Passionate about The Pinnacle

My love of Mt Painter is well known. I try to spend a lot of time there, and spend probably even more time telling people about how magical it and its views are.

With that in mind, I think it’s safe to say I’m having an affair.

It began by accident (as all great affairs do) a few weeks ago. People had been telling me for some time about the beauty of the Pinnacle, and while I’d seen it for myself with regular images of and from it posted it to The Riot-Act (see a few here, here and here), I wouldn’t be drawn.

But one day we happened to be on our way to Shepherd’s Lookout down near Holt, but as a result of more talking than navigating, found ourselves on Coulter Drive and turning into Springvale Drive. I recognised that to our left was The Pinnacle Nature Reserve, and begrudgingly figured we might as well give it a go. We stepped through the gates and instantly were transported away from the houses and suburb of Hawker behind us into bushland where we could hear no cars and see no houses. And so began an obsession.

Within The Pinnacle Nature Reservie, you simply don’t have to work at trying to find interesting fauna; rather, you just watch the animals emerge before you. While I’m a born and bred Australian who grew up in regional Queensland, it still delights me no end to realise that those hundreds of rocks in the distance are in fact kangaroos having an evening feast. The Pinnacle has plenty of kangaroos (perhaps almost too many?) and is the place to take any visitor to Canberra who wants to see them ‘in the wild’. (Unfortunately, I’ve also spotted a number of rabbits and a fox.) The birds are plentiful, with kookaburras and cockatoos and a host of parrots and rosellas of which I really can’t tell you the name (not because I don’t want to; I just don’t know!). I imagine it would really be a bird-watcher’s paradise.

This is a terrible photo. I’m sorry to subject you to such poor quality. But look how many kangaroos there are!

There are numerous tracks, and you really can’t go wrong, with each track pretty much connecting to another. It also means that each time you go, there’s a different path to take, or you can at least slightly alter your last one for new sights and surprises. You can take relatively straight tracks, or trek a few metres up to The Pinnacle itself (pretty clearly marked). You can head around the border of the reserve. From my Garmin HRM, the elevation gain is just about 70 metres. You can get yourself lost in the peace of it all. Even I feel at peace, and I am not normally a peaceful person! 🙂

Okay, somewhat kind of clearly marked

View from The Pinnacle

And with numerous tracks come numerous views. There’s Mt Painter and Black Mountain. Belconnen. Woden. Mt Tennent (bastard). Tuggeranong. The valleys in between. Rural views. Mountain views. Water views. Bush views. Added with a touch of early morning or late afternoon light and you’ve got something really special.

Happily, you can also take your canine pal.

Happy pup

Here’s an example of one track we did recently.

Like any deep, true love, I simply can’t stay away.

Track up to The Pinnacle

Date: Many

Attendees: T1 and Boyfriend

Worthwhile factor: Highly worthwhile

Want more? Here’s TAMS’s map, as well as a handy little booklet which details much of the flora you can expect. You might also with to check out the wonderful websites of Friends of The Pinnacle (FOTPIN).

PS. My first only real word of caution is that if you’re coming from the Coulter Drive side to Springvale, there seem to be a lot of ‘entrances’ to The Pinnacle. They’re probably not correct. Keep driving until you reach what should be the third one (aka the one with the cars parked near it!).