Parking
No road or vehicle access. Reach Schouten Island by boat and use Crocketts Bay campground as the on-island starting access.
Overview
About Bear Hill from Crocketts Bay
Why go
- A short climb opens views over Schouten Island and Freycinet.
Heads up
- The upper climb is steep and the track is often indistinct.
- Boat access and landing at Crocketts Bay depend on weather and swell.
Bear Hill from Crocketts Bay is an out-and-back summit walk from the Crocketts Bay campground on Schouten Island. The best-supported total is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) round trip; allow about 1 to 1.5 hours. The official track list gives 1.199 km without saying which direction, while the mapped campground-to-summit route is about 1.1 km one way. Another route listing gives 1.6 miles round trip, so treat the distance as approximate. This is a short but demanding climb for hikers comfortable with rough, sometimes hard-to-follow ground.
Parkwolf’s verdictIs this the climb for you?Map & elevation
The route
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Freycinet Tour Guide
Your drive to Bear Hill from Crocketts Bay, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Freycinet National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
- 24 audio storiesacross Freycinet’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Wombat, Echidna, Red-necked Wallaby, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 21 trails, 29 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Bear Hill from Crocketts Bay
From camp to graniteThe approach starts gently, then steepens when the path reaches the granite.
The approach starts gently, then steepens when the path reaches the granite. The upper climb is a direct scramble over boulders, and the track is not always easy to pick out. Expect uneven footing and use care choosing each step; this is not a smooth walking path.
The summit viewFrom the top, you can look down toward both the landing beach and the campground beach, with…
From the top, you can look down toward both the landing beach and the campground beach, with the Freycinet Peninsula's mountains across the water. If you take a photo, keep some of the granite in the foreground; it shows how the viewpoint sits above the island and bay.
Boat access and park rulesSchouten Island has boat access, and landing at Crocketts Bay depends on weather and swell.
Schouten Island has boat access, and landing at Crocketts Bay depends on weather and swell. There is no road or car park at the trailhead. A valid Tasmanian parks pass is required for the national park, and ordinary pets are not allowed.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Freycinet
27 sightingsWombatMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
35 sightingsEchidnaMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
358 sightingsRed-necked WallabyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
17 sightingsPademelonMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
27 sightingsWhite-bellied Sea-EagleMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
50 sightingsKookaburraMost seen around 7 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Freycinet. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
