Halls Gap's best short walk with minimal elevation
Venus baths are nice, but the walking trail to get there from Halls Gap is incredible.
Start the walk from just on the other side of the creek to the Halls Gap Botanic Gardens, right alongside the camping park. It’s about one kilometre from here to the Venus Baths. The trail then comes back along the other side of the creek to the Botanic Gardens. All up, the Venus Baths Loop walk is about 2 kms.
You’ll walk below Eucalyptus trees on a path that weaves around huge, ancient sandstone boulders beside a fern covered creek with massive cliffs, natural stone structures and dense forest at parts of either side.
There’s almost no elevation on the entire walk, it’s just a stunningly beautiful short and easy stroll that showcases some of Australia’s iconic native flora.
The Botanic Gardens has some plants that are only fond in the Grampians. It can be interesting to go there first, have a good look at the Grampians endemic plants and then try and spot some of them on your walk to Venus Baths. There’s a bridge exiting the gardens that takes you to Venus Baths and you then can loop back around and finish back in the Botanic Gardens, or head straight out the back and loop around that way, potato, potato.
Trail details
Difficulty
Completely easy. The walk requires very little fitness with no challanges.
Length
The Venus Baths Loop is a little bit more than 2 kms. The Venus Baths are about 1.1 kms from the Botanic Gardens.
Elevation
Very little, there’s almost none.
At some points, you’re required to walk up and over a few rocks, but nothing extreme. There’s almost no stairs or hills, other than the occasional small slope that almost go unnoticed.
Facilities
There’s a large car park with plenty of room and facilities over by the Halls Gap pool.
There are flushing toilets, drinking water, barbecues and a massive picnic area just near the start of the trail.
Closest place to buy food & drinks
The trail starts right in the centre of Halls Gap, which is the main tourist town of the Grampians. There are shops, cafe’s and restaurants all nearby, with-in a short walk from the start of the trail.
Dog Friendly
The walk from MacKenzie Falls to Zumsteins is not dog friendly. With the exception of Halls Gap, dogs aren’t allowed in the Grampians National Park, including the MacKenzie Falls car park and Zumsteins picnic area.
Swimming at Venus Baths
You wouldn’t call it swimming, but if there’s enough water, Venus Baths is a nice place to cool off. The water pools in a series of baths, with a wider section at the bottom and the top. People often take their shoes & socks off and dangle their legs in the water, others hop right in.
In the summer months, a lot of the time there’s not a lot of water and they’ll even dry up if it hasn’t rained a while. In winter, it gets really cold in Halls Gap and wouldn’t be ideal to swim here, so it’s best heading there on a warm day before December. By January, it’ll probably just be murky puddles or nothing at all.
Getting to Venus Baths
Once you’re in Halls Gap, park anywhere and make your way over to the Botanic Gardens, which is next to the caravan and camping park, over behind the swimming pool on the other side of Stoney Creek that runs through town.
The trail runs along side the creek from the Halls Gap Caravan and Camping Park to Venus Baths, then back on the other side of Stoney Creek to the Botanic Gardens.
Accommodation & Camping
You can camp right at the start of the trail to Venus Baths by calling up the Halls Gap Caravan and Camping Park or booking a campsite on their website. They also have cabins. Otherwise there are dozens of other accommodation options in Halls Gap, from luxury villas and nice motels to budget hostels.
Halls Gap is one of Victoria’s most iconic tourist towns and is the heart of the Grampians National Park. It’s worth staying a while.
If you’re looking for a longer walk than just heading to Venus Baths and back, try the Chatauqua Peak Loop, heading up to Boroka Lookout, or the Pinnacle, otherwise here’s a video of when we did the entire Halls Gap Loop, which is a trail that we made up by joining a few together.