Anytime you combine epic back country huts, pokey summit climbs, fresh river swims and an incredibly starry sky I’m a happy camper. Hiking the Jagungal Circuit in the north of Kosciuszko National park in New South Wales offers all of this and a whole lot more over its 42km loop.

The circuit is in the North of Kosciuszko National park in New South Wales and travels through part of the Jagungal Wilderness. The trail follows portions of the AAWT and visits multiple back country huts along the way. The hike is 42km (including summiting Mount Jagunal) and can be done over 2, 3 or more days depending on how far you’d like to hike each day and where you’d like to camp. It could also be run in a day as an awesome trail-running escapade. It’s really a choose-your-own-adventure kind of situation. We found the route on all trails, and you can find it here. (Link for 30% off AllTrails using code intheeye30 here)

This hike is great for beginner and experienced hikers alike. The trail is easy to follow, so not stressful in terms of route-finding fro newbies, but given how spectacular the terrain is, even the most seasoned of backpackers would enjoy this loop.

We hiked the route over Easter long weekend in 2024 and had an absolute ball. We hiked with our friends Ali & Seb who we also hiked the Alpine Circuit from Falls Creek to Mount Hotham with back just before New Years in 2022! This is another epic short multi-day hike to add to your list!

Read on for an overview of our 3 days on the trail!

Jagungal Circuit Hike Overview:

Start (and end) Location: Round Mountain Hut Carpark, Tooma Road
Length: 42km (46km if you hike it like we did)
Vertical Gain: 1400m
Direction: We choose anti-clockwise
Sites to see: Derschkos Hut, O’Keefes hut, Mount Jagungal Summit
Water: Plentiful. There are multiple creek & river crossings (make sure to check this is current when you plan on hiking)

Check here for current updates from NSW Parks on the Round Mountain area.

Our 3 Day, 2 Night Itinerary

Day 1: Round Mountain Hut Carpark → Derschkos Hut → Mount Jagungal Summit → Derschkos Hut (24km)
Day 2: Derschkos Hut → Tumut River (18km)
Day 3: Tumut River → Round Mountain Hut Carpark (4km)
Total km: 46km

As you can see from above our total hiking distance was 46km (not the quoted 42 on all trails). This was because we chose to hike to the summit Mount Jagungal and back to Derschkos Hut on the first day, rather than doing it as part of our second day. If we’d chosen to do it on the second day we would have had an easy 14km first day followed by a 24km day second day.

We chose to summit Jagungal on the first day for a few reasons; mainly we had beautiful weather and we’d only hiked 14km that morning over easy terrain, we had an epic campsite at Derschkos and we also liked the idea of only have 18km the next day rather than 26km with a lot of vert.

JAGUNGAL CIRCUIT HIKE REPORT

Day 1: Round Mountain Hut Carpark → Derschkos Hut → Mount Jagungal Summit → Derschkos Hut (24km)

We started our morning at Bradley and O’Briens Hut, we’d camped there the night prior after arriving late. The hut area is a rest stop, and an absolutely gorgeous one at that. You aren’t allowed to sleep in the hut but you can set up a tent or sleep in your car, and bonus – there is a loo! This spot had everything we needed for a last place to check our gear and fuel up on some coffee and porridge before we set off.

After breakfast we drove to the Round Mountain Hut Carpark on Tooma Road, took a quick group photo and headed off. The trip from the carpark to Derschkos Hut is 14km and fairly easy terrain. This portion of the hike is on firetrail. It’s open, very easy to follow and has great views. We chose to hike the trip in an anti-clockwise direction and we did not regret it! Hiking the trail in this direction meant that we had incredible views of Mount Jagungal along the entire way to Derschkos Hut, it was pretty spectacular!

We only stopped once during this trip to refill our water at a river we crossed over. This portion of the trail has bridges across any river crossings so there is no need to take your shoes off or get wet hoofs. When we stopped to fill up our water Sean and I realised that our Squeeze filter wasn’t working (it was totally blocked even after flushing it out after our last hike on the Larapinta!). We obviously should have checked this before we left home, but we’d forgotten. Luckily we’d brought aquatabs water purifying tablets with us (just incase) so we were able to purify our water still.

Once we got to Derschkos we set up our tents (with epic views of Mount Jagungal) and had some lunch and a rest in the shade.

Hot Tip: Once you reach Derschkos Hut continue up the hill past the hut towards the snow gums (along the path) and off to your left is a spot where you can fit multiple tents with the most incredible views of Mount Jagungal.
This is definitely the best camping spot at Derschkos Hut!

Once we’d re-fueled we begun out trip up to the summit of Jagungal. It was a 10km return trip from Derschkos so we took a snack and some water and headed off.

After about 2km following the fire trail from Derschkos you will cross a river at the bottom of a small hill and then just after that the trail to the summit is off to the right. It is a legitimate trail but it’s a bit of a goat track so it’s not super easy to spot. This goat track continues up to the plateau through VERY thick scrub. Given how open the rest of the track is this is pretty novel to be honest, and a little bit of fun, minus the scratches to your legs (and potentially arms if you’re 5’6 or under).

Once at the top of the plateau it is open and straightforward to the summit, for a peak over 2000m (2061m to be precise) it’s quite easy to get to. We hiked up and sat at the top watching a pair of eagles fly around one another, it was pretty special. Before we knew it it was time to head down to make it back to camp and have dinner before it got too dark.

Once we arrived back at the hut we were super surprised by the amount of people, there had to be 20 tents set up throughout the area! When we’d left there wasn’t anyone else there with us! There was plenty of space for everyone though and we were lucky that the spot we’d set up was very private.

We got into our warm clothes, refilled our water and cooked our dinner. Our camp dinner is usually the same thing for shorter multi-day trips like this, mi-goreng noodles with dehydrated vegetables and TVP (textured vegetable protein). We watched the sun set as we ate dinner and hopped into bed, it had been a big, tiring, beautiful day.

Day 2: Derschkos Hut → Tumut River (18km)

Our second day was another absolute stunner. We woke up to warm weather and clear skies. I’d been a little cold overnight because I’m a cold sleeper. Sean, Ali and Seb had all been fine if not a little warm. Classic me.

We had a quick coffee and packed up camp. We’d decided we would eat breakfast on the trail to get a few kilometres under our belt before the day got too hot. Although the days weren’t crazy warm, the sun at elevation just has a lot more bite than it does at sea level.

We headed off back the same way toward Jagungal, but this time we wouldn’t be taking the goat track to the summit. Along the way we met Kevin from goinferal, he was in the middle of hiking the AAWT and an absolute legend!

We carried on for a few kilometres before we stopped for breakfast. You guessed it, coffee and porridge.

Our next stop of the day was at O’Keefes Hut, a spot that many people spend their second night if they’re doing it over 4 days. Long story short, this hut is epic! The walls of the hut are lined with newspapers from the 1930’s, it’s pretty incredible to see. The advertising from the time is wild – akubras, cigarettes and female undergarments wash – ha!

The rest of the day we followed open winding fire trail that was seemingly constantly up and down, although only slightly. The day ended with a steep descent towards the Tumut River, it was absolutely stunning!

Once we hit the river we dropped our gear and got in the water immediately. It was divine!

After our refresh we found a spot along the river that was good to set up our tents. A lot of this area is large tufts of grass and thistles so you want to make sure you set up somewhere flat where your tent isn’t going to get damaged! That evening we got into our warm gear, ate our dinner and played a couple of games of Monopoly Deal before heading to bed.

Day 3: Tumut River → Round Mountain Hut Carpark (4km)

We woke up on our last morning to ice on our tent! The temperature had dropped below zero in the valley leading to a chilly night and morning. Sean and I had luckily zipped our sleeping bags together or I would have been very cold! We had a nice slow morning as we only had to hike 4km back to the cars today.

We had breakfast and packed up our gear before beginning our climb back to the cars. Although it was only a 4km hike we would climb almost 400m in elevation in that distance. We made our way back to the cars, stopping frequently to admire the view behind us back down to the river, it was spectacular.

Once we reached the car we packed up our gear and headed to the nearby Oglivies Creek for a swim and refresh in the river before once again spending the night parked in the van at Bradley and O’Briens Hut before heading back home.

It was an epic adventure.