One of the pleasures of hiking in the mountains is being out on top of the world looking down on forests and seeing other mountains and hills in the distance. The problem in South East Queensland is that most hikes are through forest or woodland, which is lovely, but I miss the open mountains.

Hiking up Mt Allan
Mt Allan, at the Charlie Moreland Camping Ground on the Sunshine Coast is one of the few places where you will find yourself hiking over mostly exposed terrain. Not so much fun in summer, but fantastic in a South East Queensland winter.

You do cross some lovely creeks on the hike
The track is 8 km and basically goes up the hill and then you return down the same track. The track itself affords great views, though the summit is disappointing now that they have closed the old fire tower to public access.

Mountain hiking views
A great short walk that we did as a training hike for a much harder mountain, though if you don't care about fitness you can stop and rest on the way up.

Little Yabba Creek is a nice spot for a swim after the hike
Post hike the Charlie Moreland Camping Ground is a great spot for a picnic, barbecue or a swim in little Yabba Creek. We chose instead to go to Maleny for coffee and cake at the UpFront Cafe. There are also many places to choose from in the other direction, in and around Kenilworth.