Parking
Start at the Routeburn Shelter carpark, at the end of Glenorchy-Routeburn Road. The road end is about 35 minutes from Glenorchy; the forest road is narrow and its last section is gravel.
Overview
About Routeburn Nature Walk
Why go
- Easy family-length loop with forest interpretation and river scenery.
- Mostly flat valley-floor path through red beech/tawhero forest.
Heads up
- Fewer open valley views than the longer Routeburn Track.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Mount Aspiring map
Full mapElevation477–503 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 Routeburn Nature Walk, 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
Routeburn Shelter: Choose Your Walk0:00 / 0:26
“You're coming up on Routeburn Shelter, where you can explore without tackling the full Great Walk. For a short stop, choose the Nature Walk, a forest-and-river loop taking forty minutes to an hour.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Mount Aspiring Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Lake Sylvan and the Old Tramline
- The Sugar Behind the Soot
- The Routeburn's Unfinished Gold Route
- The Warbler's Oversized Chick
- 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 Routeburn Nature Walk
A short forest loopRouteburn Nature Walk is an easy loop from Routeburn Shelter through red beech/tawhero forest…
Routeburn Nature Walk is an easy loop from Routeburn Shelter through red beech/tawhero forest to Sugarloaf Stream. The mapped loop is about 1.9 miles; published distances disagree, so plan around the 40-minute-to-one-hour walking time. It suits a short family walk for close-up forest and river scenery, though it has fewer open valley views than the longer Routeburn Track.
How the loop runsCross the Route Burn on the swingbridge and follow the main track for 10–15 minutes.
Cross the Route Burn on the swingbridge and follow the main track for 10–15 minutes. Take the marked left turn down a winding path to the flat valley floor, then meander through the forest for another 10–15 minutes to Sugarloaf Stream. Turn back along the main track to Routeburn Shelter; that return takes 20–30 minutes. Crossing the Sugarloaf swingbridge continues up the longer Routeburn Track toward Routeburn Flats and Bridal Veil Waterfall, beyond this loop.
What to noticeThe red beech/tawhero forest is similar to the beech/tawhai vegetation along the Routeburn…
The red beech/tawhero forest is similar to the beech/tawhai vegetation along the Routeburn Track. Interpretive panels cover plants and birdlife; listen for tūī, bellbirds, fantails and robins. A couple of short hills bookend the mostly flat valley-floor walk. Dogs aren't allowed.
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.
