kjp

Yesterday I went up north and did a bit of bushwalking in and around the Glasshouse Mountains.

The Glass House Mountains are located north of Brisbane, just inland from the Sunshine Coast, in the Beerburrum / Beerwah area. They're a series of mountains that jut (quite strikingly) out of the surrounding landscape. They were formed as the lava plugs within volcanic cores: the surrounding country has been weathered way over millions of years. There's information about the mountains on the Environmental Protection Agency / Queensland Parks And Wildlife Service website in the brochure: Glass House Mountains visitor information (481 kB, pdf file). The vegetation ranges from a couple of patches of semi tropical bush, Eucalyptus, and Pine plantation. The whole area is divided into eight national parks, with farming / Pine plantations surrounding. The drive up there is fairly short: closer than any of the surf beaches at the Sunshine Cost / Gold Coast (from Brisbane).

There are several photos of the trip available. For most of the morning the weather wasn't particularly kind for taking good photos: there was a lot of cloud / mist / fog around, giving a fairly strong diffuse light. So it was hard to get the detail of the dark areas / areas in shadows without getting excessive highlights. But I suppose I'm not a pro photographer... It cleared up a bit by the early, so the later images are better.

Anyhow, I first went up Mount Beerburrum (one of the most Southerly of the mountains). The drive from the road to the parking area was fairly steep and rocky. There's a concreted path up to the top (where there is a fire lookout station). It was a short walk - but quite steep at times. There seemed to be a lot of tourists going up this one: it's fairly accessible to the general public.

After Mount Beerburrum I went to the central tourist lookout area. It's fairly central and there's no walking required so there was quite a few people here. Subsequently I went on the Trachyte circuit - a 5.8 km walk that meanders between Mount Tibrogargan and Mount Tibberoowuccum. I went up Tibberoowuccum and a few others (Ngungun, Coochin and Beerburrum) when I was up in Brisbane last year. Trachyte is a type of igneous rock, which along with Rhyolite constitute some of the underlying geology. From the picnic area at the base of Mount Tibrogargan there is a lookout track that goes up the side of that hill, giving some decent views.

There's another group of mountains further north than the Glass House Mountains - heading towards Noosa way. They are more disperse than the Glass House Mountains, but some look like they will be good to go up...