Hiking to the Pinnacle | The Pinnacle, Grampians National Park

Towering almost 500 metres above Halls Gap, a trip to the Grampians isn’t complete without hiking to the Pinnacle Lookout.

On top of the ridge at the cliffs’ edge, look over the town and endless plains to the east, Lake Bellfield to the south and the rugged Eucalyptus covered mountains to the west.

Hiking to the Pinnacle Lookout

There are three main ways of getting up to the Pinnacle, so that means you’ve got plenty of options to choose from once you consider mixing and matching trails to suit your desired level of difficulty and distance.

Elevation

Halls Gap: 233 metres

Wonderland Carpark: 445 metres

Sundial Peak Carpark: 620 metres

Pinnacle Lookout: 715 metres

Wonderland Carpark to the Pinnacle

By far the most popular trail is the hike from Wonderland Carpark through the Grand Canyon, up Silent Street and out to the Pinnacle. This trail shows off some of the most stunning rock formations and gullies in the entire national park.

From start to finish, it’s up hill and can be a bit steep at times. We’ve seen people of all ages and fitness levels conquer the hike from Wonderland to the Pinnacle, for some people, it’s just a matter of taking regular brakes.

It’s 2.2 kilometres from Wonderland car park to the Pinnacle lookout. Typrically, it takes about 1.25 hours to get up there, 15 minutes to take some photos and soak in the view, then another 45 minutes to an hour to make the descent back to the car park.

Wonderland car park is about 5-10 minute drive from Halls Gap. Take the road that goes past the cricket oval covered in Kangaroos and it’ll be the first road to the left, about 5 minutes after the oval.

Entering Silent Street

Coming back down

Silent Street on Pinnacle grampians hike

Hiking from Sundial Carpark to the Pinnacle

Hiking from Sundial carpark to the Pinnacle is the easiest option. This trail is the same length as the one from Wonderland (2.2km each way), although less than half the elevation and not many steep parts at all.

If you have young kids, clumsy friends or mild accessibility issues, this walk is more suited to you.

Taking the long way: Hiking from Halls Gap the Pinnacle

Hiking from Halls Gap to the Pinnacle is quite a bit more challenging and takes more than double the time of the other two shorter trails, but you get to see so much more.

Walk over the caravan park in the middle of town and head towards Venus Baths or the Botanic Gardens. Just on edge of Caravan Park, you’ll see a trail heading into the forest at the base of the mountains. From here, it’s about 3.4 kms up to the Pinnacle, almost 500 metres elevation and it’ll take you a good 2+ hours to reach the lookout.

Although you get to see a lot more than on the more direct trails and you don’t need to drive to a carpark to start the walk, unfortunately you’ll miss out on the Grand Canyon and Silent Street, which are incredible parts of the walk from Wonderland to the Pinnacle.

Once you’ve made it up to the Pinnacle from Halls Gap, instead of heading back the way you came from, you can take an entire loop that continues from the Pinnacle to Sundial Car Park, over to Sundial Peak, down to Lake Bellfield and back into Halls Gap. This trail is about 18kms in total and you can see the video below of when we completed the loop.