Karijini NP Dales Gorge WA

We woke up to clear skies and sunshine and the forecast to be 25°c. After our coffee we drove out of camp and ventured 97km to Karijini National Park in the Hamersley Range. 

We popped in at the Information Centre to get a map on the walks. There are 7 gorges that can be explored in the park. We had booked 2 nights in the Dales camping area. Our spot was #141 (of the 147 sites available) in the Warlu area. 

We had a cuppa and then drove to the Circular Pool lookout.

Can you spot the lizard?

We then went to park at Fortescue Falls, as suggested by the lady at the information centre, to start with walking the 1.2km Gorge Rim.

The views down into the gorge was very scenic. The colours of the rock, white gum trees and the blue sky was amazing.

The descend into Dales Gorge from this end was a bit rocky, although they did make an effort to provide some topping stones most of the way.

On the gorge floor we came across some asbestos in the rocks.

As we made our way to Fortescue Falls we had to walk along the water way which needed for us to do a bit of scrambling over rocks and stepping stones so we didn’t get our feet wet. 

We made it all the way to the falls and promptly went for a refreshing swim!

Not too much further was the very picturesque Fern Pool. This is a popular swimming hole and we were lucky to time it that we essentially had it to ourselves for about 10mins as a big group departed. Such a beautiful setting. 

After a swim to the falls we made our way back to Fortescue Falls and up the steel staircase back to Buster. It had been a lovely adventure seeing us spend 3 hours there and walking approximately 4km. Then it was back to camp.