Cathedral Range State Park – Southern Circuit

The Cathedral Range State Park is about a two hour drive from Melbourne, through Healesville and up and over the Yarra Ranges. It’s a nice spot to get out of the city to and into for a decent day walk.

There are two circuit walks – a northern and southern – that involve walking up onto the range’s ridgeline, along the ridge, and then back down and back to your start point.

I recently did the southern circuit, having done the northern circuit a long time ago.

I started the southern circuit from Cooks Mill campsite. It had been a wet night and morning and when I parked the car there were a few damp-looking campers walking around.

A damp start to the walk

The track gets a bit rocky on the ridge

On the ridge

Valley view

More valley views

Cellar door stop

I did the circuit counter-clockwise, headed up St Bernards Track onto the range. It was easy to follow and not too steep or technical. Once on the ridge the track was a bit rockier and in places you walked along rock shelves. The Razorback Track steadily climbed to Sugarloaf Peak, with lots of spots to stop and check out the views of the valleys below.

The way back down was steep and tricky on rock that involved a bit of bum sliding. The rain had also made it a bit slick and slippery.

At Sugarloaf Saddle there’s a nice picnic shelter to stop at for lunch. There you pick up the Messmate Track back to the start of the walk at Cooks Mill. The track back was mostly gentle downhill through messmate forest. Not terribly exciting.

The circuit is about 10.5km long and took about five hours to do. It was relatively easy (for experienced and fit walkers).

On the way home there was time to taste some wine at Boat O’Craigo’s cellar door on the edge of Healesville. Nice people, nice spot. Treated myself to a bottle of shiraz to take home. A pleasant day all round.