Hiking at Sentinel Peak

Great hike, medium difficulty, partly paved path, some tricky passages on the side of the wall and easier to go over the ladders. We did the loop and the so-called path to avoid the ladders is a descent or a steep climb on the side of the mountain, climbing rocks which is very difficult. To get there, impossible by car, really broken road, take vehicle from the hotel 125rands per trip per person, registration on website and provide park entry price 60rands / person

Very nice hike! So I'll try to give all the information I would have liked to find before doing the hike! It already has several names, "sentinel peak", "tugella falls", "ladder hike" etc. it's all the same hike!. First you have to enter the park. To do this, you must pass a toll with entry fees (wild card not accepted). Then after you have a paved road which leads to a crow's foot. On the left you go to the hotel and on the right the road is completely broken and it leads to the hiking parking lot (the problem is that you can't even do it on foot because there is no place to park your vehicle). Even with your own 4x4, it is totally not recommended to take this completely chaotic road. You must therefore go to the Witsieshoek lodge hotel (5 minutes from the crow's foot) which offers a 4x4 transfer service at the rate of 110 zar per trip per person with departure approximately every hour from 6:30 a.m. morning and the return from 2 p.m. (yes it's complicated to know the time at which we are going to use the return transfer but that's how you have to reserve a time). It still takes you three quarters of an hour in a 4x4 to arrive at the parking lot for the “Sentinel Park” hike. The hike starts from the sentinel parking lot where there is an office to which you must again pay 110 zar per person and register in a register. This is where the hike begins. There is a main route (grand tour) which includes a passage with ladders. There is the possibility of cutting at one point by a shortcut in the scree of rocks but absolutely everyone advised us against doing this. About 45 minutes after the start of the hike, there is a stop with a very nice viewpoint. Then you continue following the route until you reach the ladders. Concerning the difficulty of this hike, it is given as difficult, but very honestly I find it very accessible. You should know that a third of the route is paved with construction bricks, so frankly very very accessible! Afterwards you go up the bed of a stream, so the only constraint is that you may have wet shoes. Finally, there is the famous passage of ladders (one of approximately 20 meters and the other of approximately 10 m in succession). They are even doubled to avoid too much waiting when there is too much traffic. There is no difficulty in borrowing them just to manage your stress a little but if you take it slowly without looking down and instead use the ladder which is on the right with handles, that does it. After the ladders we arrive at a view of a first waterfall then 100 meters later we arrive on the large plateau. There, it is a huge meadow with grazing animals and you have about half an hour before arriving at the start of the waterfall. From there if you want to have a bird's eye view of the waterfall, you must continue to climb to the right or go to the left but the distance is less significant. You should know that the weather is very variable. When I did this hike, the hotel was in total fog that you couldn't see from 10 m away. Arriving at the parking lot, the weather cleared and three quarters of the hike was sunny. On the other hand, the waterfall was in the mist. In total we took around 2h40 on the way out and about the same on the way back. And we're not very big hikers. We took the 7:30 a.m. and the 3 p.m. 4x4 to return and we took advantage of several photo stops and a one-hour meal break above the waterfall. Thank you my comment was useful to you. Don’t hesitate to like 👇🏼😉

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.

Looking down from a huge cliff into the depths of the royal natal national park. Best reward for a relatively short hike, either by chain ladders of the gorge

This trail must surely be up there with the very best day hikes on the planet: incredible scenic rewards. It’s like another world on the plateau and the views from the trail between the car park and the chain ladders are also spectacular. The walking element itself is about 3 hours each away and at face value not difficult but it can feel extra-physical due to the high altitude. (We had not spent the previous night at the nearby lodge). The trailhead is around 2,500m and it’s just over 3,000m on the plateau. If you have come from a much lower altitude, had an early start and a long drive to get here then chances are you’ll feel it. I had a slight headache by the end and felt lightheaded but drank a lot of water before and during the hike and I found this helped a lot. My partner suffered a bit more but nothing serious. But bear in mind if you have a long drive back! The chain ladders seemed in good condition at the time and didn’t worry us. Once at the top it took around half an hour to reach the Tugela Falls view. The whole day was a proper work out for us but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.