After hearing so much about it, I finally had the opportunity to visit Cradle Mountain National Park in Tasmania. As this was my first time in Tasmania, I made a point of setting aside 4 days to explore the National Park. I was not disappointed.
Usually, I’m not a fan of the short walks or the ‘child-friendly’ walks in National Parks and avoid them like the plague. However, as Ms P was pregnant, I thought a gentle walk was in order. Surprisingly, ‘The Enchanted Forest’ was extremely enjoyable and idyllic, and well deserving of its title as one of Tasmania’s 60 great short walks.
Paralleling the track is a crystal stream that burbles along and adds to the serenity of the setting – see below.
The King Billy pines pictured below are not as famous as the Huon pine but can reach almost the same age (I think).
Ms P granted me a leave pass on the second day to explore the park on my own. I used this time to hike up to Marion’s Lookout, which is about a 3-5 hour return walk from the Ronny Creek carpark. The walk up to the lookout is relatively gentle until the steep climb at the end, passing through alpine meadows and waterfalls and then up to Cradle Mountain plateau. Highly recommended walk on a nice day.
Below is a photo from Marion’s Lookout in the later afternoon light. 
I noticed some flowers were in bloom so included those in the shot to add some interest. You will note Dove Lake in the mid-ground.
I still had plenty of energy left after making it up to the lookout, so continued up and behind the lookout to do more of the Overland Track. This is worth doing, as the scenery really does start to change after the lookout, with fields of buttongrass and alpine flowers popping up. The route to the Cradle Mountain summit is pictured up and to the left below.
I recommend you stay close to the Park entrance if possible, as this makes it easy to pop down for a couple of hours if the weather is good. Also, it is easy to go back to your accommodation and wait out the midday heat (and crowds) if you are close by. We were there in the height of summer, so this was particularly important. We stayed at Cradle Mountain Highlanders, which is just outside the park entrance. The cabins are neat and tidy and I would recommend staying there.
With the photo below, we decided to pop down to Dove Lake for sunset and stopped at Ronny Creek along the way. If you walk along the boardwalk there in the later afternoon, you will be sure to see plenty of fat wombats who aren’t shy about letting you get up close and personal.
This is an alpine flower I found at the Cradle Mountain plateau. Not sure what it’s called, but it looked even more perfect in person.
You will see the bush below on some of your walks around the park. It is called Scoparia. I happened along a French tourist eating some and decided to eat some as well. He seemed to know what he was talking about…as it turned out subsequent research shows this plant is also called the Honey Bush and the little nodules you see taste like honey. Delightful.
Crater Lake Boathouse. I loved the clarity of the water and the transition from crystal clear water to tannin-stained depths.
Don’t forget to visit Devils @ Cradle, the Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary near the park entrance which is worth spending a couple of hours exploring. They have numerous devils there of varying ages, which they are breeding to ensure the survival of the species, which is currently under threat from facial tumour disease.
I dragged myself out of bed to pre-sunrise shots one day (wow, that took an effort). It was looking very boring with no clouds for about an hour, but just after sunrise, as i was about to pack up, the following scenes resolved themselves –
The shot below is my favourite shot of the trip, and something that I particularly appreciate because I was rewarded for my patience. I was there for sunrise, but luckily decided to stay a bit longer and this was the result. 5 minutes prior to this there were no clouds and Dove Lake was stirred up by the wind. But magically, this scene appeared a few minutes later. A wonderful experience!
