Sight · Mount Aspiring National Park
A gentle forest walk ends at a lake with a mountain view.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Aspiring Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Mount Aspiring 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.
See the Mount Aspiring audio tourRecorded for this place
Lake Sylvan and the Old Tramline“Lake Sylvan's access road is coming up, for a walk through red beech forest to a small lake. From the car park, allow about forty minutes each way to the viewing platform, with glimpses of Mount Earnslaw across the lake.”
Plays as you drive up to Lake Sylvan in the Parkwolf Mount Aspiring Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“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!!!!”
Guide
Lake Sylvan is a small lake framed by red beech forest in the Glenorchy part of Mount Aspiring National Park. A walk from the car park reaches its viewing platform in about 40 minutes each way. Return by the old tramline loop for a 1 hour 40 minute circuit. The track is graded easy to intermediate, and dogs are not allowed. The car park is about a 30-minute drive from Glenorchy. A new 42-metre suspension bridge over the Routeburn River reconnected the track in 2025 after a storm damaged its predecessor in 2020.
The platform looks across the lake and forested slopes to the surrounding mountains, with glimpses of Mt Earnslaw/Pikirakatahi. For a photo, keep some water and shoreline in the foreground so the mountain view still feels connected to the lake.
The approach crosses old moraine river terraces through tall red beech, also called tawhai raunui. These glacial landforms and the deep forest make the walk part of the visit, not just a way to get to the water.
Brown trout and numerous small native fish live in the lake. Robins, fantails and riflemen are among the native birds found along the track; listen for birdsong as you walk.
Wildlife
60 sightingsKeaMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
112 sightingsRockwrenMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
26 sightingsYellowheadMost seen around 8 AMSighting map
13 sightingsTūīMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
27 sightingsBellbirdMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
35 sightingsRiflemanMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Mount Aspiring. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
ModerateLake Sylvan–Rockburn Track14.5 km · 5 hr · 2.3 km awayA long forest tramp pays off at Rockburn’s blue pools.
ModerateLake Sylvan Track6.5 km · 1.7 hr · 2.3 km awayA suspension bridge leads through red beech to a lakeside platform.
ChallengingRouteburn Track33.1 km · 13.5 hr · 3.6 km awayWaterfalls, alpine wetlands and a 1,255 m pass in one crossing.
ModerateRouteburn Falls Hut Day Walk19.6 km · 7 hr · 3.6 km awayTwo waterfalls and a high hut make the long climb worthwhile.
ChallengingTarahaka Whakatipu (Harris Saddle)25.4 km · 10.5 hr · 3.6 km awayA long alpine day ends at a shelter above Lake Harris.
ModerateRouteburn Flats Track15 km · 4 hr · 3.6 km awayFollow an 1870s bridle path to open valley flats.
ChallengingSugarloaf Pass Track8 km · 6 hr · 3.6 km awayA hard climb to a broad pass above two valleys.
ChallengingRouteburn North Branch Track21.7 km · 8.5 hr · 3.6 km awayA long valley walk with rough tread and Humboldt mountain views.Parkwolf’s Mount Aspiring ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
