history that began first with aboriginals that used to pass through this area during the summer on their way up to the high country to eat Bogong moths. The Bogong moths are large moths that frequent the high country only in the summer months that the aborigines viewed as a delicacy of sorts. Aborigines however never called the upper regions of the Ovens Valley home.
The first European to settle this area was a man named William Buckland who was giving grazing rights over a large portion of the Ovens Valley. A few years later in 1852 gold prospectors made their way up the valley as they panned the Ovens River:
A mining settlement that was called Germantown at the time was established in the area. A year later famous botanist Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller passed through the area on a government sponsored trip to do a scientific survey of the area. By 1863 grazers had discovered the Bogong high plains above the town and began driving cattle up there during the winter to graze.
By 1876 the settlement had reached its mining peak as the alluvial gold ran out and large mining operations were launched. More labor was needed to work in the mines which brought many Chinese migrants to the settlement. The settlement grew so big that it could support a school filled with 350 children:
In 1879 the Germantown settlement had grown enough to where it was officially proclaimed a town and dubbed Harrietville. Eventually the gold would run out and the town would shrink in size and what remained centered around the cattle industry that was still bringing stock up to the high country every summer as well as the logging industry:
The logging industry advanced to where locomotives were even used to pull trees from off the mountains:
Mills used water power from the Ovens River to keep their operations going:
Fortunately today Harrietville is no longer a logging area with the town surrounded by beautiful swaths of gum trees:
For those interested in learning more about Harrietville’s history the town has a small museum dedicated to presenting the town’s history that is worth taking some time to check out:
Much of the towns historical past can still be seen today as Harrietville is littered with historical buildings such as this church:
Not everything is historical in Harrietville though as many bed and breakfasts and hotels can be found in town as well as many new homes that various real estate companies have for sale:
It appears I’m definitely not the only one who has discovered the charm of Harrietville judging by the new homes going up, but this is definitely a place I wouldn’t mind owning a home at one day myself.
If driving up the Great Alpine Road it is definitely worth spending a day in Harrietville to enjoy the small town atmosphere and spectacular scenery. For those into bushwalking, no trip to Victoria would be complete without hiking the Razorback Trail. Finally for those into skiing Mt. Hotham is the best area in Victoria for skiing as well. So no matter how you enjoy the area the important thing is get out and experience this great part of Victoria.
Last month I made the drive up Australia’s very own Great Alpine Road in Victoria’s northeast:
The Great Alpine Road travels for 308 kilometers over the heart of Victoria’s high country between the inland, farming city of Wangaratta and the seaside city of Bairnsdale. I wasn’t planning to drive all the way to Bairnsdale but instead to the half way point at Mt. Hotham.
I have been up to Mt. Hotham before for skiing last year and have been meaning to get back up to this area in order to hike one of the most famous trails in all of Australia, The Razorback Trail:
The trail ran along a ridgeline between Mt. Hotham and to the summit of Victoria’s second highest peak, the stunning 1,922 meter Mt. Feathertop:
The weather the day I decided to drive back up to Mt. Hotham was absolutely perfect, between the city of Wangaratta and the small mountain hamlet of Harrietville, was nothing but blue skies and the temperature was around 23 degrees.
From Harrietville, The Great Alpine Road begins its steep, winding journey up to the top of the Victorian Alps. Eventually the road reached the top of the mountains and I pulled over to take the picture below at Danny’s Lookout:
The lookout provided a stunning view of the Victorian Alps which included even distant views of Mt. Buffalo. Also from the lookout I could look down into a number of steep valleys that gave me great perspective of how high up in the mountains I was:
Despite the great view the first I noticed at the lookout however was how cold it was outside. I looked at the digital thermometer in my Jeep and noticed that the temperature had dropped to 5 degrees Celsius outside compared to the 23 degrees in Harrietville.
From the lookout I had a short drive left to go on The Great Alpine Road in order to reach Mt. Hotham and the start of my planned hike:
I eventually reached the location where the hike began, just below Mt. Hotham’s summit and parked my Jeep along the side of the road and took in the beautiful landscape of The Razorback lying in front of me:
I walked down the road to the start of the trail and saw that the distance to Federation Hut just below the summit of Mt. Feathertop is 10.5 kilometers:
I figured to get to the summit of Mt. Feathertop was probably about 11 kilometers and then add in the return walk, that would make the entire trip about 22 kilometers. It would probably take me three hours or more each way on this trip which meant it would take about 6-7 hours total to complete the hike. It was now 10AM which meant that I would finish the hike around 4:00-5:00PM, well before sunset.
Everything was going according to plan accept the cold, but I had actually packed plenty of warm clothes for just this possibility. I put on my winter jacket and beanie hat and headed down the trail confident that the hike itself would warm me up just fine:
The hike was really stunning with gorgeous views thanks to the mostly clear blue skies. However, something I hadn’t planned for before I took off on the hike began to occur. The farther I hiked the more the wind seemed to pick up. As I continued down the trail the wind was battering my face with a biting cold and was making walking on the trail twice as difficult.
I continued on though and the trail began to go up and down the various hills that composed the ridgeline. Eventually the trail dropped and wrapped behind one of the hills providing me a much needed windbreak:
However, once I came out from behind the hill I was once again on an exposed ridgeline with the winds absolutely pummeling me as I walked:
The picture I took above may look like a nice calm day, but it was actually 5 degrees out with strong blowing winds that made even taking this picture quite difficult. Also the act of requiring to remove my gloves to use the camera was quite unwelcoming as well. Despite this, I continued on, hoping to get to the far off tree line that could serve as a much needed windbreak.
However, I was quickly falling behind schedule on this walk which would make my return later then expected and possibly I might not get back before night fall if I kept this pace. This was not a welcoming prospect in this cold weather. I also figured that once I reached the higher altitudes the winds would only get worse and thus prevent me from making up any time I had already lost. Because of these reasons as well as the fact this walk had ceased to be of any fun and decided to turn around.
I hadn’t even walked halfway across The Razorback yet and I had already walked 1.5 hours. I took one more look at The Razorback and Mt. Feathertop looming ahead before turning around and heading back to the trailhead:
On the walk back the conditions didn’t improve but I did try to take some more pictures knowing that warmth would soon be found once I got back to my Jeep. In the below picture you can really get a good since of how jagged this land is with its steep hills and narrow valleys:
If you look closely in the above photo, you can even see Mt. Buffalo hovering in the background. Walking back the wind wasn’t hitting me in face as much anymore and I was actually able to enjoy the scenery a little more as well as appreciate how scenic The Razorback Trail really is:
Eventually the summit of Mt. Hotham was looming in front of me and it would only be a short walk later until I was back in my Jeep with the heater turned up as high as possible:
It ended up being a good thing that I got back to my Jeep when I did because if you look closely at the last two pictures you can see the dark clouds moving in. I got off the mountain and back home without any weather issues but on the Monday afterwards the big news story was the amount of snow that fell on the Victorian Alps that weekend, which I had just missed.
Even though I didn’t reach the summit I was glad I didn’t get stuck in a snow storm and really the missed opportunity to summit Mt. Feathertop has only made me that much more eager to attempt to hike up again.
There are many great drives in Australia but few are as good as New South Wales’ Alpine Way. The Alpine Way begins where the Monaro Highway begins at Jindabyne and ends in the tiny hamlet of Khancoban on the far side of the Snowy Mountains:
The route that the Alpine Way is constructed on is actually the old cattle route that stockmen used for decades to drive cattle from Corryong in Victoria and Jindabyne in New South Wales to the lush grazing lands of the Snowy Mountains high country. In the 1950s with the establishment of the Snowy Mountains hydroelectric scheme, a road was built over the old cattle trail in order to gain access to the Snowy Mountain high country in order to build the hydroelectric dams in the area.
Today the road remains and much money is devoted every year to maintaining the road from its harsh environment in order to allow Australian tourists a chance to access the spectacular Snowy Mountains high country. The beginning of the Alpine Way begins at Jindabyne where the highway makes a slow but steady ascent up the side of the Snowy Mountains to the west of town:
At about 18 kilometers into the drive the Alpine Way passes through the Thredbo Ski Resort on the slopes of Australia’s highest peak, Mt. Kosciuszko:
Just passed the Thredbo Ski Resort the highway reaches its highest point of 1,582 meters (5,100 ft) at the summit of Dead Horse Gap:
Dead Horse Gap is the beginning of a number of hiking trails across the Snowy Mountain high country and supposedly many wild brumby horses can be found here outside of the winter months. From the gap you have a great view to the south and into the high country of the Victorian Alps:
From Dead Horse Gap the road begins to descend steeply. As the road switchbacks down the mountain a number of beautiful clear streams are crossed:
The best thing about these streams is that they are usually accompanied with a campground with the most perfect camping spots you can imagine:
What more could you ask for than a beautiful clear stream, scenic snow capped mountain views, a BBQ pit to grill some steaks, and a picnic table for a camp site? Camping doesn’t get much better than this, but the drive down the mountain does as the highway reaches the bottom of the valley and the shores of the mighty Murray River:
The Murray River is the largest river in Australia and travels 2,575 kilometers (1,600 miles) from the heights of the Snowy Mountains out to the shores of the Great Australian Bight near Adelaide. The river serves as an important economic life line for Australian farmers down stream who are depended on the Murray’s waters for irrigation.
Upstream the river is not as large as it is down stream but it is still quite large and much faster flowing because of the number of countless streams draining into it from the Snowy Mountains. The fishing here on the Murray is supposed to be unbelievable though I didn’t have a chance to try it out myself. The river also has it’s own gigantic camping area known as the Tom Groggin Camping Area that would make a great base for any high country adventure that anyone wants to plan. Like I said before, camping does not get much better than what the Snowy Mountains and the mighty Murray has to offer.
Just a few kilometers down the road from the camping area and about a total of 57 kilometers into the drive is the historic cattle station of Tom Groggin:
If you look closely in the picture above you can see the trees that line the Murray River that flows in front of the cattle station. The Murray River at this point serves as the border between New South Wales and Victoria thus putting the Tom Groggin cattle station just on the Victorian side of the border:
If you are wondering, “Tom Groggin” is actually not the name of the ranch owner or anyone else for that matter. It is actually an English butchering of the aboriginal word of “tomarogin” which means water spider. Why the original station owner chose that word to name his ranch after is anyone’s guess, but the aboriginal origins of this station is not what has made it so historic. This station is historic because it is the former real life home of the cowboy, Jack Riley who was made famous by the books and movies of “The Man from Snowy River“.
There is no cattle station in Australia as spectacular as the valley that the Tom Groggin cattle station sits in on the slopes of the Snowy Mountains and it is easy to imagine A Man from Snowy River galloping along the sides of the mountains chasing brumbies. Today the station doesn’t appear to have to many cattle there and in fact the only animals that could be seen grazing in the lush fields were herds of kangaroos:
Just passed the Tom Groggin cattle station the road passes through an area of scorched forest that remained parched from bush fires that occurred two years ago:
It was really amazing to see how close the historic ranch site came to being lost forever by a bush fire. Further down the highway the high peaks of the Snowy Mountains poke in and out of view as the highway crosses Bogong Creek:
Just passed Bogong Creek the brush clears enough to offer a spectacular view of Mt. Kosciuszko:
The Alpine Way from the bottom of the valley eventually begins to climb again up another high ridgeline that offers an occasional scenic view of the Snowy Mountains:
With all the spectacular scenery surrounding you it is important to keep your eyes on the road because the Alpine Way is a highway in name only:
Since it was once a cattle trail the road is very narrow in many areas and skirts many high cliffs that has probably done away with many an inattentive driver over the years. Luckily for drivers the road has a number of scenic lookouts to view the scenery from such as the Scammell’s Ridge Lookout:
This lookout is located about 90 kilometers into the drive and offers a view that should not be missed for any reason. Passed the lookout the road then begins another steep descent into a river gorge that serves as a home to one of the power station involved with the Snowy Hydro Scheme:
Just passed this power station, the Alpine Way eventually ends at the small hamlet of Khancoban which serves as the gateway to the Murray Valley Highway which runs into Victoria. Khancoban lies only 108 kilometers from where the Alpine Way began in Jindabyne, but with all the spectacular scenery taken in along the way it feels about three times as far. However, every kilometer traveled is worth it as this drive is without a doubt one of the best drives in all of Australia.
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