Karijini NP

Campground: Dales Gorge Campground
Facilities: Toilet, Gas BBQ, Picnic benches, Non-potable water near visitor’s centre.
Good stuff: Great location for exploring Karijini NP, designated campsites, pretty scenery and decent walks from the campsite itself.
Not so good stuff: The ground is made of iron… Pegs will not be your friend, Access can be a bit rough in 2WD after bad weather. Be prepared to get your feet wet going to the toilet after some rain.
Price: $10 per adult per night.

Now our ‘avoid the cyclone turned tropical low action plan’ was well under way, we were ready to head out to Karijini NP. The weather was rather ordinary but at least it was only drizzling rather than the torrential downpours expected for the coastal areas. After setting up our tent at Dales Gorge Campground and bending many tent pegs in the process, we ready to explore!

There are 3 main areas of Karijini NP: Dales Gorge, the area around Karijini Eco Resort and Hamersley Gorge.

Dales Gorge is a great spot to spend a full day. You can walk along the rim from the campground towards Fortescue Falls and then back to the campsite on the gorge floor with a slight detour via circular pools. For us this was a great introduction to the scenery that you can immerse yourselves in.

One of the views along the Dales Gorge Rim Walk

 

Blue asbestos in Dales Gorge... No one knows how it formed.

The gorges close to Karijini Eco Resort were even better. As the weather has cleared up we had the extra incentive to go on some longer walks and experience more of what Karijini NP had to offer. The Kalamina Gorge walk was stunning and our favourite place for sheer impressiveness (no pun intended).

Kalamina Gorge was the the most spacious out of the ones we visited...

...and this was the reason why we came here...

...to see the awesome folding.

Some of the structures we saw in Kalamina Gorge.

Our next energy burst came out at Joffre Falls. This track is not suitable if you are not comfortable scrambling down to the bottom of the gorge or not comfortable with heights in general (but Liz made it). It was just a beautiful view seeing the stepped Banded Iron Formations, forming a natural amphitheatre, pounded by water flowing down to the bottom pool.

Joffre Falls...  

There are lots of other lookouts in the area: Oxer, Junction Pools and Knox gorge.

Hamersley Gorge is a fair detour but both of us think it is the most stunning folding we have seen. The pools are clean with lots of fish swimming around. It was by far our favourite place in Karijini… Just a shame our photos don’t do it justice.

Hamersley gorge is a great mix of beautiful pools and amazing folding.

Now for the geology…

For us this place is just amazing geologically. To think that these rocks are ~2500 million years in some places and that they are so many uninterrupted sequences of horizontally bedding is mental!

The Banded Iron Formations (BIF’s) represent a special time in earth’s early history. During this time the world was vastly different from today, with no complex life and no terrestrial life at all. The only thing kicking around in the sea was cyanobacteria (like the Stromatolites and Thrombolites we saw). As the seas increased in iron concentration the cyanobacteria flourished and produced vast amounts of oxygen – that then killed them all off. This happened cyclically and gives us the dark iron rich silica/light grey silica rich layers of the BIF’s. This went on, uninterrupted, for millions of years, giving us the vast bedding sequences we see in Karijini today. Neat!