Hiking Mount Beerwah East Face: The other side of the mountain

Mount Beerwah, the largest mountain in the Sunshine Coasts Glasshouse Mountains, has a silhouette that changes from every aspect, and with so many different trails up, varying terrains and natural wonders to explore, its easy to see why she is one of the most popular mountains to climb in this region.

Mount Beerwah Hike Glass House Mountains — The caves of Mt Beerwahs East Face

Long weekends are always exciting, and with the extra freedom afforded by an additional day I would normally take the opportunity to explore further from home. This weekend however I wanted to catch up with some friends and try climbing at a few different crags so I decided to take Esmeralda up to the Glasshouse Mountains and camp for a few nights.

I love the Glasshouse Mountains Camp Grounds as its located on the road to Mount Beerwah, surrounded by the majestic Coonowrin, Ngungun and Tibrogargan and I always meet other climbers and hikers here. If you are looking for somewhere affordable to stay with clean amenities and an unbeatable location its perfect.

After a very slow start with what felt like the whole of Brisbane escaping the city Friday afternoon I reached the campsite just before sunset, lucky Esmeralda doesn’t take much to set up so we were able to just park and enjoy being outside, drinking wine and listening to the evening bird calls while the stars appeared above us.

With alarms set for 3:30am we decided to forgo the second bottle of wine and head off to bed. Despite this we were still feeling a little less than stella when we received our wake up call and I was grateful I’d had the foresight to get dressed into my hiking gear before climbing into bed!

The Adventure

The East Face track leaves from just below the carpark and is quite well pathed throughout the bush and up to the mountain, its once you hit the rock face that it becomes a little harder to follow so make sure you pick your route well, or better yet go with someone experienced. The track up from there is mostly rock and in parts is more of a gentle scramble than a hike, nicely sloped with lots of great hand and foot holds making it one of my favourite ways up the mountain.

There’s a little cave off to the left as you hike up that is worth checking out if you go in daylight, or at first light, with views across to Mt Coonowrin it definitely worth the effort to find if you have a cave fetish like me!

Just before you reach the final stretch if you trek to the right slightly you’ll come across another cave and I was so excited to find people camping in it! I’ve added it to my list of things I want to experience this summer. It was so cool chatting to them before we completed the hike to the summit to catch up with some friends and watch the sunrise.

From just below the summit we could hear the call of fledgling falcons to their Mums, this was my first time hearing them so it made this weekends trip extra special, the perfect start to my long weekend adventures!

Happy Adventuring,

Lia

“Lost is a state of mind, I prefer to think of it as exploring” - Lia Skye

What to Expect

A relatively well tread path to begin with, then a combination of easy rock scrambles with some more pathier areas mixed in.

How to get there

Put Mt Beerwah Car Park into your GPS or click here for Google Maps

Equipment

Water – At least 3 Litres depending on how much you drink and the time of year you choose to hike in.

Snacks

This is one of the shorter hikes so a few basic snacks should suffice unless you're planning on camping up here or staying for a while at the top.

As always make sure to take all your rubbish and packaging with you!