Spring Mt Caldera (Thornbill Drv trail head)

GPS Tracks

Spring Mountain Caldera (GPX)

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

Scrambling or Climbing

Navigation Required

Eucalypt Forest

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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 concrete 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 lonely 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.

GPS Tracks

Spring Mountain Caldera (GPX)

Comments

I did this track again, this time doing the circuit around the caldera. A couple of hundred metres, after passing the little track that leads up to Spring Mountain you'll see a track leading off to the right. You'll also see the 'lonely boulder'. I found the track around the caldera to be a small, but fairly obvious track, and I'm no aboriginal bushtracker. I have done a lot of bushwalking though. And I didn't see all those dinosaurs the Aussie Bushwalker guy was talking about. Think he needs to go to Specsavers. By the way, you DO come across a pile of boulders and at the end of these boulders is the Balancing Rock.
Now while the caldera trail was easy, once you get down to the fire trails and bike tracks its a different story. This is where I got lost. The small caldera track eventually comes out on the wide Yaddamun track. This track circuits right. After a while it seems to circuit left but you should just keep going straight and you'll eventually cross a creek. A couple of hundred metres after the creek is the first gate. TAKE THIS GATE AND NOT THE SECOND GATE. Save yourself walking up a steep hill and then back down a long circuitous route. Anyway I found the second gate. It's 30 or 40 metres off to the right of the main track. The only reason I could spot it is because a fire has been there recently. I walked up the steep track and then it split 3 ways I went right down the Monarch trail which seemed to go on forever and ever, so I made the mistake of going back. It actually comes out on the first gate trail. Anyway the first gate trail is nice and flat and follows the creek. It does eventually rise quite steeply and becomes the Mountain River break. Finally at the top youll see Leigh's Break and then Eagle's Ridge Break. I thought I'm home and hosed now, but after Eagle's Ridge I went straight instead of turning right. I was on a different rim trail to the one that leads to Thornbill Drive. I eventually retraced my steps and got back to my car 6 and a half hours later!

Jeff on 22 Sep, 2024

I did this walk going to the right of the water tank and proceeding along the Rim Walk. I took a left at Leigh's and Eagle Ridge. You should see a tree with a red x on it 20 metres down the track.
Follow that track and you will come to a gate. Here the track narrows and goes up a hill, goes down, and up another hill. There are good views of the city from the ridge. The track suddenly comes out on a gravel road. Take the road to the right and bypass a mountain. Next mountain is Spring Mountain. You'll see a track on the left. There is a little scrambling near the top and small cave a few metres to the right. You will know you're on Spring Mountain as there are 4 metal structures on the top.
Went back the same way. One and a quarter hours to get back.
Jeff on 8 Sep, 2024

Followed the "clockwise" description. It seems, years have passed and a few trail details have changed (gates, upgraded forest trail). Present signage is catering for bike users, does not contain the walking trail, including Spring Mountain and Balancing Rock. Keep an eye upon your surroundings and it is possible to see the ridge line that is followed.
To reach Spring Mountain, I did use "Leighs Break" and "Eagle Ridge Break". On the return part I did use for a while "Yaddamun trail".
Wanderlust on 25 Aug, 2024

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.
Brent on 29 Mar, 2024

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