Recently, I have had a fascination with wanting to try out hiking in the darkness of the night.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about night hiking and what the benefits might be, including being able to stay cooler in the summer heat, experiencing the fascinating sounds of the nocturnal wildlife, and seeing the night sky up above.

“There’s something magical about hiking in nature at night. You just can’t replicate the sights and the sounds of a nightime hike in the daytime. It’s a fantastic way to reflect after a frantically busy day."¹

And don’t worry, I’ve also been looking into the various dangers that come along with hiking at night too. In Australia (at least in Victoria), we don’t have predatorial animals that are interested in humans, so the most common dangers are going to do with the lack of visibility, and these include your poor visibility, which increases your risk of getting lost and increases your risk of having trips and falls.

“It’s also easier to get lost when you’re hiking at night. The lack of light can make it difficult to see landmarks, and you may not be able to see the trail as well. If you do get lost, it’s important to stay calm and retrace your steps. If you’re unable to find your way back, call for help."²

Well, on Monday the 10th of March 2025, I finally got to experience hiking in the darkness!

My wife and I checked our weather app and it was going to be a scorcher. That meant, if we were going to enjoy a more comfortable hike, we would have to do it under the cover of the early morning sky.

Initially, we wanted to wake up at 5:00 AM and I predicted we would be leaving home by 6:00 AM and arriving to the site by the crack of dawn at 7:00 AM. Fortunately though, we actually ended up getting to the site at 6:00 AM, and it was still pitch black by the time we got there.

The Experience

So there I was, standing in the middle of the darkness with my wife at Werribee Gorge, about to do the Long and Short Circuit Track combined.

Luckily, I am always prepared when I go hiking. I always pack my essentials in my trusty kit, and this includes a good quality torch.

My torch was obviously my first go to. And we had to decide if we would try the hike up the mountain with our night vision adjusted eyes, or use the torch. There are pros and benefits to either method, however on this occasion, the moon was not up in the sky, and there was a little cloud cover which made it extra dark.

While I probably would have enjoyed the benefits that come with not using any light source, such as a better field of view and a sense of larger surroundings, the consequences of tripping due to the low light available, and being with my wife as someone else to take care of, meant that we chose to use the light source.

The torch I have was powerful, and it was good to see that after a couple months of storage and no use in my kit that it still had a good 99% of battery available. If you’d like to check out the torch, it’s a Shadowhawk Tactical Flashlight and is available on Amazon.

I’m not sure how accurate the claims are to lumens, but I know from my personal experience with it that it was more than ample for my needs with hiking. Having the ability to have a large arc of light, all the way to a nice and slim, concentrated beam.

I also cannot comment on the safety of the included rechargeable lithium battery, but it has not exploded in my bag as yet!³

Another thing I can comment on though is the life of the battery. I used it for a full hour straight prior to daylight hitting the summit of our hike, and the battery dropped 7% - so there’s plenty of juice to last you the night, and if you bring a good battery pack with you as part of your kit, you wont have issues.

Strange Sounds

While commencing our hike, the first thing I noticed was the serenity of the night. You know how when you wake up during the night and the sounds seem amplified? Everything is much louder that you could pretty much hear a pin drop? Well that’s how it felt out there in the darkness, and you could hear every little rustle in the trees and shrub. All the sounds are much more prominent, which, if I were by myself for my first experience in the darkness in a forest, I would have been pretty frightened. I highly recommend bringing some company for your first attempt.

I was frightened enough when I first got into hiking and would go on trails by myself during the day. Hearing new sounds and figuring out what they were kept me hyper-vigilant. Multiply that by I don’t know how much in the darkness, but multiply it nonetheless.

And then came the next challenge.

You see, I enjoy hiking using trekking poles. Especially when I have a heavy kit on my back. And holding a torch in one hand, kind of removes the ability to be able to use my poles effectively.

I’ll need to invest on a headlamp I think, which includes red light to keep my night vision from being affected as much. If anyone has any suggestions for one that works well for them, and has good battery life (and preferably can be recharged via USB), I would love to read your recommendations in the discussions below.

Putting that little difficulty aside, I did manage to make the summit, and by the time we reached the top, daylight was peaking through the sky and I was able to pack the torch away.

Serene Views & Wildlife

On the way down the other side, we stopped for a break to view the river flowing through the gorge below. It was astonishing. The sun barely creeping over the horizon and starting to peak over the mountain to one side and shining over to the next as the river flow made beautiful relaxing sounds. I did not get to make a sound recording of it on this occasion, but I will be sure to do so on my next one and share it with you.

As the light kept coming through, when we did spot wildlife, it was easier to take video. One of the fascinating animals we got to see was a Wallaby, and I managed to record a video of it as it watched us in as much curiosity as we had for it.

One of the best things about hiking places like Werribee Gorge is being close to a river. The sounds are relaxing as the water hits the rocks beneath. You always have a source of water should you need it (with a filtration system, of course), and you’re actually more likely to see wildlife during certain periods of the day, as it’s a much sought after resource!

There’s also a really cool portion of the walk on this trail which has you clinging onto the side of a rock-face with water beneath you. It’s got cable around it ready for you to hold onto which makes it that much more fun to experience.

We managed to make it around the mountain prior to the sun getting too high up, which meant the UV wasn’t too strong yet and we could finish our walk around the Eastern side of the mountain, known as the Short Circuit Walk, which sees you doing a few more steep sections prior to making your way back down where we parked our car. This section of the walk was challenging enough to get the heart rate going and the sweats on prior to melting in the days heat!

We finished the hike around 10:00 AM and made it back to the air conditions vehicle for the drive back home.

Conclusion

Would I recommend night hiking, and would I do it again?

Yes, absolutely. I plan on doing it again this weekend if the opportunity arises, again with my wife. Let’s see if we can tackle the Lerderderg Gorge and I will let you all know how that goes!

And then I plan on doing some of these even later during the night, perhaps straight after work or something and tackling them on my lonesome for some ample time to record natures sounds and take some amazing photographs.

I hope that you enjoyed reading this article and would love to hear from you below. What’s your experience hiking in the darkness? Have you done it before? Would you do it again? If you haven’t done it before, would you consider giving it a go?

Footnotes: