This is a longer 8-9 km walk through Beelu National Park starting from The Dell and following a loop trail via South Ledge picnic area where you can detour to the Golden View Lookout. It is a lovely forested walk with views down the Helena River Valley and across to Mundaring Weir and C.Y. O'Connor Reservoir.
Parts of this trail follow the Munda Biddi Cycle Trail, the Winjan Track and the Bibbulmun Track respectively.
We parked at The Dell off Mundaring Weir Road. The Munda Biddi Trail intersects the Dell and this area is also home to lots of mountain bike trails with names such as X-files, Camikazi, Little Harry, Scorpion and FJ! Information on some of these trails can be found if you search Kalamunda Mountain Bike Trails on the Trails WA website. We arrived at 9.30 and found the car park full (mountain bikers are early birds!) but many bikers were returning from their ride and leaving so more spaces were becoming available. There are various Mountain Bike Club events held in this area of Mundaring Weir Road so be aware of cyclists on the road.
We followed the trail notes put out by the Shire of Kalamunda (click here for link) and I recommend you print these and follow them as there are lots of intersecting trails. We have found the safest way to navigate is to have one person reading the trail notes and the other keeping an eagle eye out for trail markers as the person reading notes sometimes misses the marker!
At the Dell the walk commences to the left just past the toilet block (drop toilet - not very pleasant so try and go beforehand!) Early on you skirt some farms which were displaying lovely autumn colours at this time of year.
Continue to follow the trail notes so you don't mistakenly head off on one of the bridle paths or the Munda Biddi. We found the blue markers helped us find our way.
For part of the trail you do follow the Munda Biddi Trail for some distance so be aware of cyclists ahead or behind - they don't ring their bells here! There are some hilly sections as you divert from the Munda Biddi Trail before rejoining it again at the bottom of the hill.
To our surprise we found some cars parked about a third of the way along so some people in the know had driven in and were up for a shorter walk to the Golden View Lookout (unless they also did the full loop in which case the walk is the same). We also discovered later that there is a dirt road from Mundaring Weir Road all the way up to the South Ledge picnic area so if the full loop walk is too long you could drive closer and do a shorter walk.
For a while you join the Winjan Track and the Bibbulmun Track and can look down onto the Helena River Valley and Mundaring Weir. You continue to follow the Bibbulmun Track to the Golden View Lookout.
The Golden View Lookout is a 400m walk each way from the South Ledge picnic area. You have wonderful views across the Helena River Valley to Mundaring Weir and the reservoir. You can also access South Ledge picnic area by dirt road from Mundaring Weir Road. Toilets are available at South Ledge.
From South Ledge picnic area follow South Ledge Road downhill west of the picnic area. We found this part was a bit tricky when following the trail notes and had to access Google Maps to see if we were going the right way. You actually follow South Ledge Road almost all the way down to Mundaring Weir Road (visible through the trees) before turning right at the blue marker into the remnants of a pine plantation.
Read your trail notes carefully as here again there are lots of intersecting trails.
Although this is a long walk being around 9km including the lookout sidetrip it traverses both Jarrah and Wandoo woodland finishing with walking over soft pine needles on the last section providing a variety of different environments. The many intersecting trails provide interest as well as keeping the navigator on their toes.
We had an 8 year old with us and she walked the entire 9 kms with little complaint. We had forgotten our usual fallback of Allen's snakes for encouragement too! We were very proud of her!
After the walk we headed down to Mundaring Weir to explore the pump station. This is the view looking back to the Golden View Lookout from the Weir wall.
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In the spirit of reconciliation Out and About- Family Nature Connection acknowledges the traditional owners of the Wadjak boodjar (Perth land) and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and emerging and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.
As always when hiking in the bush please help to reduce the spread of Phytophthora Dieback by sticking to the tracks and paths, staying out of quarantined areas and, if possible, clean your shoes before and after hiking.