Marions Lookout — Attraction in Cradle Mountain

Provided the clouds have lifted, the view from Marions is stunning – 1200 metres up, and 360 degree views around the park taking in the whole of Dove Lake, Cradle Mountain, Crater Lake and beyond. But this is a tough slog, whichever path you choose. The easiest is the opening section of the Overland Track from Ronny Creek, which takes you across grassland, then into the trees, past a waterfall, Crater Lake, and up on to the saddle. Here, you’re about 1100 metres up, and the views are very good, if you want to head back down from here. To make it to the lookout the last section is a slog up a steep section of rocks, using chains onto the top of the peak and the lookout. This will take you about 2 hours, and most people should be able to manage it, provided they are comfortable with the last chain haul. The Lilla Lake Track from Dove Lake is also quite good – past Lilla Lake, up the staircase to Wombat Pool, then the steep section up to the saddle where you join the Overland Track and the steep clamber up the chain and rocks to the lookout. The 3rd option is the climb up from the Dove Lake Circuit starting just behind the boathouse. This one is not for the faint-hearted as it is very steep, climbing 400 metres in half an hour, much of it up steep rock faces where you need to haul yourself up a chain with both hands. But, it is good for the time poor as it can be done, there and back, in under an hour, or, 2.5 hours as a diversion on the Dove Lake Circuit. But only if the...

While it’s not a super challenging walk to get up here it is a lot of steps in an early section and, as others mention, there is a final section where you need to use a chain to climb up.

We started from Ronny Creek and it did take about two hours to get there. If you wanted to avoid the chains you could turn left before them and take the track back down via Wombat Pool and that way you would still get some good views.

It’s also a reasonably easy walk up to the Kitchen Hut from Marion’s Lookout and from there you can decide if you really want to make the final push for the top of the mountain (which we did not do).

Warning. We foolishly decided it would be better to do a circuit and go back to Dove Lake car park via the Face Track and Hanson’s Peak. The Face track in particular is a scramble with lots of climbing up and down places where it looks like there have been rockfalls and the track is not that clearly marked.

After that you have the joy of going up and over Hansons Peak with the trail either going over bare rock or lots of loose schist which is really hard on your feet. You also have to go down via a section of chain which makes the chain section on the way up to Marion’s Lookout easy.

So unless you are part mountain goat I would strongly recommend returning either the way you came up to Marion’s Peak or going back via...

We took the Overland Track from Ronny Creek, then came down to Dove Lake carpark via Wombat Pools Track to take the bus back to the information centre. A challenging but rewarding hike - it took us about 4 hrs including breaks and lunch at the lookout. The views were great and some people on the track were very friendly and stopped to have a quick chat. Some parts were shady, but most of the track was completely open to the sun, so make sure to bring sunscreen and sun protection. I think an issue we had was that it wasn't exactly clear just how challenging some parts of the track would be, especially Wombat Pools (which was shown as the easier track compared to the Marions Lookout shortcut), where there was a section that required climbing on hands and feet, as well as parts of the Overland track with really steep steps (upwards of 30 cm tall). Its not the worst, but it was just a bit of a shock after the relatively cruisy boardwalk at the start from Ronny Creek, and we were just caught off guard. Maybe a hiking stick would be a good investment...