Drapers Gorge
Kennedy Range National Park
Directions - Kennedy Range National Park is located just under three hours east of Carnarvon, and 50 minutes north of Gascoyne Junction. Drapers Gorge is found south of the Temple Gorge Campground, from there take the road back out to the four way intersection and turn right. This leads to the car park for Drapers Gorge, where you will find an area to park and the trail head.
The Hike - Thoroughly enjoying my one day hiking bonanza in Kennedy Range National Park, a fantastic experience in Temple Gorge had me excited to see what the nearby Drapers Gorge was going to offer. It was a quick turnaround, just filling up water bottles before the short drive out to start the next hike. With light cloud cover blowing in during my last walk, along with the transition to softer afternoon light, staring down the rugged cliffs of the Kennedy Range was quite the sight.
Looking like almost a clone of Temple Gorge, there is a bulky mass of rock in the distance that also looks like a bit of a pyramid, just with the top cut off. Walking across the wide car park, I took a quick look at the severely UV affected trail head before heading along the narrow and rocky trail leading into the gorge. Initially things are nice and calm, with the vegetation hiding a little of what's on offer, but as you make your way further into the gorge, the views looking down into the valley created by the creek start to open up. Like the other gorge walks in the Kennedy Range, the gorges contain seasonal creeks that drain the upper plateau of the range towards the Lyons River to the east. While Temple Gorge and Honeycomb Gorge have relatively shallow creeks that you can walk right in the middle of, the one running through at least the lower part of Drapers Gorge has carved a nice ravine into the landscape. Following the blue boot markers, I had some nice wildflower finds early on, including what looked like a Featherflower but turned out to be a Maireana melanocoma.
Starting to climb up steeper gradients, the sandy single trail turns into finding your way by locating the next trail marker bolted to the rocks. This was a fun section of the trail, as I love when you have to hop and jump between different ledges, and this was combined with some lovely views looking up the side of the sloping gorge wall. Climbing up a little steep bit, I got my first views of the narrow slot where the creek has carved out the softer rock. Reminding me of the finish of the Knox Gorge hike in Karijini National Park, you walk along the edge of it, where I could see small pools below that would be out of the suns reach for most of the day. Walking to the head of the ravine, I had a couple of finds here thanks to a Blue Skimmer dragonfly, and setup in a pocket of vegetation was an opportunistic Orb Weaver. From here the view looking into the gorge was an inviting one, with the blue skies and white clouds providing some nice photos.
Moving on from this spot, it was just a taste of what was to come, as I headed on down the wide ledge, joining up the blue trail markers that really pop off the orange rock. Not far ahead was one of the coolest locations along the trail, with a wide bowl found on your right, being fed by one of many waterfalls located within Drapers Gorge. As I'd found with most of the watering holes during the course of the day, there was only a small amount of water left at the bottom. It would be a cool sight to see everything flowing but I had enjoyed good luck in Kalbarri National Park a week prior, with countless waterfalls along the Loop Walk. Admiring everything found within the bowl, and also loving the jumble of rocks found on the flat rim at the top, this was an unexpected delight. Moving on from this spot, the gentle slopes of the wide gorge are filled with rocky scree that you must negotiate to continue along.
While all the gorges require you to climb the further you go along, Drapers Gorge is the only one where it actually feels like you're climbing for most of the way. Reaching the end of the scree field, some more vegetation was a welcome sight, just to provide even more variety to what I'd already seen. Returning to a more natural looking trail, with a path winding through some greenery, this is where the gorge walls start to narrow. This makes for some lovely photos as the small peaks that rise up from the edge of the gorge look a lot more imposing as you're directly under them. Noticing something to my left, a tree was blocking the view of what I thought was another waterfall. Going off to investigate, my suspicion was correct, and I could see the lighter coloured rock and channel where the water would flow after heavy rains. Drapers Gorge was turning out to be full of great terrain, with the end not yet reached.