Flinders Peak hiking with kids

The great outdoors

Flinders Peak hiking with Kids

Sometimes the best adventures are right under your nose. Scott and I have driven past Flinders Peak for years, admiring the dominant peak with its dramatic cliffs until we finally decided to schedule it in as our next family adventure.

The hike is rated as a Class Five (Difficult) walking trail, and our three boys aged 9, 11 and 12 love a good hard hike and were up for the challenge.

What to bring

We headed off from Flinders Plum Picnic Area and we soon realised that we’d left an essential item in the car. Yep, we had our water, hats and snacks but we didn’t have the packet of lollies that we’d promised the boys for a celebratory snack at the summit. Disaster! Before hiking up Flinders Peak, don’t forget to:

– Allow 3-6 hours
– Take plenty of water and snacks
– Hiking boots or trail running shoes are recommended
– Pack your lollies for the summit

Once retrieved and safely in our day pack, we were off.

The hike itself

Despite being so close to Ipswich, Flinders Peak is what we would call “a decent hike”, with some steep challenging sections, boulder hopping and rock scrambling. It doesn’t take too long to work out that you really are heading uphill when the muscles in your legs start burning! After about five or ten minutes, we reached an area with a large rock cliff feature with a lookout. (There are cliffs here and throughout the hike, so supervision of children is required).

Continuing on, the track is easy to follow, steep in sections and sometimes loose and rocky underfoot. As we gained altitude, we progressed through a variety of landscapes and each time I looked up there seemed to be something new to look at in the vista. This makes the hike really interesting and is a nice reward for all the calories being burnt.

One section of the hike had a ton of big boulders that looked like they have been dumped along the ridge. Boulder-hopping along these, the boys were in their element with their agile feet, they were having a ball. Before we reached the summit, the track drops down into a col and we worked our way around to the southern side below the peak. As soon as we stepped into the shadows, we could feel the temperature drop and feel the moisture in the air around us.

On top

Here there’s a short section of more serious rock scrambling and climbing, where the boys once again put us to shame with the youthful enthusiasm and natural climbing ability that kids seem to have. Cadel says this was his favourite part of the hike. Up onto the top and – wowsers – the views made it all worth the effort! Photo time! The views are 360 and gave us a different perspective of this amazing part of the world that we call home.

Zach thought it was really interesting to see the buildings with the solar panels that are on the top. When we have driven past the mountain on Boonah-Ipswich Road, he has wondered about the structures on top of the mountain. Wonder no more, boy – now you have seen it up close. And, gee, those lollies sure tasted good!

The way down

With the help of gravity, the return trip down the mountain was a bit quicker, but we had to take care in the sections with loose rocks – no twisted ankles, thankfully! Keeping to the ridge, we made sure we didn’t take any detours on the way back down. The highlights of Flinders Peak for us were the boulder-hopping, scrambling and views. If you are looking for a good challenging hike not far from Ipswich and Brisbane, this mountain is definitely has a “remote” feeling to it which really adds to the adventure!