Hike at Glasshouse Mountains National Park, Queensland

The Sunshine Coast hinterland is a not to miss experience when travelling up the coast from Brisbane or slightly inland from the amazing Sunshine Coast beaches. 

The Glass House Mountains are a range of 11 mountains which were named by Captain James Cook when he sailed along the east coast of Australia in 1770. The mountains reminded him of the shape of glass furnaces at home. 

The tiny town of Glass House is off Steve Irwin Way where you can pick up any information or supplies you need. There are a variety of accommodation options from high end eco accommodation to basic level camping grounds. We pitched a tent at the Glass House Mountains Camping Ground, hosted by the eccentric owner Steve Ralph. Its very basic facilities but powered camp sites are available. Its situated at 2001 Old Gympie Road, Glass House and is a fairly central point to access any of the hikes in the Glass House area. 

We were limited by the types of hikes we could do because we are travelling with two young children but they were easily able to navigate the Glass House Lookout Track on the Glass House -Woodford Road. This was an easy 2km circuit but with a lot of steps, so perhaps don't take a pram as we did. 

I was able to later do a trail run up Mount Ngungun, which is at Fullertons Road, Glass House. While its not the biggest of the mountains in the ranges at only 253 metres, it does have a pretty well graded track and the view from the summit is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!

From up there you can see the whole of the Glass House Mountains ranges and beyond and on the other side you can see back over to the ocean and everywhere in between. They say to allow 2 hours to do the track and that you need moderate fitness. I ran up it in just under 30 minutes and down in 15 minutes but it does get pretty crowded in parts. There is also lots of loose rock and you do need to scramble up the rock face at the end to actually reach the summit. 

The end result is worth it though.