Montserrat Lookout and Upper Portals Easier Loop
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 6.35 mi
- Elevation gain
- 2,034 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 2,034 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,274 ft
- TrailRank
-
77
4.8
- Min elevation
- 1,772 ft
- Trail type
- Loop
- Time
- 2 hours 2 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1234
- Uploaded
- February 19, 2022
- Recorded
- February 2022
near Burnett Creek, Queensland (Australia)
Viewed 1091 times, downloaded 67 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Montserrat lookout gives the hiker one of the best views of My Barney and the Maroon and May peaks. Most of the track is either fire trail or narrow track. There is a section which is totally bush in the initial section up Montserrat. This section is thick bush and requires full body protection in the wetter months of vegetation growth.
The trail starts from the upper portals car park which is just up from the Waterfall Creek campground. Initially you walk up and then down the hill towards a set of signs pointing to the Upper Portal. From these signs you progress steeply downhill until you hit a T intersection where the upper portals will be to the left. At this point you will turn right and go a little bit up the track to a fence post and then progress up the spur through the bush.
Following the spur you will eventually reach a point where you will hit a fire trail. Follow this fire trail and eventually it will turn into a narrow track which you will then follow all the way to the top of Montserrat.
The final ascent of Montserrat involves scrambling over some bare rock and up some boulders to the top. From here you will progress down the other side towards the campground where you will lead to the left and catch up witha spur with an narrow track going down it.
This well progress down the hill towards the Upper Portals Gorge. Eventually reaching the bottom where you will need to progress initially to the left-hand side of the creek and after a little further up back to the right hand side where you will follow a track all the way to the Upper Portal Gorge.
After visiting the gorge and maybe having a swim progress back to the junction where you initially came in and now take the firetrail heading away from the campground.
From here you will progress through about seven or eight Creek crossings and eventually get back to the T junction you were earlier at before sending back to the carpark.
All up a beautiful hike with spectacular views and well worth the 10K trip.
The trail starts from the upper portals car park which is just up from the Waterfall Creek campground. Initially you walk up and then down the hill towards a set of signs pointing to the Upper Portal. From these signs you progress steeply downhill until you hit a T intersection where the upper portals will be to the left. At this point you will turn right and go a little bit up the track to a fence post and then progress up the spur through the bush.
Following the spur you will eventually reach a point where you will hit a fire trail. Follow this fire trail and eventually it will turn into a narrow track which you will then follow all the way to the top of Montserrat.
The final ascent of Montserrat involves scrambling over some bare rock and up some boulders to the top. From here you will progress down the other side towards the campground where you will lead to the left and catch up witha spur with an narrow track going down it.
This well progress down the hill towards the Upper Portals Gorge. Eventually reaching the bottom where you will need to progress initially to the left-hand side of the creek and after a little further up back to the right hand side where you will follow a track all the way to the Upper Portal Gorge.
After visiting the gorge and maybe having a swim progress back to the junction where you initially came in and now take the firetrail heading away from the campground.
From here you will progress through about seven or eight Creek crossings and eventually get back to the T junction you were earlier at before sending back to the carpark.
All up a beautiful hike with spectacular views and well worth the 10K trip.
Waypoints
Waypoint
2,512 ft
Comments (3)
You can add a comment or review this trail
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Difficult
Recently completed this on the weekend just gone, thanks for the trail map. worked great. Our weather was less than desirable but we still enjoyed the trail. Will definitely be back in clearer weather. The descent from our camp overnight at Montserrat down to Upper Portals after a night of rain was a bit tricky and slippery, it is quite steep going down. Doing this circuit in a anti clockwise direction is definitely the way to do it. Portals are flowing quite well and the water is knee/thigh deep to cross over and head out on the portals track. We walked up the creek a bit to a shallower area where the water was a little calmer.
I have followed this trail verified View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
Thank you for sharing, I used this trail. It's not technically hard, just needs a little fitness for the inclines
Thank you for sharing the trail!
Note that following this trail doesn't take you all the way to the Upper Portals. You will need to climb up, across and then down the hill to your left once you hit the end of this trail to actually get to the Upper Portals (or see my trail below). It is possible that this is just season-dependent, as I walked in the dry of winter when there was likely less water in the creek than when this trail was recorded.
"There is a section which is totally bush in the initial section up Montserrat. This section is thick bush and requires full body protection in the wetter months of vegetation growth." This no longer appears to be true, as there is a clear single-track path from the top of Montserrat all the way down towards Graces' Hut (the north spur) which becomes a firebreak towards the end. Note that if I had followed the track exactly, I would have been taken off into thick bush at the creek near the Upper Portals/Private Property T-intersection, so I'd recommend following the fire break instead!
I have recorded the route via the firebreak & heading all the way to the Upper Portals here:
https://www.wikiloc.com/hiking-trails/montserrat-peak-with-upper-portals-137258811