I’d been meaning to hike up to Tidbinbilla Mountain ever since my housemate Zak and I hiked up from Bendora Dam Rd three years ago and stumbled across a beautiful view, looking up the valley all the way up to Tidbinbilla Mountain and The Pimple. Its an image which remains vivid in my memory, and one which now hangs in the UC Hospital (at a length of over 2 meters!)
When a friend of mine said he’d hiked up to Tidbinbilla Mountain recently, it gave me the impetus to plan my own trip. I convinced a few friends to join me and off we went one Saturday morning.
The start of the track off the Lyrebird Trail.
The easiest access to Tidbinbilla Mountain (not to be confused with Tidbinbilla Peak) is from Tidbinbilla Mountain Creek carpark, hiking up a ridge to the west of the carpark. If you’re interested in details of our route, there is a very nice blog post (not mine) including a GPX track log here.
Because the gates close at 6 pm in winter, we left nice and early and were walking by 8 am. The track upwards veers off from the Lyrebird Trail - its not super obvious but if you’re looking for it you can see it. The track itself is pretty good up to Tidbinbilla Mountain - not wide but pretty clear.
Pretty much immediately it becomes a hard slog uphill. The main climb goes from 980 m to 1420 m in pretty quick order, after which it levels out a bit before the final ascent to Tidbinbilla Mountain at 1615 m. I was so keen for this hike that I think I actually enjoyed the leg-burning ascent, and I think we did it pretty quickly.
A quick pause for breath.
There are two benches about half way up the main climb which offer nice views and the chance to get that Instagram photo.
The Instagram chair.
The photographer’s chair.
Disappearing amongst the tall bushes!
Hiking upwards! It looks steep because it really was steep.
Now there is some real lush green!
Not quite sure what this is, but there was plenty of it at the summit.
The view from Tidbinbilla Mountain looking south.
The view from Tidbinbilla Mountain looking south towards Corin Dam.
Morning coffee break atop Tidbinbilla Mountain. It was pretty cold when we stopped moving!
After a short break at the summit for photos, hot coffee and delicious brownie, we headed down off the mountain and followed the ridge northwards. Here there isn’t a track, but for the first part it was pretty easy going. At the saddle we veered north-west towards The Pimple and immediately ran into thick scrub. Our pace slowed to a crawl and it probably took us most of an hour to cover the kilometre or so to The Pimple.
Gorgeous sub-alpine snow gum woodland on the descent from Tidbinbilla Mountain heading north.
The final ascent up The Pimple. It looks more treacherous in this photo than it actually is, but you’d want to be comfortable rock climbing!
The approach to The Pimple is super fun. It looks a bit imposing at the base, but the climb up the rock isn’t too arduous and I thought it was pretty fun. You do have to be comfortable navigating up rocky areas though!
Around the base of The Pimple we came across these incredibly beautiful gums. They had smooth bark and gorgeous salmon-gold-khaki colours. I didn’t know at the time, but apparently they are Eucalyptus glaucescens (Tingiringi gum) which is a mountain species from southern NSW and eastern VIC and rare in the ACT. I just couldn’t get enough of them, even more so because of the beautiful area they were in.
Eucalyptus glaucescens at the base of The Pimple.
Eucalyptus glaucescens bark detail.
Eucalyptus glaucescens bark detail.
The view from The Pimple itself is incredible. At 1462 m its lower than Tidbinbilla Mountain but in many ways is a more amazing view as you are surrounded by ridges on both sides, with the valley right in front of you. It kind of juts out above the ridge in such a way that you feel like you’re inside the valley. It’s my new favourite vista in the ACT - the photos don’t really do it justice.
It was also really cool to see the same valley from three years ago, except this time from The Pimple looking down to the north.
The view from The Pimple looking north.
The view from 2017 looking up towards The Pimple (centre right) and Tidbinbilla Mountain (covered in cloud). Pardon the difference in processing styles!
The view from The Pimple looking north, with Mt Coree somewhere on the left and Canberra somewhere to the right. The viewpoint that Zak and I reached in 2017 would have been at one of the rock faces visible on the left.
Its a very rocky landscape, with lots of areas of rock slides.
After lunch and numerous photos, we started our hike back the way we came. The bush-bashing up to the saddle was worse than on the way down, as its harder to bush-bash uphill than it is downhill, and because we were more tired. It was a fair effort to make it through that scrub, so if you decide to give it a go, consider yourself warned!
One of Claire’s photos of us struggling through thick scrub.
After we reached the saddle it cleared out a lot more, and the hike back down from Tidbinbilla Mountain was pretty easy going albeit hard on the knees and feet. We made it back to the cars not long after 5 pm, making for a very rewarding and soul-nourishing day out. How lucky we are to live next door to Namadgi!
One last image of the Eucalyptus glaucescens bark.