Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park — Attraction in Cradle Mountain

This is a craggy mountain peak within the dedicated Cradle Mountain National Park and probably one of Tasmania's most popular hiking destinations for residents and tourists alike. You can stay at lodges, hotels and a large holiday park just outside for overnight and multi-day visits or do a day trip fairly comfortable from as far away as Launceston.

There are a good number of trails within the park, including all the way up to Cradle Mountain summit. We completed the Marion's Lookout walk placing you at a 1200 metre summited area with 360 degree views of the national park including Cradle Mountain and several gorgeous lakes carved into the area mountains by receding glaciers many moons ago.

During our April visit, we were graced with the presence of numerous Fagus trees displaying their autumn colours as well. Note, there is a national park shuttle for accessing the interior of the Park. Fee is AUD$15 per adult (72 hours unlimited use), pay at the Visitor Centre desk along with your park entry fees. We stayed at Cradle Mountain for 2 nights and found this a fair amount of time to explore the various areas of the park accessible through the main Visitor Centre entry road. Would have wanted to add 1+ more days to do another big...

Lake Saint Clare is a wonderful place, we only had a few hours here and so glad we made the effort to stop. The information centre is one of the best in Tassie, on par with Mount Field National Park Information centre, great staff who are very helpful, all the facilities you want, clean toilets. My wife and I are in our fifties and were keen to do a walk, the staff member advised us of a few options and told us about a new walk that has opened up and not on the maps yet. The walk goes from the information centre to the Pump Station at pump house point. What attracted us to this walk was that it hugged the water line the entire way. The only draw back is that you go up and back on the same trail, so if you are looking for a loop walk this one may not be for you. We loved this walk, and it is well marked and constructed with some “beach” walking. There is also some raise board walks where there is water ways. It was 7.6klm return, easy walking. Lots of evidence of womabts and the like, but alas we did not see any on this day. Take a hat, even if it looks overcast, we had a great time and got some...

Track difficulty: Dove Lake Circuit is moderate in my opinion. It's certainly flatter than the Overland track, but there are sections of the lake that do involve elevation. It takes 1-2 hrs to complete the track depending on fitness and how many breaks you take. Gorgeous view! Overland Circuit is difficult! Given that I was only in the area for one day, I only completed one section of the track. There are very steep areas especially on the way to Marion's Lookout.

Access: To get to the hiking zones, you have to park your car in the Visitor Centre. From there, you have to purchase a Park Pass. Once you have that, you wait for the shuttle bus that takes you to the start of the tracks - e.g. Dove Lake Circuit / Overland Track/ etc. Once you're done with your hike, you wait for the shuttle bus that takes you back to the visitor centre. If you have concession or senior card, be sure to bring that along for cheaper tickets.

Experience: It's a great work out and plenty of beautiful sights to admire along the way....