You are invited to attend the Boots N’ All walk on Sat. 26th April to the Dove Canyon Circuit walk at Cradle Mountain. From Pencil Pine explore waterfalls, Pine Creek & Dove River confluence and view the canyon from above. This walk is rated “easy-medium” and is suitable for walkers, including children, who have had some experience with tracks of varying quality – part boardwalk, part steep and rocky path with a deep precipice alongside (but dangerous parts have safety fence). As this is in the Cradle Mt. alpine area, please see the warnings below.
Meeting Times and Places:
If you are interested in going on this walk, please phone your walk leader, Terry Heier, ph. 6393 6671 to book in. The departure time is 7:30am from the Door of Hope Church car park, Launceston. Suggested meeting places if coming from elsewhere could be Sheffield at Claude Rd. turnoff at 8:20 am or Moina at 8:50 am. The group should arrive at Pencil Pine by approx. 9:15 am.
If you would like to arrange to meet the group at these places or elsewhere, please arrange with leader. Please be at any meeting place 5 minutes ahead of departure time. However, you still need to contact the walk leader, Terry Heier, per details above if intending to walk. The leader should be notified of any other people you intend to bring along.
You should always contact the walk leader if intending to participate in a particular Boots N’ All walk.
Walk route:
From the Interpretation Centre at Pencil Pine (just past Cradle Mt. Lodge and on left), the walk heads east down the north bank of Pencil Pine Creek for about 1.5km before crossing to the south bank and continuing east for a further 500 metres to the picturesque confluence with Dove River. There should be opportunity to drop down to rocks beside the water. Leaving the river, the track climbs steeply (160 metres altitude over next kilometre) to the south-west, following the spectacular canyon of Dove River, before levelling out and arriving at the Cradle Valley boardwalk. 1.5 km from the river confluence. If the group is able to divert 100 metres or so south along the boardwalk, there are excellent views of Cradle Mt. and Little Horn (on clear days!). Heading north-west along the boardwalk, there is a gentle descent to bring walkers back to the Interpretation Centre.
To access this area from northern Tasmania: Roads to Cradle Mt. are well signposted, and the area can be accessed from several directions. From Sheffield, go south along Claude Rd through Gowrie Park and westward down into the Forth Valley (now Cethana Rd.), continuing up the other side to Moina. Turn south into Cradle Mt. Rd. After approx. 20 km, turn left (still called Cradle Mt. Rd.) and approx. 4 km south, you will arrive at the Pencil Pine area. The walk begins at the car park just before the boom gate.
Warnings:
The following codes [from our 2014 walks calendar] apply:
D Drive distance requires early departure
S Steep incline for at least part of the way
E Exposed alpine conditions ; can be dangerous in poor weather if not adequately equipped; see www.sutas.org.au/bush-walking/bush-walking for some guidelines.
If you are unsure of equipment requirements, Visit the Boots N’ All section of the sutas.org.au website per link below and read “Clothing suggestions for exposed conditions”
Map details:
Dove Canyon: 1:100000 map is Sophia and 1:25000 map is Cradle.
Map reference:
Short ref. n/a (not a mountain!)
Zone Easting Northing Latitude Longitude
n/a (not a mountain!)
No peakbagging peaks on this walk. For listing of peakbagger points, see the Hobart Walking Club Peakbagger’s Guide.
See Peakbaggers and Abels – Boots N’ All for an explanation of this system (updated 2026)
[gpx and kml tracks for this walk are in our online collection. See GPX Map Files – Boots N’ All].