Rodney Campbell's Blog

Dales Gorge (like all of the gorges in Karijini National Park) is ridiculously amazing and beautiful. It’s easy to see why this place is a photographers paradise and a must do for any serious landscape photographers out there.

My daughter and I decided we’d take our first walk down into the gorge and visit Fortescue Falls and Fern Pool and take a late afternoon swim there. Even though it was at the end of winter here it was still very hot (clear blue skies and 30+ degree days).

Unfortunately the short Class 3 track from Fortescue Lookout down to Fortescue Falls (a set of metal stairs and railings) was closed for renovations for a few weeks. This meant we had to take the long way by walking the whole way from Three Ways Lookout at the other end of Dales Gorge.

Beneath the Paper Barks

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5, ISO 250

This was quite a long and steep walk and around 2:20PM we began our journey – my parents were going to meet us back here at the top around 3 hours later.

At the start there’s the steep goat track 🙂 heading down from Three Ways Lookout to the bottom of the gorge 100m below. This part is actually the most difficult and precarious of the whole walk. Once at the bottom it’s more a matter of the walk across rocks and uneven ground as it winds it’s way along Dales Gorge.

Along the way we found this fantastic stand of tall paperbark trees nestled along the waters edge. These trees are huge down here – towering 15 or 20 metres above us but they look tiny when viewed from up at the top of the gorge.

Gorgeous

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1.3 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Further along we came to this beautiful area of smooth pools of water with cascading rivulets of water over the amazing rocks in the gorge. With massive bright red gorge walls towering above us being lit by the afternoon sun. Here it is still before 3PM so definitely not the best time of day to be shooting but an amazing and colourful view even in these harsher conditions.

Red Vs Blue

NIKON D750 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm, 1 sec at f/16, ISO 100

I’m left thankful we ended up having to go the long way. We’re still not at the falls yet but Dales Gorge is beautiful and it’s already living up to it’s reputation.

Like with all of the gorges I ended up visiting I wish I could have spent MUCH more time here. However we hadn’t even reached our goal yet and time was limited if we wanted to get back out of Dales Gorge before it got dark :).

Dales Recreation Area

Dales Recreation Area

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