A great walk. Starting at the end of Thornbill Drive, Greenbank. 60 degree views atop Spring Mountain. Caves and cliffs along with some off track navigation along the aptly named Dragons Spine Trail!

Lookouts
Eucalypt Forest

Getting there

From Springfield Greenbank Arterial Rd,Greenbank. At the roundabout take Ison Rd, turn L¡left into Beagely Rd, rightinto Attunga Rd, left into Lyndale Rd which turns into Honeyeater Drive. Left into Thornbill Drive. Park at the water tower at the top of the hill. Walk half way up bitumen drive way start walk on right.

Maps

Sunmap Spring Mt 9442-12

Route/Trail notes

Starts at the water tower at the end of Thornbill Drive Spring Mountain. Follow the right trail half way up the drive of the water tower. Turn  Left at a t intersection and follow the track west uphill.On the right is an old water tank known as the ruins.Follow the fire trail to the highest peak you can see,stick to the left of the ridge.At the highest point wind your way to the top of the rocks,a great place to rest and enjoy the view. You can now see the caldera shape that gives this track its name! Continue w through a gate and follow the saddle to the next peak,the track narrows here,At the top of the next rise I call this Beardy,s Camp.Great veiws of the city skyline.Continue untill you break from the bush into a large clear y junction.Back on to fire trails.Follow the trail to the right down hill.(Left will take you to white rock).Pass through another gate on your left is keyhole cave.The next peak is Spring Mt to ascend leave the fire trail and skirt around the base heading sth.the trail appears to end.Start heading up here to a small cave.Skirt left of the cave and pick your way through the boulders till you reach the summit.Dont go to far left if it feels a bit airy head back towards the cave and straight up!Enjoy amazing 360 dgree vews.Take care there are some large and slippery rock faces up here!To descend retrace your steps,back to the fire trail! Follow the trail to the left downhill till you come to a point where the trail drops steeply,look to your right and find the lonley boulder.There is no obvious track here so a little navigation skills will come in handy.I call this" The Dragons Spine Trail ".The next landmark is the point an easy scramble down ,just stay on top of the ridge to get down to a wide open grassy saddle.Follow this stay high L or R of you drops down into gullys.soon you will start to see a rocky ridge heading left follow this , staying as high as you can .You should start to imagine why i call this the dragons spine! As you climb gradually higher the escarpements to the left and right get steeper,These cliffs are big enough to have a serious fall and are coverd in slippery mosses and lichens take care stay on top.On your right you will see a series of rocks which resemble the plates of a stegosaur.Theres a gap between here and the highest point.The best place to scramble down.Make your way to the highest point The T Rex and look south to the escarpment of white rock jutting out from the scrub! Retrace your steps 20 m or so to the Stegasaur and scramble down through a gap in the rocks.1 level,and keep t rex on your left.you can climb under this formation here.Continue uphill from here up some bouldery skree Always staying high.Drop gently off this plateu into a grassy saddle,follow the ridge untill it rises to a scrubby plateu,stay up untill you come out at the fire trail again beside the highest electricity tower.Follow this track to the right weaving your way down hill to the bottom of a gully and a track intersection,go right.you will cross a creek and come across a spring mt gate on your right.You can go back this way but i keep going to the next gate #6.Turn right here and head steeply up hill.At the top of the hill the track seems to head left stay right.At the next junction stay left.The track on the right heads back down to the spring mt gate you passed before gate 6.You are now on the track back to where you began ignore any L or r trails till you see the spring mt forest park sign take the next left when you can see the wate tower back to thornbill drve.

Comments

Nice walk, challenging sections. I took the advice of other comments and used Wikiloc for navigation and it made it a lot easier. 14km, 3hrs 45 mins, 600m elevation gain.

BrentG on 29 Mar, 2024

Good map recommended as there are lots of named and unnamed trails.

Wanderlust on 30 Dec, 2022

Did with group as part of peaks to... event. Good day

Call me Al on 20 Jul, 2021

Excellent walk 4 1/2 hrs return with Kwaka 14 km views to border ranges and Toowoomba range

Huey on 3 May, 2020

A nice walk. Convenient to Brisbane. A good amount of trail and off trail hiking. Navigation made much easier with a GPS. I walked on the first day of spring and it was getting hot. I don't think it would be pleasant in summer. I made a shortcut, dropping down the ridge at 880556 (-27.70416,152.88644). All up 12km and just under 4 hours, with a stop for morning tea.

Gerard on 1 Sep, 2019

Great walk.

Juiced Pixels on 22 Jun, 2019

It is certainly not 26km! The problem is that there is an extra GPS location on the GPX track. One you remove that, it goes back to 14km.

Kerry Neighbour on 2 Feb, 2018

I walked the Spring Mountain Caldera circuit for the first time today. Total distance seems to be about 14-15km. I think it is optimistic to call the section between Spring Mountain and the Yuddumun Trail a track, it was entirely off-track with only vague signs humans had ever passed (like a muesli bar wrapper at the formation the OP called the T-rex).

Otherwise I had a good walk. GPS was very unreliable, but stuck to the ridge as much as possible and it all worked out.

Kuhr on 23 Dec, 2017

Did this from Springfield. Measured at 14km and took just over 3hrs. 26.5km is an over-exaggeration

callo on 4 Jul, 2016

Do this every year with the Australian Air Force Cadets. A great day out. The view from Spring Mountain is fantastic

David on Aug, 2014

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