Porcupine Rocks, Mt Duncan & Mt Wheatley, Kosciuszko National Park
Visit the big boulders called Porcupine Rocks on this popular walk starting on the edge of Perisher Village. You can extend the walk to bag two nearby peaks, Mt Duncan (1926m) & Mt Wheatley (1877m).
The Porcupine Rocks Track is a popular walk to big boulders high up in the Ramshead Range near Perisher Village. There are views over the Thredbo Valley, about 700 to 800m below. If that’s not enough for you then you can walk off-track to nearby Mt Duncan (1926m), and along an impact track and poled route to Mt Wheatley (1877m). All walking is through attractive alpine meadows, heath and snow gums.
Track Notes
There’s information on the Porcupine Rocks Walk on the NPWS website. It’s an easy enough walk suitable for children and inexperienced walkers. Visiting the other peaks is harder. We got our route guide from the Geehi Bushwalking Club book. I’ve included a map below of the approximate routes we took. A bit of route finding was necessary to get to the summit of Mt Duncan, and the last off-track bit to the summit rocks of Mt Wheatley (when you leave the impact track/poled route). You can do a snow shoe circuit in winter via the Mt Wheatley poled route and Kosciuszko Road.
Off-track from Porcupine Rocks to Mount Duncan, and on a poled route from the main track to nearby Mt Wheatley, turning right to travel off-track to the summit rocks.
The start…
Porcupine Rocks, Mt Duncan & Mt Wheatley: The Scenery
I’ve now posted a couple of sunset shots from 2010, and four shots from 2009 (at the end).
Walking through fields of wildflowers. The land drops away roughly 800m to the Thredbo River on the south/eastern side of the range. The view was a bit too hazy to justify a photo. (But now see one of my pics from 2009 near the end). Almost the same view looking over the Thredbo Valley, but at sunset 10 years ago (2010). I can’t really remember this but I’m actually quite impressed with my own photography! Porcupine Rocks Sophia on the summit of Mt Duncan (1926m). Porcupine Rocks in the distance.
It seems snow gums are a bit more colourful in other seasons, (certainly they were in autumn when I was last in the area), but I quite liked this one. This was my favourite of the big rocks. Here’s that same rock at sundown 10 years ago. Not sure how we got back down in the dark because we didn’t own headlights at the time! On the high point of Porcupine Rocks looking towards Mt Duncan.
A panorama of the area from on Mt Wheatley. The view back towards the start of the walk in Perisher Valley, from the summit of Mt Wheatley (1877m). There were colourful bugs in the area.
And now a few extra from 2009…
On our way to Porcupine Rocks in 2009. Sophia at Porcupine Rocks, back in winter 2009. A better view over the Thredbo Valley in 2009. Nice colours on this snow gum.
Beautiful pics and great info THANKS!
Cheers Janette 😀👍