The Devils Peak is one of the most well known walks near Quorn in the Southern Flinders Ranges, offering spectacular 360 views. On paper, it looks like an easy win at just 1.4km in each direction. However this only tells half the story! It’s steep!
As the trail is exposed, we recommend avoiding the heat of the day. The views from the top would make it a great place to hike to for sunrise or sunset.
Here’ what to expect on one of the must-do walks in the Southern Flinders.
The Devils Peak Hike
The Stats
Distance: 2.8km (return)
Elevation gained: 265m
Difficulty: Moderate
The hike to the top of Devils Peak is short, but steep. We recommend allowing 30- 45 minutes to hike to the top, a decent amount of time to enjoy the views and 30 minutes for the walk back down.
Starting the trail
The trail to the top of Devils Peak is on private property (someone has kindly allowed public access to the trail), so please don’t deviate from the path. The start of the trail is along a dirt road, but keep going until you can’t drive any further.
There is a gate which may look like it’s the start of the trail - it says “Devils Peak 1.5km” - but you need to open the gate and keep driving.
The trail starts with a gradual uphill climb through a sparse forest - it’s more a collection of trees than a forest! The path is relatively smooth for the first 400m before the rubble begins.
From here the trail is steep, exposed and slippery in parts. Over the next 1km you’ll scale up over 220m in elevation, which is pretty steep even for the Flinders!
The climb to the top
The majority of the climb is fairly rough, think walking on lots of pieces of rock - although it’s not slippery like scree would be.
There are sections where it borders on scrambling (we did need to use our hands to help scale up in a couple of places). Most people will find it a little tiring, but completely doable.
The trail can be hard to follow, so the key is to look for the worn down path and keep an eye out for the red reflectors. These will keep you on the path, rather than veering off the mountain!
After 1.2km you’ll reach the saddle, where the path stops heading straight up. The trail turns left and continues up some larger rocks for a short time, which is easier than walking on the smaller rubbly rocks in our opinion.
You’ll see a plastic canister with a visitors log book, and then some arrows that are spray painted on the rocks, pointing towards a gully.
Then out of nowhere there’s a sharp turn that requires a little bit of climbing! The key here is to look for the foot holes to use your feet to climb up to the top. It’s very short, but can look a little fiddly.
We were sat on the top for a long while and we’d say about 50% of people were stumped by this last move, but everyone got up with encouragement from those at the top! We were hiking on a weekend and there was a steady stream of people, all of whom were happy to lend a hand to anyone that needed it.
The last scramble to the very top
If you’re used to scrambling we’re probably making it sound harder than it is and you won’t blink at this bit, but just in case you’re not, definitely still give it a go.
Once you’ve done this bit, you’re at the top!
The peak and back down
The top of Devils Peak offers incredible views out to Port Lincoln in one direction and to the Flinders Ranges in the other. You can feel just how high you’ve hiked and see for miles in every direction. It’s a worthy pay off for a surprisingly tiring walk (although that could have been more the intense November sun!).
We met a really nice family at the top and found ourselves chatting away and enjoying the view for over an hour - a lovely thing to do on a beautiful day. And for reference one of their kids was only 8 years old and found the walk a breeze!
The view to Port Augusta in the distance
The trail down may look intimidating, but it’s actually not as bad as it may have appeared on the way up. Make sure you stick to the path and take your time, and you’ll find that it’s a straightforward walk back to the car park. I’d expected many bits to be slippery but hardly any of it actually was and we got down in good time.
Essential Info about the Devils Peak hike
Getting there
The trailhead for the Devils Peak is 11km out of Quorn and takes about 15 minutes to drive to. The last 5km are along a well maintained dirt road, which is perfectly fine for a 2WD car.
The heat
We don’t recommend hiking this in the middle of the day in the summer! The trail has virtually no shade, and there is no relief from the heat. Our original plan was to go for sunset which is what we’d definitely do next time!
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What’s your favourite walk in the Flinders Ranges? Have you hiked to the top of Devil’s Peak? Let us know in the comments below!
