It’s hard to believe that a view this good is not more well known, but I guess that makes Rusden Head all the more special. It offers a glorious panorama over the densely forested mountains of the Budawangs, including the iconic peak of Pigeon House Mountain.
You’ll hear nothing but lyrebirds calling from the forest below, wind rustling in the trees and the chattering of the abundant birdlife that call the plateau home. The scenery feels timeless and remote, and if you’re lucky enough to visit for sunset it takes on a beautiful golden glow.
The walk to reach Rusden Head is easy in the sense it’s almost entirely flat, but if you’re visiting after heavy rain, be prepared for some serious waterlogged sections. Although we weren’t impressed when our boots flooded, it was still absolutely worth it!
Here’s what to expect from the walk to Rusden Head.
The Rusden Head Trail
The stats
Distance: 9.8km return
Elevation gain: 95m
Difficulty: Easy
Trailhead: Little Forest Car Park, Morton NP
Summary: The walk to Rusden Head is almost entirely flat, and in dry conditions would be about as easy as it gets short of it being a paved trail. However, after rain you will encounter some pretty serious waterlogged sections (and they do linger), some of which are definitely more bog than giant puddles and a couple cannot be avoided.
If rain has been heavy, submerged boots are almost a guarantee. However, keeping to the edges meant our boots flooded, but we didn’t get wet any higher than that.
There are a couple of sections of boardwalk, but nothing like what you’ll find on the nearby Mount Bushwalker Track. If you are planning to walk after heavy rain and don’t like the sound of the path, then it’s worth looking at Mount Bushwalker, which is so heavily board-walked that you shouldn’t have any chance of wet boots.
Another choice is the nearby Florence Head, which does suffer from some mud and giant puddles, but no wet sections that couldn’t be skirted around.
Timing it for sunset
If you want to see sunset you should aim to arrive at least 30 minutes before sunset, as the sun drops behind the mountain tops early. We took one hour to walk to the viewpoint at Rusden Head, so we recommend starting the trail at least 1.5 hours before sunset and more if you want to explore the plateau.
Starting the trail: to the first lookout
From the parking area (details below) you’ll head onto the Little Forest Track. The first 500m are all on a very well maintained gravel path.
There are a couple of steps, but for the most part it’s flat. After 500m you reach a signposted junction and the path to Rusden Head is on the right.
You’ll see the turnoff for Florence Head, which you could add onto this track if you wanted to do a longer walk (this would be an additional 5.5km return).
The view is tremendous, though aside from a distant view of the coast, you are looking at the same scenery as you will see from Rusden Head, just from a different vantage point.
The view from Florence Head
Once you’ve turned onto the Rusden Head Trail, you’ll see a turnoff for a lookout platform 50m later.
The wooden viewing platform offers a great view of Pigeon House Mountain and takes less than a minute to reach.
To Rusden Head
Once you turn onto the Rusden Head Track you leave the gravel path behind and start walking along a grassy vehicle track. It begins by heading very gently downhill before flattening.
If you’re walking in dry conditions, there is little to note along the trail. If it’s wet, you will start encountering some waterlogged sections and mud around 400m after the turnoff.
It’s not too bad at first and all waterlogged areas can be skirted around, just watch out for the mud, which though not deep, can be a touch slippery.
At the 1.4km mark you’ll reach a metal boardwalk and you will wish it went on a lot longer than 150m! The vegetation is dense on either side of the path and there is plenty of birdlife.
After the boardwalk the track gets wetter and skirting the bog is impossible after heavy rain. We tried to get around the edge, but honestly, it would have been less tedious to succumb to flooded boots earlier as there really is no avoiding it.
After 400m there’s another glorious 150m stretch of boardwalk before you’re back to the mud and puddles.
Though a significant amount of this part of the trail was very wet, only two of the boggy bits were deep enough to flood our boots, the rest could be skirted around, so it’s not going to be a soggy walk all the way!
There are also some points where the track throughly dries out, so though I am making a big deal about the conditions, it’s not all bad.
Around 4.2km into the track you’ll reach a part of the trail that has some rocks and from here the path is either dry, or puddles can be avoided by walking on the rocks.
You’ll start to get some great views of Pigeon House Mountain ahead of you and you’re now just 500m from Rusden Head.
Though there are no signposts you’ll know you’re reached the end of the ‘maintained’ trail when you reach the rocky plateau.
Rusden Head
The view from Rusden Head has the wow factor. It’s nothing but mountains and forest as far as the eye can see, and along with nearby Florence Head, offers one of the best views of Pigeon House Mountain we’ve seen yet.
You can walk along the plateau, though it’s vegetated, so it’s not as straightforward as simply walking across rock.
You have to walk on the rocks behind the vegetation, with regular little gullies to cross.
We went for about 300m and though the views when it opened up were good, they weren’t better than the original viewpoint, so we decided to turn back and make the most of watching the sun slowly drop behind the mountains.
The sun sets behind the mountains to the right of the main view, but you still get some lovely colour make its way across the wider landscape.
You can also do some off track exploring in this area which was our original intention, but for various reasons we ran out of time, so will be saving that adventure for another day!
When you’re ready to leave, you retrace your steps back the same way. The walk is easy even in the dark, especially if it’s dry, but even if it’s wet as it was for us, you have probably accepted wet boots by now, so you’ll be less worried about trying to find the driest possible route!
Getting to Rusden Head
The car park for Rusden Head is located in Morton National Park, the exact location can be found here. It’s around a 30 minute drive from Ulladulla and Mollymook and 50 minutes from Husskisson in Jervis Bay.
The car park is very small, however, we’ve visited three times and never seen another soul here, so you shouldn’t have any trouble parking. The last 3km of the road to the car park is unsealed (with a small amount just before this) however, at time of writing it is suitable for any car.
There are some large potholes in places, but they were gravel rather than muddy - however, as unsealed roads can deteriorate overtime, if you are planning to visit in a small car and are worried, it’s worth calling the park service to get up to date road conditions.
There aren’t any facilities at the car park, the nearest toilet is just under a 10 minute drive away at the car park for Mount Bushwalker.
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