I recently visited Cradle Mountain with a couple of friends and hiked to Scott Kilvert Hut and back as a day walk. It was really enjoyable to see this part of Cradle Mountain National Park, as although I visit the park every year, I’d never done this bushwalk before. My description of the walk is below and I hope it inspires you to check out this part of Cradle Mountain National Park if you’re visiting the area.
Getting There and Accommodation
We drove up to Cradle Mountain from Hobart the day before the hike in early August, which is late winter in Tasmania. The drive between Hobart and Cradle Mountain National Park is about 4.5 hours.
Along the way, we stopped at Campbell Town for the amazing chicken and leek sausage rolls at Zeps Cafe and at Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm for their delicious signature chocolate coated raspberries and a hot drink. Close to the National Park, we stayed at Discovery Parks in a cabin. The set-up of the cabin, with a central room and a bedroom either side, was really convenient for us, as we had a group of three adults and one toddler. However, the two bedrooms were very cold unless the door to the central room was kept open and the heater left on, which really dried the space out overnight.
The next morning we got the shuttle bus from the Parks and Wildlife information centre into the Dove Lake Carpark. From the Dove Lake Carpark, we started the hike at around 10.30 am.
The Bushwalking Route
The route planned for the day had some flexibility – the itinerary included walking up Hansons Peak to Twisted Lakes and Artists Pool and then, depending on time and how we were feeling, either:
- Walking across the face track and then dipping down via Lake Wilks onto the Dove Lake Circuit track, or;
- Walking to Scott Kilvert Hut, walking around the back of Cradle Mountain to Kitchen Hut, and then walking down to Lake Wilks and the Dove Lake Circuit before returning to the carpark.
There was also the option we could just walk up to Twisted Lakes and back, or part of the way along any version of the route and back. As we were hiking in the middle of Tasmanian winter, we knew the weather could change at any time and we would need to allow for flexibility.
Climbing Hansons Peak
Leaving Dove Lake Carpark, we stopped about five minutes into the hike to take in the view of Cradle Mountain from Glacier Rock. We also bid farewell to one friend and her toddler here, as he was showing us in no uncertain terms that he was not feeling like a bushwalk. My other friend and I left the Dove Lake Circuit Walk at the fork to Hansons Peak and headed steadily uphill over the rocky trail. It was a long time since I had done much bushwalking and I was slow going up the slope.
After about twenty minutes or so, we reached the saddle of the ridge between Mount Campbell and Hansons Peak. The views in both directions from the saddle of the ridge are gorgeous. I had only been to this point once before, with my father, and on that day the conditions had been too icy, windy and unpredictable to attempt to reach the summit of Hansons Peak so we had instead walked down to Lake Hanson.
Luckily for my friend and I, we were walking in perfect winter conditions and the skies were clear, so we made our way up the track to the summit. The path was very steep and had chains affixed into the rocks to help people haul themselves up the mountainside. It definitely got my heart rate going. With the steep incline and the chains, it felt similar to walking up the much busier track up Marion’s Lookout on the other side of Dove Lake.
We caught our breath at the top of Hansons Peak and took in the spectacular view. By this stage we had been walking for about forty minutes.
Twisted Lakes
From the Hansons Peak summit we made our way onwards to Twisted Lakes. I was so excited to see this area as I had heard so many good things but never made it there in person. It was only a short downhill walk from Hansons Peak to arrive at the lakes and when we got there, the conditions were clear and still, with the small lakes and tarns casting reflections of the surrounding rocks, mountains and trees. The tops of the peaks around us were iced with snow. We stopped here for a while, had a snack by a lake and chatted with a photographer who was taking photos of the scenery.
Walking below the south face of Cradle Mountain
After Twisted Lakes we walked towards Cradle Mountain and took the turn off to Lake Rodway. This meant that we got to walk right up close to Little Horn and then beneath the southern side Cradle Mountain. This side of Cradle Mountain is comparatively rarely seen and photographed, compared to Cradle Mountain’s northern face, which sits above Dove Lake. With snow on its peaks and waterfalls of snow melt streaming down its sides that glistened in the early afternoon sun, the southern face of Cradle Mountain was absolutely stunning. With no other walkers along the Lake Rodway track, we had it all to ourselves. A highlight was the views up towards Cradle Mountain and Little Horn from Flynn’s Tarn.
We also walked past Artist’s Pool, but this was surprisingly underwhelming. However, the forested part of the track before Artist’s Pool was really pretty and fagus leaves were scattered all over the forest floor. We walked downhill into the valley towards Lake Rodway, following the line of a creek towards the lake. From Lake Rodway, the walk down to Scott Kilvert’s Hut took a little over one hour.
Scott Kilverts Hut and Lake Rodway
Scott Kilverts Hut is a cute, blue A-Frame two storey hut that sits next to Lake Rodway in a deep valley behind Cradle Mountain. When we visited, it was clean, well-maintained and empty. The ground floor of the hut has a fireplace and tables for dining and the second storey is a sleeping platform. I had my lunch quickly by the lake while my friend relaxed in the hut. We realised that we didn’t have time to dawdle as it was already 2pm and the last bus would come at 4pm, so we only had two hours to get back to Dove Lake Carpark and our walk to the hut had taken over three hours. We also realised that we weren’t going to have time to make it around the back of Cradle Mountain to Kitchen Hut, so we would be retracing our steps.
The Way Back
We hotfooted our way back to the Dove Lake Carpark and made it in less than two hours, which was a pretty good effort if I do say so myself! This meant that we were able to get the shuttle bus back to the Visitor Centre. After our big walk, we treated ourselves to chicken parmigianas at Cradle Mountain Lodge Tavern before an early night’s sleep.
I’d love to go back at stay at Scott Kilvert Hut for a two-night stay and visit Barn Bluff – that trip will be for another time. However, I really enjoyed getting to climb Hansons Peak, see Twisted Lakes, the ‘back’ of Cradle Mountain, Scott Kilvert Hut and Lake Rodway all on this great and satisfying day walk.
So lucky with the weather! Stunning photos.