Mount Coolum Summit Track

Entertainment/Travel/Activities

Mount Coolum National Park Sign: dark green painted timber, with the symbols for hiking, lookout, no pets, no fires, no bicycles. The signs also contains the words 'Summit track, Steep grade 2 hours return'.

This month I went for a walk up Mount Coolum, on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia. It’s been something I’ve been talking about doing again for a while. Eighteen years ago I walked to the top on a dirt track, with timber sleepers fixed into the ground with wooden stakes at strategic places along the path to help hold it together. Towards the top there was a section where you climbed over natural rock formations then walked through wind twisted trees to reach the summit.

Mount Coolum Summit Track: dirt track with a stone step the width of the path at regular intervals, grey gum trees lining the track with a blue sky visible between the treetops

The walk has changed a lot since then. There’s now a rock path going nearly all the way to the top making it a much easier walk. It’s still a strenuous walk, but the views make it worthwhile. They are as great as I remembered them. Every direction you look in you are greeted by postcard views. Long stretches of beaches, sailing ships out at sea, rock formations, trees twisted into interesting shapes by the wind and birds darting about.

Rock stairs leading up Mount Coolum: a steep track with stone steps curving up the face of the mountain, angled rock walls lining the edges of the path, grey gum trees lining the wall with a blue sky visible above the treetops Looking out to the ocean from the lookout of Mount Coolum, a sailing boat in the distance, white waves along the beachfront, trees along the foreshore, apartment buildings in the bottom right corner of the picture
It’s a two hour walk, return, and much quicker coming back down than it is going up. Along the way are numerous places where rocks have been positioned to make resting areas to sit and take in the views. There were many other people on the walk, from toddlers only going partway up to retirees striding along. People walked or jogged on their own, others went in groups. But no matter who it was or how they reached the top, they all stopped and paused once they did, taking in the view. Some stopped for a while, some only a little before they headed back down again.

Looking out across the valley from on top of Mount Coolum, blue skies, white clouds, a mountain in the distance, dwellings and buildings scattered amongst the greenery, the flower spike of a grass tree in the foreground Looking out from Mount Coolum, vivid blue skies, white clouds low on the horizon, a granite rock formation to the right, the ocean in the distance on the left, dwellings and buildings scattered amongst the greenery between the ocean and the rock formation

It was really good to return to a place I had been to years ago and see the positive changes that have occurred. The new path has not only created a safer walk and addressed environmental concerns, but is a work of art with how the rocks have been fitted together using dry stone construction. The locally sourced rocks blend into the environment making the track feel a part of the mountain. It was certainly worth revisiting and I’m glad I made the effort to walk to the summit again.

Ocean view from Mount Coolum summit, vivid blue skies, white feathery clouds, a grassy hill to the right, the ocean in the distance on the left, dwellings and buildings along the coastline, some scattered amongst the greenery between the ocean and the hill View from Mount Coolum summit, blue skies, puffy white clouds, the land below laid out like a carpet of green broken by hills and scattered buildings