Mount Maroon

Location: Mt Barney National Park, South East QLD
Date: 26th April, 2015
Distance: 6 km
Time: 3.5 hours

I've always thought of Mt Maroon as being Mt Barney's little cousin - and this is probably why it was only last weekend that I thought of actually hiking it.

The track to the summit of Mt Maroon is steep and rocky, following a northern ridge from the end of Cotswold Road. Once you start there's no letting up until you hit the summit. After about half an hour, I started catching glimpses of farmland below behind me and the imposing rock wall of the north peak on the right.

Glimpses of farmland below

Jagged precipices of the north peak's rock wall

View north back down the gully

There was a bit of confusion at one point as I followed the ridge all the way to a steep but (what appeared to be a potentially) assailable rock wall. There was a fairly obvious track to this point, although I hadn't seen any orange arrows for a while. I instead descended to the right (towards the gully area between the two peaks I could see at the start of the walk) and came across the arrow shown below, where the fernage was quite thick.

Arrow seems to point towards the cliffs... hmmm

So the arrow says to head up to the cliffs? OK Mt Maroon.

A bloke came up from behind me, equally confused, and had a go up the cliff, but decided it was too steep and went to look for an alternative route. It didn't look completely un-doable so after a break I had a go at it too. It wasn't long before I got to the point where descending would become dangerous if the way ahead was blocked so, not knowing what lay ahead, I turned back. A few small ledges up here gave me some great views, at least.

Mt Maroon is supposed to be a fairly easy (if steep) walk, so clearly this cliff climb wasn't part of the tourist route. I descended back to where I saw the orange arrow and continued away in the opposite direction, further downhill towards the imposing rock face of the northern peak. Here I found a very obvious track that I didn't see before - obviously the correct route. Later I realised the orange arrow is probably there to direct people during descent from the mountain, back onto the ridge but not the rock face. Oh well.

From this point the track becomes even steeper, requiring some reaching and grabbing and weaving among tree roots and boulders, on and up the gully. Nothing remotely like a rock climb though.

Finally there was some relief as the track levelled briefly. A short detour left to the top of a rocky minor peak gave awesome views of the southern summit still ahead, and back down the way I'd come.

The summit of Mt Maroon, not far away now

The shorter but certainly no less impressive south peak of Mt Maroon

From this point it was only about 15 minutes to the summit. Large, sloped rocky slabs provided some enjoyable rock hopping.

At the top I was greeted with 360 degree views of the entire Scenic Rim. It was incredible.

Mounts Lindsey, Ernest and Barney

The myriad rocky peaks of Mount Barney contrasts with the rainforested ridges of the Mount Ballow massif

I ran into the other bloke who had shared my confusion earlier on, but after he left I had it all to myself. I was enjoying the view so much, in fact, that I decided to spend about an hour up here reading a paper for work. Even work can be fun on top of a mountain.

With great reluctance I eventually decided to head back down. I could spend all day soaking in these views but it would be getting hot soon, and nobody would be crazy enough to sit on top of Mt Maroon in the middle of the day.

Mt May, the Main Range and Moogerah Peaks

Looking north to the bowl-shaped plateau surrounding the southern peak... an exploration for another day

To my great surprise, on my way down I encountered many, many groups climbing up, some lugging huge packs (rock climbers with their gear, perhaps?). Even on descent I was getting pretty hot, I can't imagine how much tougher it would be starting late in the morning. That's what you get for sleeping in, I guess.