2019 12 17 Zoo Pines Recce

7.1Km walk taking 2hrs 11 mins checking out feasibility of an interesting walk between the entrance to the National Zoo & Acquarium, along equestrian and mountain bikes trails, around the Zoo and over the Molonglo River to Yarralumla as well as around tracks south of the Zoo & Aquarium in the Aboretum and Yarralumla areas of Canberra, Australia

Featured image is the map of our walk

This was a reconnaissance (i.e. a recce) walk around parts of the Zoo and the Zoo Pines area south, as well as across the Molonglo River to Yarralumla equestrian areas including the old Yarralumla Woolshed.

The day was warm with no breeze but with some underlying bushfire smoke hanging around. It was now summer with warm mornings and hot days with a max of 33C predicted. So we wore long sleeve shirts and hats as well as applying sun screen.

Drew & I parked at a car park adjacent to the Zoo on Lady Denman Drive right next to Scrivenor Dam. Access to this little car park was poor so I drove via Cotter Road to make it a left hand turn to get in there. We then walked west and turned south on the outside of the Zoo fence. Note there is another car park on the west side of the entrance to the zoo that might be a better option if one came early.

We then walked 385m down the western fence that had an acceptable dirt track mainly used by bikes until we came to an underpass that goes under the Tuggeranong Parkway (2 + 2 lane highspeed free motorway) and just looked at the access into the Arboretum for horses and bikes as well as walkers. Its the main access for equestrian traffic from Yarralumla across to the NHT (National Heritage Trail) and arboretum itself.

We then reversed and instead of taking the same track further south we opted to walked along a bike trail which had now started in parallel. It was a typical windy narrow dirt pad. Its called the ‘Bakkar’ Zoo Pines Trail. There are 5 formed proper bike trails in the Zoo Pines with a few other short cut trails.

We soon arrived at the southern end of the Zoo and here the Bakkar Trail deviated further west and along the boundary fence whereas we elected to follow a new equestrian trail called “The Bridle Trail” which I understand was constructed by the Bike Trail designers to provide a dedicated equestrian link through to the bridge over the Molonglo. The sign said no bikes on this trail yet of course we could see only bike tracks and no horse or foot marks.

We followed the Bridle Trail as it swung east and then down before joining the main north south multipurpose trail that runs from Lady Denman Drive past the edge of the Zoo, next to the Molonglo down south then turning west and under the Parkway and further. From where we joined this latter track it was only 85m to another junction that took us down a short track to enable us to walk across a concrete causeway across the Molonglo River. On the other side it was a short 130m uphill walk until we came across a main bitumen multipurpose path that runs from Coombs in Molonglo  up to either Lady Denman Drive to the west or to the east and then past the Royal Canberra Golf Course and through Yarralumla and onto the City. Its a main commuter trail for bikes and is also part of the Canberra Centennial Trail for bikes.

We then wandered into the Yarralumla Equestrian Park which is quite spread out. We went too far south and ended in a dead end so we backtracked and went through to equestrian area until we could walk around the Yarralumla old historic Woolshed. This is a large old structure which has been used for many a country style barn dance in years past. We noticed a COGS (Canberra Organic Garden Society) garden just south of the Woolshed but we didn’t go over and check it out.

So we walked back across the river and took the trail south along the river for 350m before turning right onto an other main trail for only 30m before we decided to walk the Zoo Pines ‘The Hood’ Trail which we wandered along and around for 1.2Km until we met another well formed non-bike management trail that we then took south east for around 400m then rejoining the main trail along the Molonglo. We could have walked more bike specific trails but we decided to call it a day and thus headed north along this trail until we reached the car park in 1.2Km.

We then checked out a car park further north around 200m along Lady Denman Drive. Its the car park on Yarramundi Reach and has untimed parking and is easier to enter, so that is likely to be our planned parking spot for any future visits.

It was an interesting, relatively easy walk of 7.1Km taking around 2hr2 11mins.

The route was mostly on bushland dirt paths with some foot pads, some open woodland country, and some grassy sections.

Map of the walk OSM Basic | Map of the walk area from Trail Forks on OSM base  | files including gps located in Google Drive

Notes:  GPS map view using Basecamp on a map base using OSM NSW Garmin Cycling Map | The area of the walk is covered by the NSW 1:25,000 topo map CANBERRA. However there has been so much development in the area not all the area is shown as developed on the current version of the map. Thus for practical purposes Open Street maps are better for planning walks in this area as they show the foot tracks much better.