Gorge Rim Walk

Easy

Family Friendly Summit Swimming Waterfall

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A 2.4km trail tracing the rim of Dales Gorge, linking Circular Pool Lookout with Fortescue Falls Lookout — one of the more accessible gorge-edge walks in Karijini National Park.

☰ Trail details

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Distance

1.63 km

Est. time

32 min

Elevation gain

69 m

Route type

Point to point

Steepest stretch: +26m over ~300m (around the 0.5km mark)

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In an emergency

Call 000 for police, fire or ambulance — Australia's emergency number works even with a weak signal, and without a SIM if any carrier has coverage.

You're in Karijini National Park, Dales Gorge, Pilbara, WA. Mobile reception in this area is not guaranteed — this is exactly why the offline map and GPS position on this page work without signal.

Tell someone your plan and expected return time before you set off. A PLB is the most reliable backup where there's no reception at all.

Tracks & plans

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Species to look for on this trail

Ancient trees and rare flora confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Hard Spinifex

Triodia wiseana

Pilbara hummock grassland▾

Pilbara hummock grassland

The dominant hummock grass of the Hamersley Range, hard spinifex forms the spiky circular clumps that blanket Karijini's gorge country and much of the arid Pilbara, and is a keystone habitat plant for Pilbara wildlife.

How to spot it

Dense, circular hummocks of awl-shaped, sharply pointed leaves around 30-40cm long, high in silica — avoid brushing bare skin against the tips. Forms the dominant groundcover across Karijini's plateau country and gorge rims.

Family Poaceae · Source: Wikipedia — Triodia (plant)

Photo: Benjamin Anderson (CC BY 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Wildlife you might see on this trail

Animals confirmed in this park. Spot one? Add it as a sighting pin below.

Wedge-tailed eagle

Aquila audax

IUCN Least Concern — common but iconic▾

IUCN Least Concern — common but iconic

The wedge-tailed eagle is Australia's largest bird of prey, with a wingspan of up to 2.84 metres. Once persecuted as a livestock threat, it is now widespread and secure across virtually every Australian habitat from desert to alpine woodland.

How to spot it

Unmistakable in flight: a huge dark raptor with a long, diamond-shaped tail, often seen soaring high on thermals over open or rocky country. Adults are blackish-brown with tawny-rufous hackles on the neck; juveniles are paler and more rufous. Despite its size, its call is a surprisingly thin, high whistle.

Family Accipitridae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: JJ Harrison (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Perentie

Varanus giganteus

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's largest monitor lizard▾

IUCN Least Concern — Australia's largest monitor lizard

The perentie is Australia's largest lizard and the world's fourth-largest living lizard species, reaching up to 2.5 metres in length. It's a shy, wide-ranging predator of the remote rocky arid interior, rarely encountered simply because of how sparsely populated its desert habitat is.

How to spot it

Huge for a lizard — up to 2.5m nose to tail — with a cream-and-black reticulated head and neck, a yellowish body patterned with brown rosettes, and dark, white-spotted limbs. Look for it basking near rocky outcrops and gorges in the arid interior; if disturbed it will bolt for the nearest crevice or tree, or rear up on its hind legs to look around.

Family Varanidae · Source: Wikipedia

Photo: Bernard DUPONT (CC BY-SA 2.0) via Wikimedia Commons