Sundowner National Park

Hello Max,

The first part of the track has 2 options the first being rough but easy the 2nd is just plain hard! after that although the run is rough and slow it is realtivley easy up to Borrows Water Holes (which is the pick of the Camp sites) after that it gets very hard and not for the inexperenced. If you decide to go on past Burrows take recovery gear. I suggest don't take the Frontera further than Camp grounds.

From the park entry although it is only about 5-6ks it will take you over an hour to get to Burrows. you will be traveling over some very rocky tracks however the track is not particularly steep or hilly until you get Burrows.

Now after that the place is stunning and secluded and this time of year the temp will be somewhere -4 at night to about 24-28 during the day.

Let your tyres down at the gate to about 20 -22 PSI.

Cheers
Kevin

Max,

Excellent place. Tracks go from medium with loose rocks to exteme with nice rock crawling over hard rock shelves. About Half way down you might see a "memorial" cairn on your right with a track leading down a steep hill. The cairn consists of broken Landrover axles and unidentified clutch plates and CVs!!!! That track turns into some extreme stuff :) (Yippe)

On a recent trip with the Tamworth 4wd club which attempted most of the hard stuff, only two cars sustained no damage. However the comments re Burrows are correct. Good place to camp, and bloody cold this time of year. Plenty of easy trails as well.

HEMA have a map and the tracks shown are the easy to medium ones.

Steve from Armidale
2001 RV Troopy

Max6367

Sundown NP is a good place not to be missed. Very, very rocky though. Have seen Subaru Forresters at Red Rock Gorge. Saw a RAV4 and Niva at Rats Castle. Go with someone else and just take it real slow and easy over the more difficult bits. Our club was there at Easter. Some chose not to do the loop at Rats Castle. Would probably suggest you don't either. Take the track to the left when heading out and then turn around at the Severn River crossing at the end. If you get over the rocks and continue on, you will be faced with some more difficult hills which shouldn't be attempted unless your vehicle is set up for it and you have reasonable offroad experience. Of our 8 vehicles none sustained any damage, but only 3 did the loop at Rats Castle. On your way back out from Red Rock Gorge, if you go left back towards the park entrance, the track is less used and a few years ago required vehicles with good ground clearance.

Totally different terrain to Mt Mee but not necessarily any more challenging than some of the less used tracks at Mt Mee (not the wide forestry roads).

Max

In previous lives I have taken LWB Suzuki Vitara, LWB Landrover SIII, Landrover Countys etc into Sundown. If my IFS Vitara made it, you will. I have always gone in groups though.

The last loop of track past Rats Castle has a rather washed out and steep hill to negotiate. I wouldn't attempt that on my own unless the track has improved since I was there a year ago (not likely). The tracks out of some of the camp grounds can also be a bit steep and rutted. May take a few goes to get out of.

Trap rock country. Expect your tyres to get a bit chewed.

You will see kangaroos, goats and hares on the grassy slopes on dusk.

From memory, Burrows has pit toilets. Take your own drinking water. The Severn water level fluctuates a fair bit. Sometimes I've seen lots of clear water in the river making some crossings near Rats Castle challenging and other times it has been very dry, with putrid, stagnant pools.

Yikes, it would be cold there now. Not sure how far the Christmas bushfires made it into the park.

Just got back from Sundown Last weekend wasn't to cold tracks are pretty rough at the moment. there is still pretty good water in the river but all we caught were Euro carp and two undersize yellow bellies.They had a shoot a couple of weeks ago so the feral animals are a bit flighty.We stayed 2 nights and only saw 2 other vehicles all weekend.give me a email if you want I'll send you a couple of pics showing the tracks.