Tasmania: Cradle Mountain

Sam and I spent one night at Cradle Mountain Lodge, the same place that Cooper, Sam and I stayed five years ago.

Marion's Lookout is the hill on the right.
Cradle Mountain is the double-peaked mountain
in the background on the left.

We drove there on Thursday, arriving late in the day, then got up early and checked out. We wanted to get an early start so we could have as much time hiking as possible. We rode the shuttle bus into Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, to the parking lot at Dove Lake. We briefly considered a hike to the summit of Cradle Mountain, but its description as a difficult, full-day hike scared us off a bit, so we decided on a hike to Marion's Lookout instead. It was billed as being moderately difficult, about a half day trip, with good views from the top.

The views were indeed great. The last bit of the hike involved a bit of a steep scramble, but overall wasn't too difficult.

At Marion's Lookout.

From the viewpoint, a trail headed off across the plateau in the general direction of Cradle Mountain. We still felt good, so decided to at least walk a bit of the trail since it was pretty flat. At the base of Cradle Mountain, the trail started up but not too steeply. We figured we could go partway up at least, where it seemed like we could get some good views. But partway up, the summit seemed so close we figured we might as well go for it.

If we had known we were still an hour and a half away, and that it involved climbing rocks up through a boulder field, we might not have done it. Well, I might not have done it at least.

Hiking across the flats towards Cradle Mountain

So in the end, we hiked/climbed to the top of Cradle Mountain anyway. And tired as I was, I'm so glad we did! This was probably the highlight of the whole Tasmanian trip. Spectacular views off across a seemingly endless series of mountains.

The hike down was perhaps even more difficult, and we were pretty tired and sore by the time we made it down. After that, a drive back to Launceston and home, rather than spending another night on the road.