Best trails in Ben Lomond National Park
Ben Lomond National Park has an alpine landscape, making it a great place to hike and climb in the summer and ski, snowboard or snowshoe in the winter time.
Top trails
Trail reviews for Ben Lomond National Park
The highlight the section is Jacobs Ladder. It was built in the 1960s and completed in 1964. It is a very steep and scenic road leading to the top of the plateau in Ben Lomond National Park. This is a spectacular and challenging road with six sharp turns, known as Jacobs Ladder. The Sky Ladder climbs up a gap between these cliffs. The steep zigzag road is unforgettable.
This hike took me 3.5 hours including a lunch break. It had views basically the whole way. The drive from Launceston was also nice - Ben Lomond is an impressive-looking mountain. We drove up Jacob's Ladder afterwards for some more views. You can look up Ben Lomond live cams to see what the visibility is like in advance. The hike wasn't too steep, but there wasn't much flat or "easy" track. It was very rocky (mainly large rocks), and quite wet/muddy. A lot of the tracks are open though, so you can choose drier paths. You have to watch where you're putting your feet the majority of the hike. There aren't really any scrambling sections though, just boulder-hopping. I recommend going up to the summit for 360 degree views. It's an open boulder field where you can explore as much as you want, wandering around the chairlifts. It was very windy up there though! The rest of the walk was a lot warmer than the Ben Lomond forecast. You could walk part way up the trail until it gets bouldery and still get some nice views with a much quicker hike. There aren't any toilets directly on this hike (or at the starting carpark) - you'd need to add a bit on to get to the toilets near the summit. There's a 12km dirt road to get to the starting carpark.