Day walkers on track walking past Crater Lake.
Crater Lake (photograph: Chris Crerar)
60 Great Short Walks

Crater Lake

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2 hour circuit, 5.7km circuit
Grade 3: Some bushwalking experience recommended. Tracks may have short steep hill sections, a rough surface and many steps.
Supervise children. Tracks are subject to severe weather conditions – weather may change quickly. Tracks are difficult to navigate when covered in snow and may be impassable.
A valid parks pass is required for entry to Tasmania's national parks.
The Crater Lake Circuit starts from the Dove Lake carpark at the northern end of Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park.

About

​​This beautiful walk around a series of delightfully different alpine lakes shows you up close the incredible power of the deep ice and snow that once covered this area. The walk also showcases some fascinating alpine vegetation, and offers walkers a good option for when low cloud and rain are lashing higher tracks.

The dramatic Crater Lake, half-way point of the 5.7km loop track, is a classic cirque lake, created when glacial snow and ice gouged out a crater-like hollow, that's now filled with water. The smaller lakes, Lake Lilla and Wombat Pool, have their own beauty. Parts of the track are steep.