Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

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Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Explorer_Sam » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 6:25 pm

Are there any reasonably good campsites on or near the top of Mount Difficult? Thanks heaps!

Sam.
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Explorer_Sam » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 8:03 pm

Also, does anyone know if it's even currently open?
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby bernieq » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 8:42 pm

You can look it up on the Parks website (as bad as it is).

Yes, there is a camping area down from the summit and yes, it's closed. It's all closed - Troopers, Difficult, Mud Hut. You'll find a couple of options but its pretty limited. All dispersed camping in the Nth Grampians is banned. Has been for ages and don't expect it to change. The strategy is to close the Grampians to all camping not part of the North South 'trail' - you know, the new one with USB charging stations (good grief).

Yep, very bitter at losing a favoured area.

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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Explorer_Sam » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 8:58 pm

bernieq wrote:You can look it up on the Parks website (as bad as it is).

Yes, there is a camping area down from the summit and yes, it's closed. It's all closed - Troopers, Difficult, Mud Hut. You'll find a couple of options but its pretty limited. All dispersed camping in the Nth Grampians is banned. Has been for ages and don't expect it to change. The strategy is to close the Grampians to all camping not part of the North South 'trail' - you know, the new one with USB charging stations (good grief).

Yep, very bitter at losing a favoured area.


Thanks heaps! I tried the PV website and it was just too hard to decipher. So looks like we can walk Mount Difficult from Beehive Falls... thinking I might just camp up there anyway.
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Explorer_Sam » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 9:06 pm

'Longpoint East and Longpoint West hiker camps are open'.
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Lophophaps » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 10:15 pm

Does anyone know why dispersed camping is banned? I can see no valid reason for this. Troopers Creek is a good spot for car-based camping, and there are many other spots in the northern Grampians that are brilliant for bushwalkers. I wonder how many people camp such that nobody knows they are there.

This gives some information
http://parkweb.vic.gov.au/__data/assets ... Update.pdf
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby bmak » Wed 24 Jan, 2018 11:49 pm

Walk till late and camp anywhere. Plenty of nice spots with great views up there.
Entry is probably only via beehive falls still


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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby neilmny » Thu 25 Jan, 2018 7:02 am

Lophophaps wrote:Does anyone know why dispersed camping is banned?............


To force you into the rip off camp grounds.
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby bernieq » Sat 27 Jan, 2018 8:12 am

Lophophaps wrote:Does anyone know why dispersed camping is banned?

Parks stated reason is because of extensive flood & fire damage. The real reason (imo) is
neilmny wrote:To force you into the rip off camp grounds

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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby bmak » Sun 28 Jan, 2018 2:34 pm

Safety and environmental damage is part of the reason for sure and I doubt the impact from the few is that great but I do agree on the safety part for the majority.

Rules don’t fix stupidity though as there was still non swimmers at McKenzie falls yesterday one week after a drowning there.




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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby paidal_chalne_vala » Thu 01 Feb, 2018 6:41 pm

The route to Mt. Gar / Mt. Difficult is open if you come in from Beehive Falls and the Briggs Bluff route. It is an overnight pack carry hike in a some very exposed terrain. We were up that way in June 2017 and found this out when we went to the visitor centre.
The Mt. Difficult campsite when it was open from Trooper's creek was without a drop loo and was full of ' deposits' and used dunny paper. It has no water source and is very exposed to some foul weather.
PV allow people to do this route from Beehive Falls as a remote walk in and walk out the same way kind of trek.
When PV will reopen the full one day trek route of the Mt. Stapylton loop is also a good question.
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Re: Camping on top of Mount Difficult?

Postby Explorer_Sam » Fri 02 Feb, 2018 8:11 pm

Hey everyone, just did Mount Difficult this week and decided to camp in the old Hikers Campsite. It got a bit windy overnight, but it was a nice sandy spot, I didn't mind it. You can read about my trip here:

https://sambochristie.wordpress.com/201 ... difficult/
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