White Rock Conservation Park

Saturday night I got a text message from my friend saying, lets go for a hike tomorrow. I thought why not, it will give me some content to write here on steemit. I asked him were are we going to go hiking. He suggested we'll go hiking to white rock as it is close. I thought cool its been years since I have been there.

The Past
I've grown up in Ipswich most of my life. I went to Redbank Plains primary state school, and in year 6 the teachers thought it would be a good field trip. Back then the land wasn't developed as it is today, and there was old farms (Marked in blue) past the little amount of housing development there was back in the 80's and 90's. Prior to that, the hilly area was used by the Australian military for tank and mortar firing range. So through my child hood, my mates and I used to have fun in the bush and with our push bikes.

Present
Now that Brisbane and Ipswich is growing fast, with new roads, highways and new land development things have changed in the area. So when we turned up, I was really amazed how much the white rock walking track has changed. A dirt carpark on a hill, has turned onto 2 paved carparks with amenities. The old track that my friends and I used to ride on with our push bikes then mountain bikes. with some people riding dirt bikes back then, has turned into graded paths, some wood bridges. Its more looks like a park now then a hiking place. But because my friend and I knew how it was back in the day, we remember the old tracks. Which is quiet surprising are still being used by people hiking.As these don't follow the gullies and you actually have to climb the little mountains.

Some pictures of the Australia Bush on one of the paths we use to ride.

These pics was on one the paths we used to ride when we were younger. This leads up to the first little mountain on the way to White Rock. The thing is because these tracks are still being used by some of the hikers, not may other people walk them. So while we were walking the hiking trail, we could hear other people down in the valley voices. Back in the day, it used to be quiet, and you could hear motor bikes in the distance but it was good to get away from your loud family. Haven't times changed. Also back in those days, you would remember the views and how it felt standing there at the of the mountain. These days, we love to share our adventures online. So some of us stand there taking in the sight before taking out our mobile to take the shot for others to see. Here is some pics of the sight I saw at the top of the first mountain.

That is Brisbane in the distance, I'm looking North.

The valley to the south

We climbed down to the ridge and hiked across to White Rock. Once we go there, we had two choice of a way to get up on top of the rock. There was the steep way, which you have to actually climb, using cut outs for our hands and feet to sit in, or the easier way but still dangerous climb. We chose the first one, which was more fun going up but would be a problem getting down. But once on top, what a view.

The View on top of the Rock