Yackandandah MTB Trailhead Campsites – Free & Dog Friendly
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Looking for a weekend away or campsite in Victoria that has dog friendly and/or free camping?
This campsite is in state park near MTB tracks and is about an 8 minute (4.4km) drive from the historical Yackandandah township which has a brewery and cafe.
Quick Fact Box
| -Free -Dog Friendly -Drop Toilets (significant walk from some campsites so ladies prepare to pop a squat and pack out your toilet paper for number 1s and just head up there when you have to) Accessible by gravel/dirt corrugated road. Generally 2WD accessible unless wet/changed conditions) ^Wikicamps is a great source for up to date campground changes from travellers who have recently visited. Before visiting always check up to date regional fire, safety & road access conditions with government websites. You can now get quite comprehensive information on the DELWP ‘More to Explore’ app for android and apple. It’s actually pretty good, not perfect but they are definitely starting to lift their game. In fact, it even has campsite photos for many places so it’s already beating the parks vic website. For more information on the Mountain Bike Tracks near the campsite, including a map, terrain profile and difficulty grades, you can visit the Ride High Country website. They are also on the trailforks and other apps. |
General Overview
The Yackandandah Creek camping is a series of campsites located along the creek in Stanley State Forest. There are several campsites that are quite close to the Mountain Bike trailhead.
This campsite has your typical State Park feels – at times gloriously quiet with nothing but the sound of the creek bubbling and birds calling from tree to tree high in the canopy above you.
At other times its the roaring sound of dirt bike packs passing by and loud utes playing in the gravel as they cross the bridge and head into the bush. These campsites are just off the road and near dirt bike trailheads so they are not in a quiet area.
The campsites are large many would fit multiple families or groups of mates on a holiday, mountain bike or dirt bike trip.
Facilities near the campsites
Facilities – drop toilets, with campsites 1 -2 served by the MTB Trailhead carpark toilets and 3 by the Mountain bike trailhead toilets. They get pretty mank to be honest and you need BYO paper, the condition didn’t change during our two night stay so I doubt they are cleaned often. There is a water tank at the toilet for hand washing but you should bring your own drinking water. The creek was running in November but I don’t know if it runs so clearly all summer.
The Campsites
The campsites are spread out along the road and so vary quite a bit, some require a 4wd to get to but many are 2wd accessible in most conditions (gravel road).
Campsite 3 (and nearby sites) are surrounded by huge trees, some of the tallest I’ve seen – as tall as the mountain ash in the otways. It’s a little disconcerting to camp underneath them, knowing the advice is always to avoid camping under large trees. But they do make for a very beautiful backdrop of mottled cream and grey trunks with strings of bark hanging from their canopies.
One of the mountain bike tracks follows the ridgeline across the river so be prepared for early riders to go buy at the start of the day (no walking round nude lol).
Fire pits are provided at most sites, often with the swinging hot plates. The ground is gravelly in some sites so I would imagine you would have to be selective on which sites and where to bang in a peg if you are in a tent.
Nature – Plants & Wildlife
Wildlife – Feels alive, we had a Koala in a tree out the front of our campsite, birds call in the morning and afternoon, an owl called the first night and we heard a few frogs in the bubbling creek below the campsite.
You hear and spot possums creep down from the trees on dusk and kangaroos thump through the bush. We had a koala in a small tree above us one day.
Overall a picturesque bush campsite with the occasional interruption of cars and bikes. It would be very busy on long weekends so don’t go expecting it be a nature fest at those times.
There are weeds everywhere, with the understory of the river a monoculture of introduced vines. You can still see some nice native ferns, giving a taste of how gorgeous it would be if the native plants could thrive.
I quickly stopped my dog digging in the dirt on the edge of the river because I didn’t want to contribute to erosion only to have a group show up with gold pans later in the day.
So I guess like most state parks it is still really pretty, but be aware it’s definitely not a high conservation value area. But that’s a reason to be grateful for state parks as they provide areas for us to do higher impact activities rather than in higher conservation value national parks.
Activities
Mountain Bikes
There are heaps of well-signed mountain bike tracks that leave from this trailhead. Several people I ran into said they felt that the green tracks were actually pretty difficult and perhaps not graded correctly (or at the very top end of what green is usually in Australia) so something to be aware of.
As linked above you can see the full map and then elevation profiles and a short overview of details for each track on the Ride High Country website. They are also on the trailforks and other apps.
Bushwalks
I did a bushwalk on the green mountain bike trail and it was really beautiful. Heaps of little flowers, bush in really good condition full of native plants and almost no weeds
Just make sure you don’t walk with headphones in and pay attention so you can get off the track (especially if there is blind corners so you and a bike rider don’t get hurt).
Dirt Bikes and 4WD’s
There is quite a lot of tracks through this park. When you drive along the main gravel road there are these insane cliff drops off old tracks so make sure you are familiar with the terrain you are riding on!