Discover Canberra's outdoor spring adventures

The family friendly guide to spectacular spring activities across our parks and reserves.

With nature right at our doorstep, the best way to celebrate is to get outdoors and explore the natural wonders. To inspire you, we’ve put together our top spring experiences in parks across the ACT.

Pack a picnic and head out

With the warmer weather approaching, what better way to enjoy a spring day then by gathering around a barbie? Most of Canberra’s parks and reserves offer great barbecue and picnic facilities.

  • The Namadgi Visitor Centre now has wheelchair-friendly BBQs where you can relax and enjoy views of Mt Tennent.
  • Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve has multiple BBQ and picnic facilities, Sheedy’s Picnic Area is close to the nature discovery playground so the kids can burn some energy while you cook.
  • Cotter Bend has picnic facilities and also easy access to walking tracks, wildlife, fishing and canoeing.

Find the ideal location for your sausage sizzle by checking out the Find a Park tool.

A couple sitting at a picnic table with food prepared while 2 children run to them down a hill

A light purple flower with yellow flowers behind it.

Go wild for wildflowers

There’s no shortage of spots across Canberra to discover a wide variety of wildflowers and Spring is the best time to see them in bloom!

Our top tips for catching some beautiful blooms during the season are:

Different plants bloom at different times, for example you’re more likely to see alpine wildflowers later in the season (in November).

If you’re visiting Namadgi or Tidbinbilla and want to know the best spots to see flowers, just drop into either reserve’s visitor’s centre: staff are happy to help.

Spot the Spring arrivals

Springtime is the best time to spot wildlife in our parks and reserves.

As the winter frost slowly thaws our local winged residents becoming more active. Beautiful robins, lively kookaburras and satin bowerbirds are busily building nests and tending to their young.

It's not only birds that are more active; the reptiles are also waking from their winter slumber. Look out for long-necked turtles or eastern blue-tongued lizards basking on rocks and logs soaking in the morning sun.

It's also a wonderful time to get a national-geographic worthy picture of animals in their natural habitat. Many animals have their young during the springtime, so you may even spot a baby or two!

Disturbing native animals can endanger them or their young. If you see a wild animal, you should do your best to observe it without frightening or disturbing it. And never try to touch or feed wild animals.

A blue tongue lizard with its tongue out.

A view across a valley with some rocks in the foreground and hills and trees in the distance.

Tick off your New Year’s resolution

It’s never too late to get started on your fitness goals for 2025 and what better way than exploring the trails in our parks and reserves.

With the mild weather during spring, it’s a wonderful time to tackle some hikes around ACT parks and reserves. Whether you want to get your heart pumping or are after a leisurely stroll, the ACT has a wide range of hikes for all ages and fitness levels.

Some great easy walks include:

Or maybe you’re a seasoned hiker ready for a challenge? Our recommended difficult hikes include:

Check out the walking and running section of our website to find your next wilderness adventure.

Play around in our parks

When you think about play spaces do you think about our reserves and parks? Many of Canberra's nature parks have play spaces to encourage active lifestyles and healthy living.

There are more than 500 play spaces across Canberra that range in size and offer a variety of facilities. Opportunities for play are abundant and can be found with the equipment itself, with the natural play elements and nearby landscape, and in the open space surrounding the equipment.

Some hidden treasure play spaces in our nature parks are:

Visit Find a Park to find a play space in nature park near you.

A boy using a swing at a playground.

Two people sitting with their dog on a rock wall with a view across Canberra behind them.

Four-legged friend adventures

If you want to get out and explore in the warmer weather but can’t bear the thought of leaving Scruffy the rescue doodle at home, there are plenty of options for you to bring your best friend along.

You can check our list of reserves where dogs are allowed on-leash and a few off-leash on the Dogs page (there is probably a reserve closer to you than you think).

If you have a four-legged friend of the horse variety there’s also a selection of trails available for equestrian use. Horse riders can access about 500 km of designated equestrian trails on public land in the ACT. Some of these trails are in our fabulous parks and reserves.

Top equestrian trails we recommend:

Help us to help our parks and reserves

  • Spring doesn’t only mean new growth for native plants but also unfortunately for weeds. Good news is that it is also the most effective time to target weeds while they’re in their sprouting stage.
  • You can help us with treating weeds by volunteering with ParkCare. ParkCare volunteers actively contribute to protecting, enhancing and interpreting the natural and cultural values across our parks and reserves.
  • Weeding is an important activity for ParkCare volunteers during Spring as well as a good time for revegetation, mapping and surveying of our flora and fauna, trail care and more!
  • If you want to learn more about ParkCare and volunteering in our parks and reserves you can attend an upcoming online info session.

Two people standing in the bush wearing gloves and hats weeding a plant.

Remember that safety is key when visiting any of our parks and reserves.

Keep up to date on the latest safety messaging and check for alerts before you head out.