Beyond Gorge Road, the Hills' quiet north hides a converted-pub cellar door, a reservoir you can paddle, and the wildest walking in the ranges.
Every region keeps a corner for itself. In the Adelaide Hills, that corner is the north — the high, dry country beyond the Torrens Valley where the vineyards thin out, the roads empty, and the ranges roll away toward the Barossa in long waves of stringybark and pine. There is no famous main street up here, no fudge shop. There is, increasingly, a very good reason to come.
Kersbrook: the hub that isn't trying to be one
Kersbrook is the kind of town that history kept small — a church, a store, a scatter of farmhouses at a bend in the road. Its quiet ambition is best measured at Kersbrook Hill Wines & Cider, the family winery that recently moved its cellar door into the old village pub. The result is the north in miniature: estate wines and basket-pressed apple cider in the front bar, pizzas from the kitchen, locals and lycra-clad blow-ins sharing the verandah. It is open seven days, which in this corner of the Hills counts as a major institution.
Water you can finally touch
For more than a century, the north's great body of water was looked at through a fence. The South Para Reservoir Reserve changed that in December 2019, when SA Water opened the gates under the state's reservoir reserves program. Now there are nearly nine kilometres of trails wandering out along bush peninsulas, and — with a permit — kayaking and shoreline fishing on water stocked with golden perch, silver perch and catch-and-release Murray cod. On a still morning, with mist on the water and not another soul on the trail, it is one of the finest free outings in the ranges.
The wild bits
The walking gets serious next door. Warren Conservation Park is the Hills at their most rugged — steep spurs, deep gullies, a stiff section of the Heysen Trail, and spring orchids for those willing to earn them. The adjoining pines of Mount Crawford Forest soften the landscape and add campgrounds, forest drives and horse trails, while down the valley at Cudlee Creek, the rebuilt Fox Creek Bike Park supplies the adrenaline with fifty-plus kilometres of single track.
String it together and you have the Hills' best uncrowded day: paddle or walk in the morning, pizza and cider in Kersbrook, forest or trail in the afternoon. The drive up is half the pleasure — see our story on the Gorge Road for the scenic way in.
