Walk around St Helens area??

[ObtuseAngler]

Hi Guys,

We are heading to St Helens this weekend and going down early friday morning to try and get a walk in. Does anyone know of any nice day walks in the area or on the way? (leaving from Launceston)

Cheers

OA

[ILUVSWTAS]

St Patricks Head near St Marys is one of the greatest short walks i've done!

[stu]

Agree with SW, St Pats Head is a fantastic little walk & fantastic views, great track.
I have done it 3 times & would do it again any day of the week
(& i'm an OCD peak bagger who usually hates repeating peaks).
It's also pretty quick, like 1.5 hours return incl. lunch on top.

[Joe]

Depends which way you go. Blue Teir is fantastic if you come down via scottsdale rather than taking fingal/avoca route. The big tree at Blue tier is speccy as, or if you want something less adventurous then the formed walks around the tier reserve are all great. Mt Poimena has to be one of the better bang for bucks mountains around with a short climb rewarding great views. Paddys head as mentioned is awesome, my fav tassie mountain I would almost say. Leda falls are heap of fun this time of year if weather is fine. You wade up creek to get to them and there is a great swimming hole above in the small gorge.
Finally the tracks around the Skeleton Rock area at binalong are great, can do as short or long a walk as you like here. THe whole headland is covered in tracks to interesting stuffs.

When I was living down there we regularly walked the dogs along the towns walking track which is a really nice evening stroll.
If you want any more details on a specific walk pm me. A couple of them are ones that I wouldnt publish on here.

[Chris]

Yes, Blue Tier is great; more info here: http://www.bluetier.org/tourism.htm
Only proviso: Forestry Tas have "upgraded" some of the tracks recently to encourage mountain bike riders.
Not sure what impact this has had.

Hall's Falls is another lovely short walk worth checking out:
http://www.netasmania.com.au/online/db/20020215-0.html

For variety, Skeleton Rock is an easy but very scenic coastal walk, but walking north on the beach and rocks from Cosy Corner North campground (on The Gardens road) is superb: magnificent big lichen-covered rocks, views of Sloop Rock, rock-pools to swim in (tide permitting) etc, though worth remembering that a rock fisherman drowned there a year or so ago.

[johnw]

Yep, what they all said . We stayed in St Helens for 4 or 5 days last August during the torrential downpours but managed to get a few short walks in. I liked the Blue Tier. We walked the Wellington Creek Circuit, on a freezing windy day in the rain, and it was still enjoyable. I can't comment on the Forestry upgrades as it looks like that was probably done before our trip. I didn't notice any unusual impacts though - that area was used for mining so a lot of the walking is on old disused trails. There are signs of previous mining activity, such as erosion and old stuff lying around. We also did the 10 minute doddle Goblin loop, and if the weather had improved would probably have walked one or two more tracks around there, like the Mt Poimena one that Joe suggested. I agree with Halls Falls which we also walked in a downpour, along with nearby St Columba Falls (in the rain - you can see a bit of a theme with these walks , but the waterfalls were stunning). Binalong Bay Coast track is nice, although we only did the first section of it, then drove up to The Gardens for a very short walk around there. Another one worth a look is Peron Dunes, but it's used by 4WDs so best try and pick a time when they're less likely to be around. We went there around sunset and had the place to ourselves. It looks to me like something that doesn't belong in Tasmania, more like the Sahara Desert.

[Rick]

Would St Patricks Head be suitable for a dog (on a lead of course...I'm not one of those!)?

[ollster]

Would St Patricks Head be suitable for a dog (on a lead of course...I'm not one of those!)?

All but the top few minutes... from memory there is a small scramble through some boulders and a slab at the top. Depends on how much "go" your dog has!

[Joe]

There is a ladder too....most (not all) dogs will struggle on the ladder.

[tazz]

The Mt Micheal circuit is another good walk on the Blue tier And Mc Goughs lookout walk if you have a spare afternoon.

[Rick]

I'm not sure my girl could handle a ladder. Thanks for the info!

[Joe]

we took our dog up and just tied her at the small plateau before the summit. There are plenty of places to do that and the summit is within sight an only about 5 mins to complete.

[Neil Grose]

Mt Cameron is a great place for pretty easy cross country walks. The track to Cube Rock is steep in parts but the views are excellent, tackle this one from South Mt Cameron near Little Blue Lake, while the summit of Mt Cameron is awesome for a day walk, although you will need to park at the boom gate and walk 2k's of gravel road past the Scottsdale High School Outdoor Ed centre before hitting the track proper. This is accessed from the Old Port Road from the Waterhouse Road.
The views over the ocean and surrounding areas are pretty good.
It is about an hour drive from St Helens, so might be outside your range.
God luck
Neil.