Canberra Walks – Isaacs Ridge

Walking up Isaacs Ridge with a baby on the back.

Isaacs Ridge is one of a large number of hills on the south side of Canberra. The trig point is marked YA90, and measures 810 metres of elevation.

I had to pick up some things at an embassy in O’Malley and thought this would be a good addition to the journey. I parked at the Isaacs shops, which seemed a bit of a ghost town. There are some restaurants and cafes, but that day there was nothing much happening, might have been too early.

There is a nice park nearby, so we played there a little while, before I lifted up the baby backpack and started climbing. Once you reach the reserve, the early part of the track is through pine forest. There are some good mountain bike trails through here too, I visited them on the ride down to Tuggeranong.

The previous time I reached the summit, it had been a multi peak walk, having started at Red Hill. This time it was one, and that was plenty with a heavy load on the back.

Getting closer to the top, the road changes to a fire trail, before you come out into much more open space, with views across the south side of Canberra. It had been very foggy that morning, so there was still some haze out in the distance, but there were great views to the parts of town closer to the area.

You are able to do quite a nice circuit, or keep walking via the Centenary Trail towards Mugga Mugga Nature Reserve. In the other direction you can keep going to Waniassa Hills and towards Tuggeranong. You can go for a long way without being near a road.

The descent was through a bit more eucalypt rather than the pine trees. This made the scenery a little more interesting. It was easy enough to find the way back, as there had been a house for sale right on the corner.