About the Walking Trail

The 3.6km Flat to Vale Trail connects McLaren Vale to McLaren Flat. The trail connects to the Shiraz Trail / Coast to Vines Trail in McLaren Vale – the Shiraz Trail had a short 400m spur that connected to the McLaren Vale Sports Ground, which is where the new Flat to Vale Trail starts from. The trail was opened in June 2022.

The trail follows the Reg-Gum lined Pedlar Creek, between the vineyards. It’s a great path to walk, cycle with lots of bird life, fresh air and surrounded by vineyards. You might see a range of vineyard activities underway, including planting, pruning and fruit picking. You might even see some sheep grazing among the vines. Remember to stick to the path and not enter the vineyards, as our shoes can accidentally spread pests and diseases into the vines.

The trail finishes at Blewitt Springs Road in McLaren Flat. From here you can walk 50m south (to the right) along the footpath on Blewitt Springs Road and turn left on Main Road, and following the footpath into central McLaren Flat. It is a 500m walk to PG Dawson Reserve with playground and toilets, and another 100m on to the bakery.

The trail is shared-use, being a 2.5m wide bitumen trail. The trail is suitable for walking, prams, dog walking (on-lead) and bicycles. The trail manager hasn’t deemed the trail to be wheelchair friendly, but as the trail is wide bitumen and overall quite flat – albeit a gentle rise from McLaren Vale to McLaren Flat – the trail could be suitable for wheelchair users. There are several crossing points where some commercial vineyard machinery may use from time to time. The trail is mostly flat and was designed to be family friendly. Some promotional photos of the trail show a gravel trail, but these were during-construction photos, the entire trail is bitumen.

The trail passes numerous cellar doors, including Foggo Wines (midway along the trail), The Confessional (200m off the trail), Haselgrove Wines (end of trail / 270m off the trail new cellar door opening June 2022) and Pizzateca (300m off the trail).

Some descriptions include that 1.1km of the trail is on a road, we found whilst this is technically correct, the road is a no-through road which serves as a driveway to several residential properties. This is a section of Chalk Hill Rd, and much of the road appears as a 2.5m wide shared use trail. There is also a 150m section that is off the road but parallel to the 80km/h Foggo Road.

You can reach the trail by public transport. You can catch the Adelaide Metro 751 to Stop 92 Main Rd, McLaren Vale SA 5171 – the service operates hourly on weekdays, and every 2 hours on weekends. The Adelaide Metro 752 routes services McLaren Flat, to Stop 94 Main Rd, McLaren Flat SA 5171 – the service operates every few hours on weekdays only.

You can start the trail from:

• McLaren Vale, from the Shiraz Trail (guests of the McLaren Vale caravan park can easily start here)
• McLaren Vale Sports Ground, on the oval’s northern side behind goalposts
• midway, on Foggo Road
• the start of Blewitt Springs Road in McLaren Flat