Girraween Bush Campsites

[Champion_Munch]

Hi all,

Planning on heading out to Girraween in June for a 3-day circuit, hoping to camp at bush sites away from the hordes at the main camping areas (I'm sure it will be packed over the long weekend). What are the nicest bush campsites to stay at? I have a vague plan of heading out from the information centre past Mt Norman, camping at South Bald Rock site, bagging a few peaks in the eastern section and spending the second night at Underground Creek, before heading back. I've read that Twin Peaks has an awesome campsite but that there is not much space (there will be 2-3 small tents between us) so not sure if we would be pushing it to stay there instead of Underground Creek. Thoughts?

Cheers,
Munch

[weeds]

Will be watching with interest..........

[cams]

Twin Peaks site is awesome. If you have free standing tents and the tents have bases solid enough (or ground sheets) to set up on the granite you can set up anywhere. If they need pegs to go in, then yeah. Maybe 2 x 2 person tents would squeeze in.

Girra is the sort of place where you can kind of just walk until you find a good spot. Underground creek is nice, but there would be a chance of running into more people there. Although, I'm not sure the park will be as busy as you think in June. Hope you've got some warm stuff.

[phan_TOM]

G'day munch, it's an awesome place and a great time of year for a trip out there.

I agree with Cam, there's plenty of nice spots off the beaten track if you just follow your nose. Maybe find some features you want to check out on your map and aim to camp nearby or maybe camp somewhere with easy access to a view for sunrise and sunset - which can be pretty spectacular over all those domes.

I think there's 7 official bush campsites (I can send you the grid refs if you want) but after seeing them all and staying at a couple I would only really recommend the Sth Bald Rock and Underground Creek sites. The others are mainly small cleared areas in the bush or on the side of the track and not particularly interesting. Just don't leave it too late in the day as I've done a couple of times and find yourself setting up camp in the dark in dense scrub

The south bald rock site is really nice. You camp by dingo swamp at the base of some big slabs which are great for exploring, and provide nice easy access for an elevated sunrise/sunset. There is also a small creek nearby which is handy as water can be an issue out there. Underground Creek is a fun place to explore too and it's nice and close to the Aztec Temple or the ridge walk down to Twin Peaks.

The twin peaks spot is cool but the last two times I've been there I found rubbish strewn around, used toilet paper and an ugly scar from someone's camp fire blazed onto the rock. It made it pretty unappealing and I continued on to somewhere else. That kind of thing makes me wish that it was still a secret as it seems to be attracting the wrong kind of people...

But seriously there are a lot of excellent places to set up a tent and I'd recommend maybe having a look at mallee ridge or wallangara ridge too, and wake up to an epic sunrise down the valley of the winds

[Champion_Munch]

Cheers cams and phantom. That's really disheartening RE:the used rubbish on twin peaks, would have thought anyone keen to camp out of the way like that would have a bit more concern for the bush...

The two big campgrounds at Girraween are fully booked out (200+ people!) so I suspect the main tracks will be crawling with walkers, though I imagine we'll be less likely to see people in the eastern section.

What's the track like heading out to Mallee Ridge/Wallangara Ridge? I never even knew these places existed until we picked up the HEMA map. I guess the only issue with camping around there would be that you might have to lug water for quite a distance, depending on how reliable the creeks are in that section. Also what's the walking like over this ridge you described from Aztec temple to Twin peaks? None of us have much experience in off-track walking... but that doesn't mean we can't give it a go if it's not too rough.

[phan_TOM]

What's the track like heading out to Mallee Ridge/Wallangara Ridge?

There's no real tracks that I know of around Mallee or Wallangarra Ridges but they are easy to get to and finding your way around is fairly straight forward. To get to Wallangarra Ridge take the graded track to Turtle Rock which sits near the northern end of the ridge. Mallee ridge runs southward from Mt Norman and there are a couple of different ways to get there, either via the track from the visitor centre, off track from underground creek via aztec temple and twin peaks or by following the 4WD track that's near underground creek and heads to the Mt Norman day use area.

Also what's the walking like over this ridge you described from Aztec temple to Twin peaks?

there's no direct track to Aztec Temple or twin peaks either but both are easy to find and quite easy going, the scrub is light and if you stay high it's really nice walking. There are a few big rocky outcrops and obstacles that need to be skirted around but nothing to worry about. If you look at your map you will notice that the ridge curves slightly to the left so just make sure you keep heading that way or you will end up down in some thick scrub in the valley between Mt Norman and Twin Peaks.

Easy going if you stay high

girraween.jpg (222.54 KiB) Viewed 10011 times

The best thing about Girraween is that it's small and feature packed so that you can climb onto any rock with a view and with map in hand figure out where you are. A 4wd track or graded track is never too far either

[Champion_Munch]

Hey all, thanks for the tips and comments - this is terribly late but I've only just gotten around to going through all the photos. We ended up doing Mt Norman as a day trip, then did a circuit through the service trails to South Bald Rock and Underground Creek campsites. Both spots were superb! Particularly enjoyed the Aztec Temple area that we explored at sunset. More pics on my blog.