Helena Pipehead Walk — Attraction in Gooseberry Hill

See my secret tip on where to park at the end of my post. Parking at the start of the hike has been blocked by council. You must park up at the school and walk down. This adds a few more km walking on a road to get to your hike and then again walking uphill to return to your car, so a 7km hike becomes 10km. It’s a very hilly hike with loose gravel and not a lot of shade trees, so this is a hike for people who want a vigorous workout. My secret tip is to park at the start of the Rocky Pools car park (since if you park near Helena River you still need to walk 1.5km to get to the trail, and if you park at Rocky Pool car park then it’s not much more but far flatter and shadier). There is plenty of free and shaded parking. You can walk straight ahead and once you pass the rocky pools, about 10 minutes or so later, you will cross a small footbridge and halfway up the hill it joins the Helena River walk. No signage so use AllTrails app. The benefit of this is that there is far more shade, more scenery and easier parking. Once you hit the Helena River trail you can do the full 7km loop (making your total hike about...

Really great walking trail. My first time here on Monday and loved it. Some good steep bits and nice views between all the gorgeous bushland. So peaceful with the only sounds being my footsteps, a light wind in the leaves and birds chirping.

The regular trail took me about an hour at my regular speed ~5.5kph so I'll try a few diversions next time to stretch it out a little more.

I did the trail anticlockwise for no particular reason and passed three couples doing it clockwise. I figure that might be because there's a gradual incline and steeper decline that way though I enjoyed the steep climb at the start finishing with the gentle decline down to the river near the end. Either way, it's a...

💐Advantages: -There are purple flowers on the front road, which is very beautiful. -There are birds singing on the road. -This is a circular section of the route that follows Google Maps to rocky pool, where you can play with water and enjoy some food, and then comes back from another route to see the factory of Helena river.

🥀Cons: -The whole route is basically gravel, which is a bit difficult to follow. -Pets...