Top Trails of Western Australia

Kalbarri National Park

The Murchison River Gorge

The Murchison River Gorge is a spectacular riverine gorge that can be found in Kalbarri National Park in Mid-West Western Australia. The 80 kilometre-long gorge has been carved out by the mighty Murchison river, the second-longest river in Australia, as it meandered over millions of years towards the end of its (currently) 780 kilometre journey, just before swerving towards the township of Kalbarri and the Indian Ocean.

Nature's Window

Difficulty Rating : 3.6 / 10.0 (Class 4 - Fairly Straightforward)

*Cick here to learn more about the difficulty rating.

The area is well-known for its ubiquitous red and white banded Tumblagooda sandstone (current estimates place the formation of the sandstone in the lower Ordovician, approximately 440 million years ago) that the gorge has left exposed. Not only does the vivid contrast and the impressive formations of the sandstone never fail to attract tourists, but the gorge itself is also of great interest to geologists since it is home to fossilised eurypterids (Order: Eurypterida), some of the earliest fossil evidence of land animals.

The hike began at the South end of the gorge just after Hardabout Pool and continued its way Northwards along the gorge. Because I had to jump back and forth from bank to bank whenever I encountered impassable cliffs, the crossing points that I gave and that can be seen in the GPS routes for each entry are to only be taken as a rough guide. Each walk that is done here is bound to take a slightly different route due to both the terrain as well as the differences in the water levels.

Interactive Location Map

The map below has sections of the path that I followed hyperlinked and clicking on each section of the route will bring you to its respective page. The GPS routes for each leg of the journey that I mentioned can also be found at the end of each post.

Murchison River Gorge – Day 1

Murchison River Gorge – Day 2

Murchison River Gorge – Day 3

Murchison River Gorge – Day 4

Murchison River Gorge – Day 5

Murchison River Gorge – Day 6

Murchison River Gorge –

Elevation profile for the Murchison River Gorge. The Loop has not been included

For those who also have a Suunto GPS device, the GPX file for each segment can be found at the
end of each day's entry. The entire route can also be downloaded here (right click and save link as).

Next : Murchison River Gorge – Day 1 - Hardabout Pool (Part 1)

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