- Cradle Mountain is located in the Central Highlands region of Tasmania. It is situated at the northern end of the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, which is part of the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area.
- Travelling from Hobart most people head north through the Midlands (on the Midland Highway) then west towards Sheffield, which is backed by the beautiful Mt Roland. With improvements to the Highland Lakes Road it now takes about the same amount to time to go via the Central Highlands rather than the Midlands. We drove one way up and the other way back making it a nice, round trip.
- On the way to Cradle Mountain we broke our journey at Waddamana. It’s the site of Tasmania’s first hydro-electric power station which is now a museum. It proved to be a fun place for taking photographs.
- Arrived at Cradle Mountain late afternoon. It was wet and misty, very atmospheric.
- The infrastructure at Cradle Mountain National Park has been significantly upgraded since the last time we visited. We drove a short distance from our hotel to the very flash visitors’ centre. From here there are regular shuttle buses to Dove Lake.
- We walked to Glacier Rock on the eastern side of Dove Lake, then back to the Boatshed on the western side.
- From there we took the track to Ronny Creek, crossing buttongrass plains and viewing pandani groves. At the end of the path we picked up a shuttle bus back to the visitors’ centre.
- Cradle Mountain is a precious place, and we came away feeling that the pressures of human visitation are being well-managed.