The Valley of the Dinosaurs 🦖 and the Ultimate Slot and more… Two hikes for the price of one!

Sign up for a truly epic overnight trip to the Mugii Murum-Ban State Conservation Area!

After exploring this area myself a few years back, I’m keen to take a few people back to show it off – it’s a special place out past the main part of Gardens of Stone, full of stunning dry canyons, amazing plants, stunning views and old mine relics. I feel like this is set to take off as the next big hiking-influencer hotspot so see it before it gets trashed!!

This will be a beginner-intermediate hike overnight* hike with a maximum group of 8.

*We will be car camping, and doing 2 day walks from the carpark. No need to carry your camping gear.

• Where/When:

The general plan is to drive to a dirt carpark just off Glen Davis Rd near the town of Capertee, about a 3 hr drive, early Saturday morning (18 July), hike up a fairly steep firetrail for about 2km, and explore the area. This day will be about 10km however includes some lovely stinging nettle and sections of bush some people may consider bush bashing. If we’re feeling like it, we can realistically walk for as long as the sun lets us, and really explore the area. Choose your own adventure!

That evening, we will return to cars and then drive to a nearby campsite in the Valley.

Great reading of Day 1 here: https://hikingtheworld.blog/2023/10/25/valley-of-the-dinosaurs-mmb/

Day 2 is to be confirmed! Maybe explore Mt Airly? The Pipeline track? Glen Davis ruins? Give me suggestions!

We’re waiting to get our hands on this book shortly and pick something exciting either in the same park, or a bit further along at Glen Davis 🙂

It’ll be amazing, regardless!

• What to Bring (Read Carefully – Note some of this can be borrowed from the Club):

And to prove you’re paying attention, tell me in the comment box what is your favourite type of Dinosaur.

– Camping gear: Everything included in the Boree Log packing list here – Boree Log Packing List. We will be camping overnight. However, you can leave your camping gear in the car. Bring adequate extra warmth.

– Clothes: Long hiking pants, hiking shirt (preferably with long sleeves/collar), solid hiking boots or trailrunners, well cushioned hiking socks (and thin liner socks if you like), wide brimmed hat, sunglasses. Raincoat. And a spare set of clothes, including socks, to change into.

– WARM clothes: Warm jacket (heavy fleece or down jacket), beanie, thermals. The temperature regularly gets below zero overnight and won’t crack 15 degrees in the day.

– Water: At least 2L of water carrying in your bag, and lots more in the car. There is no refill point in the area. Bring your own water for dinner and cooking

– Food: Enough food for 1 breakfast, 2 lunches, 1 dinner and heaps of snacks! High energy, light weight, easy to cook. All the usual suspects like a simple pasta for dinner, oats for breakfast, wraps for lunch, and lots of choc and dried fruit as snacks. I can go over all this in more depth with participants.

– Medical stuff: Any personal medications, with any attached action plans, an emergency blanket, roller bandage, whistle, then any first aid things you have while not going overboard on weight (leaders will have first aid kits too).

– Miscellaneous: A head torch with charged and spare batteries, bag for really wet clothes and rubbish from cooking, sunscreen?, your phone with spare power pack, some toilet paper, and a lot of optional things like water purification tablets if you have them, hiking poles, camera, compass, insect repellant…

You don’t need to have necessarily done an overnight hike before for this but some hiking experience is required. So make sure you’ve read everything then let me know in the comments what your hiking experience is, if you have a car/how many spots, and the secret question 🙂

Message us with any questions about gear or anything else, Facebook links below!

Thanks, Sudarshan and Amelia🌳
And a Hughge thanks to Hugh for the writeup I’ve based off.