---
title: "Walls of Jerusalem"
subtitle: "A glaciated alpine basin of dolerite peaks and pencil pines on Tasmania's Central Plateau"
description: "Walls of Jerusalem start date full? Spotbagger watches the PWS walker registration often and alerts you the moment places free up for your whole party."
facts:
  Region: "Walls of Jerusalem National Park"
  Length: "~16 km return (base camp)"
  Duration: "2–3 days"
  High point: "King Davids Peak 1,499 m"
  Daily departures: "36 max"
  Registration: "Required (free, PWS)"
checker_name: "tas-parks-registration"
location_id: "tracks.au.tasmania.walls-of-jerusalem"
image: "/images/walls-of-jerusalem-hiker.png"
image_alt: "Two hikers with backpacks beside an alpine tarn below a pale dolerite peak, ringed by pencil pines and golden buttongrass in the Walls of Jerusalem"
image_class: "object-cover object-center"
cta_splash: "/images/watercolour-lime-splash.png"
# Same lime splash and white-bg-safe filter as western-arthurs: same booking site,
# same sage-green/buttongrass hero palette. The splash PNG has an opaque WHITE
# background (no alpha), so keep brightness >= 1 or it greys the box behind the CTA.
cta_wash_filter: "saturate(0.43) hue-rotate(19deg)"  # sage-green, hero hue, white-bg-safe
---

## About the walk

The Walls of Jerusalem is a glaciated alpine basin high on Tasmania's Central
Plateau, inside the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Nineteenth-century
visitors gave its dolerite ramparts and gateways biblical names that stuck:
Herods Gate and Damascus Gate open the basin, Solomons Throne and King Davids
Peak crown it, and the Pool of Bethesda and Lake Salome sit in the heart of the
walls. It is the only true alpine national park in Tasmania with no public road
running into it, so every visit is walked in.

Most parties base-camp inside the basin and day-walk the peaks and lakes, rather
than carrying a full pack over the tops. Strong walkers manage the Walls in a
long single day, but the forests of ancient pencil pine, the cushion-plant
meadows and the light on the dolerite reward two or three days far more.

## Permits and the booking situation

Overnight walkers must hold a free PWS walker registration for the night they
start, on top of a Tasmanian Parks pass. The registration caps daily departures
at 36, and on the busy summer and Easter dates that cap fills.

Full rarely means full for long. Plans change, parties shrink, and cancelled
registrations quietly free places back up, often days out from the date you
want. Spotbagger watches the PWS registration page for the Walls of Jerusalem
often and alerts you the moment a start date opens up for your whole party, so
you are not refreshing the booking site yourself.

## Seasons and conditions

The basin sits around 1,200 to 1,500 metres, and the weather is alpine all year.
December to April is the usual walking window, with the longest days and the
best chance of settled spells. Even then, snow can fall in any month, the tarns
hold cold long into summer, and the exposed climb onto the plateau ices up in
the shoulder seasons. Carry for sudden wind, rain and cloud whatever the
forecast says.

## Camps and huts

Wild Dog Creek is the main campsite, about two and a half hours up from the car
park, with timber tent platforms and a composting toilet. It makes the natural
base for exploring the walls. Dixons Kingdom, deeper in among the pencil pines,
has a historic trappers hut that is heritage-listed and kept for emergency
shelter only, so camp nearby rather than in it. The whole park is fuel-stove
only: there are no campfires, which protects the slow-growing pines that do not
come back in a human lifetime once burnt.

## Gear

Bring a free-standing tent that sits on a platform, warm layers and full
waterproofs, a fuel stove, and the means to navigate in cloud. Treat or carry
water, and add boot spikes for icy paths if you are walking the shoulder seasons
when the climb in can be frozen.

## Getting there

The Walls of Jerusalem car park is off Mersey Forest Road near Lake Rowallan,
roughly an hour and a half to two hours by road from Launceston, Deloraine or
Mole Creek. There is no public transport to the trailhead, so drive or arrange a
shuttle. The walk opens with a steep climb past Trappers Hut and the Solomons
Jewels before the country levels onto the plateau.


## Live availability

Machine-readable JSON, updated often: https://spotbagger.com/api/availability?location=tracks.au.tasmania.walls-of-jerusalem

Book direct with Tasmanian Parks: https://registrations.parks.tas.gov.au/Walk/Details/9

Watch this track with Spotbagger: https://spotbagger.com/dashboard/add?location=tracks.au.tasmania.walls-of-jerusalem