Mount Glorious is the high point of a good day out of Brisbane, a small settlement strung along the crest of the D'Aguilar Range where the air is noticeably cooler and the forest is rainforest rather than bushland. Brisbane's riders have used this road for generations, and on a weekend morning you will see bikes parked outside the cafe on the summit in numbers that suggest a quiet agreement among the locals about where to be.
The approach from Samford is the classic. Samford Valley sits below, full of paddocks and horse properties, and then the road starts to climb and does not stop. The bends are tight, tree-lined and often damp, with palms and strangler figs closing in over the tarmac and the light turning green. The surface has patches and the occasional fallen branch after storms, so ride it like a road, not a circuit. Descending on the other side towards Wivenhoe Dam, the road opens up a little, and you can see the lake that supplies much of south-east Queensland.
What is interesting here is how different the world is at height. Cloud forest, tree ferns, the sound of whipbirds and the smell of wet leaves, all within a short ride of a city of two million. The national parks around Mount Glorious are protected for good reason, and there are short walking tracks if you want to break up the riding. Wildlife is a hazard as much as a pleasure, with wallabies and birds at dawn and dusk, which is another reason to avoid pushing too hard.
Fuel is not up here, so top up before the climb. Samford Valley and Ferny Grove, the larger suburbs on the Brisbane side, are the places to do it, and the cafe at the top is the thing to look forward to. Ride it early on a clear day in the cooler months, between about April and October, and you will understand why people come back week after week.