Child friendly rating: 5 stars

Distance: 10km or 1km

Signposted time: 2 hours 30 minutes, or 15 minutes

Bookings Required? No

Suitable in Winter? Yes

Camping Available? Yes

4wd required? Will bring the way down from 10km to 1km.

Parking:

The parking area is off SH73, watch carefully or you'll miss the sign. It's marked as the Taipo Valley Track.

The Track:

If you have a real four-wheel-drive, you can actually drive most of the way to the hut. The worst part of the road is actually the first bit. You go up and over a hill and once you’re down on the flats, it’s a very straightforward four-wheel-drive track. The first section however wouldn’t be able to be driven by an all wheel drive.

On the flats, the road does cross side branches of the Taipo River. This means during and after any big floods the road may not be passable and after giant floods might need repair. Walking this section of the track can be a little boring as it is just a four-wheel-drive track but it does make it very easy to walk with a nice wide track suitable for holding younger kids hands while walking.

On foot you can bypass climbing up and over the hill by following the river instead of the 4wd track, however with younger kids the 4wd would be much more suitable. Allow half an hour to drive the road section or at least two hours to walk it with older kids and 3 to walk with younger kids.

After the four-wheel-drive car park, there is a river crossing over Seven Mile Creek. This can flood very easily. Carry younger kids over to keep their feet dry, but it’s only about adult ankle depth in low flows. Unfortunately, there is no way to keep your feet dry on this river crossing.

From the river crossing, it’s about five minutes to the old Dillon Homestead Hut. From the old Dillon Homestead hut, it’s about five minutes to the new Dillon Hut. With three trips across the river and a four year-old walking the whole way it took us 26 minutes at a relaxed pace (including exploring Dillon Homestead Hut) to get to Dillon Hut from the four-wheel-drive car park. It is a four-wheel-drive track the whole way to the hut, with some boggy muddy bits where it will be a struggle to keep your shoes clean especially after wet weather.

Hut:

The hut is very modern with platform bunks. Beyond the hut there are some massive slips and the track quality degrades extremely significantly. The cableway mentioned in some old maps no longer exists and was replaced by a three wire bridge in 2017. So no need to explore the valley looking for the cable away. Unfortunately, there isn’t too much to explore past this hut, but it is a very easy to access hut which is great as a first trip.

Recommendations:

If you've got a 4WD capable of driving the road, this can be a super easy trip. Without, it would be good with kids in carriers (No need to worry what's underfoot) or with older kids you know won't get bored walking 10km on a 4WD road.