Parking
Car parks are at Davis Flat and Haast Pass/Tioripatea summit on SH6, about 80 km north of Wānaka. Use two vehicles for a point-to-point crossing, or retrace the track from one car.
Overview
About Bridle Track
Why go
- A well-graded forest walk on a historic Otago–Westland route
Heads up
- One-car visitors need a 7 km retrace; SH6 is not a safe walking return
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Mount Aspiring map
Full mapElevation382–589 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
1 active Mount Aspiring alert
- CautionRob Roy Track: stop at lower lookout during avalanche seasonFrom May through November, end your Rob Roy Track hike at the lower lookout; DOC strongly recommends against continuing to the upper lookout because the track crosses active avalanche paths.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Mount Aspiring Tour Guide
Your drive to Bridle Track, narrated.
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 trailhead
Haast Pass Lookout at Tioripatea0:00 / 0:25
“You're approaching the Haast Pass lookout car park at Tioripatea. The view of Mount Brewster is above the beech forest, reached by a steep one point five kilometre return walk taking about an hour.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Mount Aspiring Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- How Mountains Make a Rain Shadow
- Months Underwater, Days in the Air
- Fantail Falls and the Road Builders
- Makarora River Bridge and the Hut Track
- 80 audio storiesacross Mount Aspiring’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Kea, Rockwren, Yellowhead, and 8 more
- Works offlinemaps, 50 trails, 52 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 Bridle Track
The trackThe Bridle Track is a 3.5 km (2.
The Bridle Track is a 3.5 km (2.2 mile) point-to-point walk between the Davis Flat and Haast Pass/Tioripatea car parks. It follows a well-graded forest path and takes about 1 hour 30 minutes one way; the route is rated easy to intermediate. With one vehicle, retrace the same track for a 7 km (4.4 mile) return walk, around three hours. The shoulder on SH6 is narrow and very busy, so it is not a safe walking return.
Getting between the endsUse two vehicles, one at each car park, for the point-to-point walk.
Use two vehicles, one at each car park, for the point-to-point walk. Both access points are on SH6, about 80 km north of Wānaka. Davis Flat car park can wash out during heavy rain; do not leave a vehicle there overnight when heavy rain is forecast. The nearest toilets are at Cameron Flat campsite, 10 km south.
A link with a long historyThis surviving section follows the old Bridle Track, the first link between Otago and Westland.
This surviving section follows the old Bridle Track, the first link between Otago and Westland. Māori crossed Haast Pass to trade pounamu and food. By 1876 a pack track crossed the pass, later serving prospectors, early settlers and livestock drives before the Haast Highway was completed in 1960. Those stories belong to the wider pass and corridor; the evidence does not place every event on this exact stretch. Dogs are not allowed on the track.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Mount Aspiring
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.
