Campground · Mount Aspiring National Park
Ten tent sites beyond a six-to-eight-hour Rees Valley walk.
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 tour“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
Shelter Rock Campsite is 10 non-powered tent sites on the lawn beside Shelter Rock Hut, far up the Rees Valley in Mount Aspiring National Park. It is a backcountry overnight, not a drive-in campground: you reach it on foot, then pitch outside the 22-bunk hut. From Muddy Creek car park, allow 19 km and 6–8 hours for the walk in.
The upper approach leaves the bushline and crosses avalanche paths where snow can linger into late spring. The recommended walking season is late November to April, and this is a serious tramping trip rather than a casual campsite stop. Check current track conditions before setting out.
Eighteen takahē were released into Rees Valley in February 2025. Keep an eye out as you walk through the valley, though a sighting is never guaranteed.
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
Parkwolf’s Mount Aspiring ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
