Hiking the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing

For quite a while, ever since seeing the hike mentioned in an Australian Geographic magazine, I have wanted to hike the Falls to Hotham Alpine Crossing in Victoria’s high country.

I was also really excited to go on a multi-day hike with Luke for the first time. The full hike length is 37km taking 3 days to hike from the Falls Creek alpine resort across to Hotham’s alpine resort. There wasn’t much elevation across the hike, so I thought it would be a perfect introduction to multi day hiking for Luke!

Day 1

There are transport companies who specifically offer transport between Falls Creek and Hotham for this hike, so it was easy to park our car at Hotham and catch the transport back to Falls Creek. To our surprise the transport van was full of hikers, so we clearly weren’t the only ones who had the idea!

The drive between both locations was roughly 2.5 hours due to navigating around the mountain ranges.

Once we arrived in Falls Creek we set off on our hike! Which initially follows the Heathy Spur track, skirting around the Rocky Valley lake.

Of course, every multi-day hike must start with a selfie at the hike start sign! I would definitely not say this is a difficult hike…

We lucked out on some devine weather and enjoyed the walking across the alpine bush.

Very much felt like we were walking across the roof of Australia. The first day was pretty cruisey, we only had a 14km walk to reach Cope Hut which is where the camping ground was.

Unfortunately I didn’t take any photos of Langford hut, Wallaces historic hut or Cope hut! I also didn’t take any photos of the Bogong Rover Chalet that we also passed, but we did get offered a quick tour to take a look inside which was fascinating! There were a fair few people staying in the chalet, mainly who were working nearby.

Strangely, after only 5km I started getting very sore feet. I had completed many multi-day hikes in New Zealand and Tassie and had never had this issue before… so I was very confused at what was happening.

The views from our first campsite! Stunning alpine trees that look like they are dead but are really alive?!

Day 2

On day 2 we only had another 14km to hike to get to Dibbins Hut. None of the huts on this hike are available for sleeping in, so all camp sites were set up with camping platforms.

Breakfast and morning views from our Mont castle!

I’ll be honest, I found the majority of the hiking on Day 2 so far pretty dull. It felt like we were walking across paddocks or flat fields rather than in the alpine high country. I have hiked the main range in Kosciusko National Park a few times and this hike so far wasn’t even close.

We finally started getting some views of the mountains! Just as we were about to drop to the valley floor where Dibbins Hut will be.

This was the most scenic part of the hike.

At this point, my feet were now VERY sore. Turns out even though my hiking shoes were very much in one piece, they were overly worn in and needed replacing. With no shoe stores nearby… I persevered with the hike and got the world’s WORST blisters. Which made for a very painful adventure ahead.

There are the mountains!

The campsite at Dibbins Hut was beautiful, but my feet were so sore I never took any phots!

Day 3

The valley floor near Dibbins hut was so beautiful. We filled up our water bottles in the creek and embarked on our short 9km hike up to Hotham. It was actually nice to have a bit of elevation to climb.

There were some nice views of the mountains as we made our way up to Hotham.

I believe this hike was created by adjoining multiple pre-existing hikes into one, though it also makes up a short section of the Australian Alps Walking Track.

Our first views of Mount Hotham!

Looking out towards Mount Feathertop! Where I wish we were hiking instead.

The final stretch of the hike.

Not sure I would recommend this hike, but if you are a beginner looking to get into multi-day hiking it is likely a good introduction. We certainly won’t be rushing back!