If you are thinking about hiking the Grampians Peaks Trail but don’t have 13 days free for a 160km multi-day hike, then this 3-day/2-night hike is a great place to start!
The Grampians Peaks Trail (GPT), done from start to finish, is a challenging 13-day/12-night hike across a variety of terrain starting at Mt Zero in the north, heading south via Halls Gap and ending in Dunkeld. The hike takes you over the summit of Gar (Mt Difficult), continues through Halls Gap with hiking highlights including Redman Bluff, Mount William, Major Mitchell Plateau, Signal Peak, Mt Abrupt, Mt Sturgeon (and more!) before reaching Dunkeld in the south. However, not everybody has the luxury of sparing 13-days to trek across Grampians National Park (Gariwerd), Victoria. Luckily, the GPT can be hiked in sections and split up into smaller overnight hikes, which is what we did. We created a 3-day multi-night hike.
There are numerous other ways to cut up the trail to suit your desire, we have detailed some of them here.
Our GPT Route Itinerary
We decided to hike the southern section starting at the Griffin Trailhead and ending in Dunkeld. A 3-day/2-night GPT hike which took us through stunted eucalypt forest and over the rocky mountain summits of Signal Peak and Mt Abrupt (Mud-Dadjug). We hiked through forested saddles offering breathtaking views west to the Victoria Range. Then we clambered up to the summits of Signal Peak and Mt Abrupt (Mud-dadjug) and crossed Bainggug (The Piccaninny) and Mt Sturgeon (Wurgarri). Finally, meandering along the Wannon River and finishing our tremendous effort by walking into Dunkeld. We left the car at the Dunkeld Tourist Information Centre, if you are looking for a free place to park.
Hiking the GPT Southern Section
We used the Parks Victoria GPT website to investigate the multi-day hikes that are suggested for people that want to experience overnight hiking but don’t have the time to commit to do the whole GPT trail.
The map of the trail on the website offers smaller 3-day hiking itineraries that allow you to choose your own adventure.
Where to Park while you are on the GPT
We chose to hike the 3-day/2-night hike from the Griffin Trailhead to Dunkeld because our car could be securely parked outside the Dunkeld Tourist Information Centre. Moreover, we could use a local company offering GPT transport to the different trailhead sections. Besides, this section of the trail offered us good hiking distances that were both comfortable in length and challenging in terrain. Additionally, we wanted to spend a night after finishing in the local area to celebrate and enjoy our accomplishments. For us, Dunkeld and surrounding areas offered the best accommodation options and an enjoyable pub meal for a well earned good feed!
Grampians Peaks Trail FAQs
If you have lots of questions after reading this check out our FAQ page. There is loads of cool info.
Equipment and Food
For any multi-day overnight hike, we knew that less weight was everything! Thus, we were conscious of the amount and type of food and equipment we would need to pack.
Food
Our food shouldn’t be complicated, require prep or multiple pots to prepare.
Consequently, we decided to pack dehydrated camping meals. The Outdoor Gourmet Company offers a great selection of different meals. They were delicious and EXTREMELY easy to prepare. Just in case, we carried an extra camping meal from Back Country Cuisine, just in case we were hungry and needed a little more.
Breakfast and Daytime Hiking Snacks
How to keep ourselves fuelled with energy throughout the day? What could we eat that was healthy, calorie heavy and full of good protein? In conclusion, we settled on simple porridge for breakfast, it’s a slow release energy source, protein bars for on the go snacks, in addition, our own blend of trail mix. Most importantly, how do we get our caffeine/coffee hit without carrying the weight of a coffee percolator? As a result, we took a punt on carrying coffee bags with us and decided to use Vittoria’s coffee bags.
Lunch was our bulkiest meal! We chose to use individual serves of Nutella, wraps, bananas and organic high protein peanut butter. The peanut butter was too heavy to carry in the jar, thus, I decanted it into little silicon ziplock sachets and we shared these. This was surprisingly a delicious, hassle free lunch – spread the Nutella and peanut butter, peel your banana and wrap the wrap around the whole banana, Voila! A delicious on the go lunch.
Equipment
We packed everything we needed into our 40l Macpac Hesper hiking backpacks. They are light, have comfortable harnesses, and an additional strap that runs from the base to the lid to lift loads and provide greater compression. Additionally, they have stretchy front and side pockets to store bottles and snacks outside the pack. Plus, there’s a detachable shoulder strap that fits a 500ml soft flask. We used these to carry our water with electrolytes in it. It made it easy to reach, or drink from on the go. Furthermore, the backpack has the capacity to carry a water bladder in the back. Consequently, we added our bladders and this gave us plenty of water for the hike.
Our hiking tent is a Vango Nevis 300 Experience. When considering a tent, weight is a huge consideration. We wanted the ability to divide the tent up between the 2 backpacks so that the weight and bulk was shared. This tent comes in at 2.5kg. Moreover, we considered packing up in the wet and this tent enables you to keep dry whilst packing up, you can take the inside down and keep the shell up, pack everything up and then dismantle the shell last.
Lastly, the other important piece of equipment we packed worth mentioning is the 360 Degrees Furno Stove and pot set. This little stove and pot set was the only cooking equipment we took. What’s more, we did not take anything else and didn’t need anything else to cook with. We had Sea to Summit collapsible plates and knife/fork set to eat with. That was all we used. Light, simple and just enough for our needs.
Hike Itinerary
Day 1 – Griffin Trailhead to Djardji-djawara Hike-in Campground
Our distance: 10.83km
We left Melbourne at 3am with the intent to arrive in Dunkeld and get the GPT Shuttle provided by the Grampians Peaks Walking Co.
The first shuttle leaves at 7:45am from the Dunkeld Visitor and Information Centre and goes along the Southern Zone – pick up or drop off – anywhere from Halls Gap to Dunkeld. We decided to start at the Griffin Trailhead. The Grampians Peaks Walking Co. provides a range of assistance for hikers, from transport to food drops, guided walks and gear hire.
Day 1 was a lovely introduction to the GPT. It was by no means a walk in the park, the hike definitely challenged us with climbs through stunted vegetation up onto the Serra Range.
The hike started off with mist and fog obscuring our views for most of the morning. However, as we hiked, the day cleared up, and we were rewarded with outstanding views west to the Victoria Range. We finished the day camping at Djardi-djawara Hike-in Campground below rocky outcrops. The total we walked, calculated by our watches, was 10.83km. The whole hike, including stopping for a morning snack, was 4 hours. We started at the Griffin trailhead at about 08:10am and finished at the Djardji-djawara hike-in campsite at about 12:20pm. Just in time to find a suitable camping platform, get set up and have lunch.
The GPT campgrounds either have timber tent platforms or granite sand pads that are 3.5m x 3.5m. This campground had timber tent platforms, and these all have steel chains that can be used to secure your tent. It might be a wise idea to bring additional guy rope to help with the securing to the steel chains. It would turn out that we were the only inhabitants of the camp that day, which was both tranquil yet spooky. The campsite has plenty of camping platforms to choose from, depending on how close or far you want to be from the camp hut. Inside the camp hut you will find tables and benches in a communal area for meal preparation and above all, a fantastic view!
We spent the evening in the hut as it was warm and out of the wind. You will also find basic toilet facilities and water collection points.
Day 2 – Djardi-djawara Hike-in Campground to Mud-Dadjug Hike-in Campground
Our distance: 9.28km
Day 2 was a bit of a late start, but without the threat of heat or rain, we decided that leaving early wasn’t as necessary as it would be in peak Summer. By the time we had breakfast, packed up and were ready to get on our way, it was 10:00am. Today we walked for a total of 5 hours and covered 9.28kms according to our fitness watches. There was an altitude gain of 679m as we alternated between rock steps and jumbles of boulders passing small cliffs and ledges that provide excellent vantage points. We climbed steeply to the summits of Signal Peak through a series of small heathy and forested saddles to Mt Abrupt. After the ups and downs of climbing 2 peaks, we finished at Mud-Dadjug hike-in camp, high above the landscape. We came into camp at 3:20pm to discover we were not the only people at the camp. Several other couples had walked into Mud-Dadjug hike-in campground, after chatting with everyone in the camp hut we found out most of them had started their day at Djardi-djawara hike-in campground as you can park at the bottom of the trailhead. The camp is high up on the mountain and that evening was cold and windy, with rain moving in. We set up camp on a platform that was not already claimed, and then spent the evening in the Camp Hut where it was warm and had company.
Day 3 – Mud-Dadjug Hike-in Campground to Dunkeld
Our distance: 15.88km
Day 3 was a wet and cold start, with us packing everything up inside the tent. This was when we really appreciated the tent having the interior and exterior as seperate sections. Today being the longest section, we were up, packed and on the trail by 9:30am. We covered 15.88km with an altitude gain of 563m. The trail took us across Bainggug (The Piccaninny) and Mt Sturgeon, these 2 climbs were killers! We stopped for lunch at the top of Mt Sturgeon (Wurgarri), taking in stunning views out over volcanic plains and the impressive peaks of the southern Grampians. We then descended down one last rocky slope towards the farmland below. To the north are the sedimentary sandstones of Gariwerd; to the south, basalt lava flows from volcanic plains, yet again the views and vistas did not disappoint. All that was left was to meander through red gums, crossing the Wannon River and a stroll into Dunkeld.
After a walking a total of 35.99km over the whole 3-day hike, we walked back into Dunkled at 3:23pm ready for a hot shower, pub feed and clean clothes.
The points we took away from this experience was that the trail is well sign posted, the walk-in campsites and the facilities are built with a good level of amenity that is well designed, sympathetic to the landscape and sustainable.
They are in very remote locations, so you’re not near a busy road or carpark, so you feel the reward of being deep inside the national park. The section of the trail that we hiked is booked as an all-inclusive itinerary on the GPT website and all you need to do is choose the date of your first night to book. If you are planning to book accommodations for before and after you complete the trail, I suggest looking at these first because availability in Dunkeld and surrounding areas may dictate the dates you hike.
Good luck!
