Grampians Peaks Trail

[ggorgeman]

Easy to find some options that incorporate a little or a lot or virtually none of the GPT. Two loops in that area that I've done fairly recently that incorporate a mix of GPT and some older trails:
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=39374#p430364
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=38798#p425402

Non GPT 'sites' to spend overnight include: Longpoint West (long drop and tank), Longpoint East and 'old' site below Gar summit (both just clearings) - all link to the pre-GPT loop from top of Beehive Falls or from the GPT... your choice. Plenty of good options if you pour over maps a bit.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Parts of the Grampians will be closed for deer shooting during mid Oct. 2025.

[jtmiske]

Hopeless. I have just visited the Grampians for the first time in 10 years & am so cross and disappointed. First we were going to do an overnight hike, then I realised how deliberately difficult PV were making that (no useful maps on website, lots of advertising for expensive & crowded GPT (can you still hike-in camp elsewhere?) & huge lists of road closures but, again, no maps, to be able to easily determine open access points). So we settled on looking for a moderate (~10-15km w up to 500-700m elevation gain) walk to do with the kids. Even that’s not easy. Plenty of walks on my old Grampians map, but Info centre in Halls Gap had nothing other than schematic “maps” of short walks (and loads of advertising material). They directed me to the newsagent, whose only walking maps were the GPT maps. Every carpark we went to was overflowing: unfit people were streaming onto over-engineered tracks without proper clothing or sure footing. So upheaving the environment to make huge tracks, stairways, fences and duckboards so more inexperienced, littering people can get into areas that they would not be able to get to otherwise is conservation? But small single track networks and bush campsites for those who carry rubbish out & know how to prepare and navigate is increasingly not allowed in the name of conservation. National Parks are meant to be for everyone, not just strolling, paying luxury seekers. They are also not meant to be a commercial enterprise. What can we do? Anything? So disappointed. And now I’ve read about the FHAC fiasco. I’m done with Victoria.

[ChrisJHC]

Unfortunately it means that I’ll only go to places like the Grampians in winter as the tourists won’t be there.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

The taming of the Grampians and conversion of large sections of it into a user pays
wheelchair friendly theme park for very well fed people who have never walked to the shops in their lives is almost complete.
Look up The A##*s Ears. The overgrown track is still there. I can give you GPS way points to find the start of it.
It is like the Grampians were thirty years ago. Overfed bogans in rubber thongs won't go near such places.
It no longer exists on any printed matter at the Visitor centre.
Clueless Busloads of tourists are dropped off at Mckenzie Falls. I wasn't game to see what Parks Vic. have done to that major sightseeing spot.
It would be "over engineered" at best.
You can still do the overnight hike to the Fortress and Mt. Thackeray.Go this month while water is still easy to find.
It is nowhere near the GPT and if you go before the end of Oct. then there will be no 4 WD traffic out there either.

[Camminata]

They will introduce donkey rides at a fee for the over fed tourist to haul them up the trails ......

Whats the fiasco with the FHAC im out of the loops here?? not that im interested in walking this tourist route

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Donkeys are not allowed in the Nat. Park. For double the fee you might be able to be carried up on a palanquin
or even lying supine on a stretcher by two fit hikers who are low on money.

[CraigVIC]

I find it hard to be upset watching people use their long weekend to take on the Pinnacle, a walk for many of them that seems to be the longest single walk they have ever undertaken and a great achievement. I also find it hard to get mad at people who wish to go on a long walk along the gpt, following and uncomplicated track and using the beginner friendly campsite facilities. But what is frustrating is the narrowing of options, the exclusion of other types of walkers, and the over the top demonizing of traditional bushwalkers. Because, whatever management infrastructure is put in place, there is absolutely no environmental argument that supports the exponential increase of tourism in the Grampians. It will damage the Grampians significantly. That doesn't mean it shouldn't be done but it does make the hand ringing over off track walking and dispersed camping stupid.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Expect all the other options away from the Wonderland day walks and The GPT to be given very low priority in funding and management from
now on.
My suggestion is to go and walk in the SW Grampians.( Victoria Range).
Nobody is going to notice if you happen to walk off track or camp in the middle of nowhere with zero facilities.
In fact so few people would be inclined to do that , that the damage to environment would be far less than the hordes of user pays GPT trekkers
coming through the same route 7 days a week, all year round( ka ching !$$!).
@$52.00 per night on the GPT , it is far from creating equal access to all would be walkers.
Pay or push off is not the way bushwalking should be on public land in a Nat. Park.
Also closing off large swathes of rock climbing terrain in the Grampians N.P.
is also total bollocks IMHO.

[CraigVIC]

Prepare for worse, the state government has been teasing an announcement about 'free camping' in summer. Whatever that means it's sure to put more pressure on squeezing money out of the high fee walks like the gpt and the ones in development

[peregrinator]

. . . Also closing off large swathes of rock climbing terrain in the Grampians N.P. is also total bollocks IMHO.

Please try to learn why some areas (certainly not "large swathes"), are being closed. Start here:

https://www.parks.vic.gov.au/places-to- ... n-gariwerd

[CraigVIC]

It's my understanding that the Vic Range is the area that they are most concerned about stopping off track walking. Personally, I haven't been back having attempted and failed to get permission.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Privatization of the Grampians in incremental steps is taking place before our eyes.
Thankfully the AAWT will never be subject to this nonsense.... or will it?
:-0

[Camminata]

Privatization of the Grampians in incremental steps is taking place before our eyes.
Thankfully the AAWT will never be subject to this nonsense.... or will it?
:-0

Probably will get fancy huts and shelters like the Bib and Heysen , board walks , guided tours by professional "walkers" , billboards of this iconic walk plastered all over the country and cities , buses , trams...........$$$$$$$$$.

[jtmiske]

Thanks paidal_chalne_vala; I was silly to not have asked advice *before* we went. Maybe we'll get back in the next year or two for the Fortress or Mt Thackeray. I put too much faith in the visitor's centre. Really dumb on my part as I did have some inkling of what was going on in the Grampians.

CraigVIC, you are right. I didn't make it clear in my recent post, but YES, it is the "narrowing of options" that is so frustrating. It is, on some level, great that people are out and about, but there needs to be varying levels of experience offered, not just a funnelling of all through the same low intensity, luxury style routes like National Parks are a museum in Rome. The number of people such luxury encourages is a complicating factor, like others have said, but there are ways to manage that if it is actually desired to not just make money. Sorry to hear about your experience with the Vic range :\. Eh. There was a great article a few months ago in Wilderness Mag in NZ about gradated wilderness experiences and how the wilder ones are being lost/stamped out. And they're doing better than us over there. Intensely frustrating. It seems the options here are increasingly extreme ends of a spectrum: either completely off track (where you're still allowed to) or a paved road. The former is fine sometimes, but not always and not with kids. A little single track doesn't take guzzle too many resources or conservation values so I wish they were more prevalent. I'm scared about other parks (Budawangs, for example) going the same way.

Camminata, there's a thread on here about the FHAC which I happened to come across when I logged in to post. Search for it if you can bear it.

[paidal_chalne_vala]

Since the Vic. state Govt. are basically broke the FHAC will be put on the back burner for a while IMHO.
Look how long it is taking to get the Sealers' Cove board walk at The Prom back up and functioning!.
The AAWT is a 750 km walk through some wild and tough terrain.
The " do it once and brag about it for the rest of their lives crowd"
do not have the time , skills, fitness or inclination to walk a
seven day section of the AAWT as it is now.
Yes BTAC are clearing more of that route but some of it requires proper navigation skills
through type 2 and type 3 fun areas.

The A****s Ears walk in the Northern Grampians is still there if you look for it and it is
no longer on any maps or printed matter that the Nat. Park. visitor centre publish and hand out to the public.
In fact the visitor's centre in Halls Gap are now there to push the "GPT product " and not much else.
Keep your old spatial vision maps of the Grampians.
These old NON GPT walking routes will
become totally overgrown eventually but you can find them if you look.
Big Kev walked the old Trooper's creek to Mt. Difficult/Gar route and he found his way okay.He did a trip report somewhere.
That was a great walk 10-15 years ago but now it " doesn't exist" and is not maintained at all.