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Ascent of Mount Kaputar on 2019-09-04

Climber: James Stone

Others in Party:	Julie Stone
Date:	Wednesday, September 4, 2019
Ascent Type:	Successful Summit Attained
Peak:	Mount Kaputar
Location:	Australia-New South Wales
Elevation:	4954 ft / 1509 m
Ascent Trip Report It is possible to drive to within a few metres of the summit. But that would not do justice to this remarkable viewpoint. From the summit there are fantastic wide ranging views plus a kookaburra's eye view down to the evidence of ancient volcanic activity. There is a huge caldera and other calderas and dykes that can be seen. It has been said that on a good day around 10% of NSW is visible. Notwithstanding the slightly hazy atmosphere we thought that we could just make out Barrington Tops (where we had been the day before) around 200km to the south. There is a narrow largely single track road of 20kms that leads from the park entrance (30kms east of Narrabri) up the mountain. The first 6 to 7kms are gravel and then it reverts to (sometimes rough) tarmac. The surface improves the higher one goes. There are a few viewpoints en route. The Doug Sky one is particularly interesting with a view over a smaller caldera and to Euglah Rock (a remnant of a volcanic dyke). We parked at Dawson's Creek so as to give ourselves a moderate climb through scattered gums. There is a signed trail that begins by some information boards. The final section of the trail is up a wooden flight of steps to the summit trig, a viewfinder and that view. On an early spring day we had the summit to ourselves for the 30 minutes we were up there. The round trip takes nowhere nearly as long as is suggested by the information boards. The Park Authority has the summit at 1510m rather than the 1509m shown on this site. My GPS also recorded 1510m (though after its behaviour the day before I wouldn't place too much reliance on it!) This is my blog suggesting that Mount Kaputar may not be the highest volcano in Australia. Previously this site recognised Mount Kaputar as one of the unranked Volcanic Seven Summits - see here. The webmaster has noted my research but it needs to be validated by a volcanologist/geologist (i.e. someone who actually is actually qualified in these things).