Australian Hiker

Nearest Town

Majura, Canberra, ACT

Starting Location

Majura, Canberra, ACT

Finish Location

Majura, Canberra, ACT

Best Time to Travel

Year round

Green Loop Walk Review

Along with the Crazy Crab-Flash Walk, and the Blue Loop Walk, this Green Loop Walk is one of three located in the Majura Pines Recreational Area (ACT). It’s an area I’ve only recently discovered because it doesn’t appear on the local government list of walking trails given it’s a multi purpose trail with an emphasis on mountain biking. The trail itself is formed dirt through pine plantation and the wildlife is very much non existent due to the constraints of the roads either side and this being a narrow section of pine plantation.

The walk itself takes you under the major adjacent roadway (Majura Parkway) through the pine forests on the north eastern slopes of Mount Majura and at one stage, you just touch on natural bushland on the upper slopes. While the traffic noise is a constant companion from the roadway below, it becomes almost negligible as you go higher up the slope. There is very little undergrowth in this forest with most of the ground under the pines being reasonably clean until you start breaking into the open which is where the undergrowth starts to reassert itself.

Wildlife was minimal on our visit and limited to a blue tongue lizard and a family of choughs. After you reach the furthest point away from the trailhead, you’re now walking in a logged area and the likelihood of snakes felt very real and this was where we saw the lizard. Once you get into the hotter months, you’ll need to keep an eye out for our slithery friends.

This walk is identified as a 6+ km walk but on the day we did it our GPS measured 5.2 km and after doing this walk, you realise that it has been designed with mountain bikes in mind given the way the trail loops to provide a bit of excitement for cyclists. In fact many of the switchbacks almost touch each other and on a number of occasions we thought they were getting close but they often took a couple of minutes to get there. One thing I would recommend to get the best out of this walk, is to start early and on our next visit we will start much earlier. I can imagine this would be an almost mystical walk in mid winter with the early morning fog in place.

This walk is worth doing at least once and being so close to the city, provides an easily accessible option to do something a bit different.

Car park at Majura Pines recreational area

Trail entry

Whoops!

Trailhead kiosk

Close up of walk signage

Trailhead information for the Green Loop

Toilet block at the trailhead

Water bubbler at the trailhead

Picnic area at the trailhead

Heading off

Sign to the Pines

Heading towards the underpass

Passing under Majura Parkway

Green Loop signage arrows

Give way signage hierarchy

Onto the management trail

Follow the green arrows as you go

Trail marker

Follow the green arrows

Adjacent roadway

Trail example

Family of Choughs

Trail infrastructure

Out into the open

Equestrian Trail

Looking down towards the roadway

Trail infrastructure 2

Choose your difficulty, this is meant for bikers and is only a short option

Native Solanum

Blue Tongue Lizard

Walking across harvevested forest land

Open area 2

On to management road

Gazania in flower. This is technically a weed and is probably an indication that at some stage there was a landfill or a farm in the area

Back into the forest and heading back

Forest panorama

Back out to the management road – turn right here

Turn right and head back towards the underpass

Heading home

Down the slope

Almost back to the start

Back at the trailhead

Trail video

This short video provides a start to finish overview of this walk

Getting There

Google map showing the trailhead from the Canberra GPO. The trip from the centre of Canberra to the trailhead is approximately 13 km and around 15 minutes duration

Heading along the access road

Heading towards the trailhead

Trailhead car park

Things to Know

• Phone: There is excellent phone signal on this track
• Water: There is a water bubbler at the trailhead
• Toilets: There is a toilet at the trailhead
• Trail: This trail consists of formed track
• Dogs: Dogs allowed on a leash
• Other: 
  • This walk is done in a loop however there are plenty of options to choose your own adventure
  • Keep an eye out for cyclists – given the looping on this trail, its easier for walkers to give way

Disclaimer

This walk was undertaken by the team from Australian Hiker

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