Eagle View Walk Trail
John Forrest National Park
Directions - The Eagle View Walk Trail is located within John Forrest National Park, a 40 minute drive from the centre of Perth. Make your way onto Roe Highway and take the Great Eastern Highway exit, heading east into the hills, until you reach the second Park Road turn on your left. Follow the signs all the way into the park and head towards the main parking area near the Ranger's Office. The trail head is located opposite the Ranger's Office, with information boards showing all the walks in the park.
The Hike - John Forrest National Park is the oldest national park in Western Australia, along with being arguably the most popular outdoor recreation spot near Perth. Located in the Darling Range east of Perth, this site was earmarked early on (1898) to be a place for visit the natural world, and has long since captured the imagination of visitors that want to escape the urban centre of Perth and explore the Jarrah and Wandoo forests that are found within the valleys, hills and flats of this region.
The Eagle View Walk Trail is the flagship trail within John Forrest National Park and was one of the first trails I added to the website over nine years ago. Since that time, the words did not change and although I added photos from 2016-17 visits, the page was always lacking compared to what I consider to be the standard these days (way more photos and lots of words to accompany them). Having facelifted other great walks within the Perth area like Kittys Gorge, the Echidna Trail, the King Jarrah Walk Trail and Mount Dale, the Eagle View Walk Trail for some reason had been delayed. That was until now. Although I had originally planned to visit in September, when the wildflower season of Djilba is in full swing, I had seen enough evidence that there was plenty of colour around in mid-August, along with an orchid species in bloom that I hadn't yet seen. Making plans for a sunny Saturday in August, I was really excited to head back to John Forrest National Park and explore a trail that I hadn't visited in six years.
With the park undergoing major renovations including the removal of the old pub, new mountain bike trails being added and a couple of tweaks to the walk trails, I was keen to check out the recently completed upgrades to the Eagle View Walk Trail that my podcast partner had reviewed in his recent video. Given the time between visits and the upgrades, this would pretty much be like hiking a new trail, and while I usually have a good memory when it comes to trails I've done, this certainly turned out to be the case. Arriving at the car park early on a Saturday morning, I was pleased to see there weren't too many cars here, mainly because the crowds don't tend to arrive until later in the day. With the old pub now demolished, there was a lot of fencing up around the construction area but that wouldn't be affecting my walk today.
While the pub was a feature of the park, it was a bit of a run-down old building that didn't really belong in a national park, and this area around Great Eastern Highway is not short on other pubs if that's what you want. Putting on my trail runners and grabbing all my gear, I had packed my tripod today, as I wanted to get some long exposure shots of the two main waterfalls along the trail. Heading down towards the start of the walk and the crossing of Jane Brook, I walked pass the new nature playground (no comment) and on towards the start of the Eagle View Walk Trail. Heading in a clockwise direction, the first major highlight of the trail was one of my favourite photos from the early days of the website, walking under Jane Brook Bridge. This solid structure of steel and concrete has a certain industrial charm to it, juxtaposed against the greenery of plant life growing along Jane Brook. Starting early in the morning means the lighting is never going to be the best for shooting the bridge in the direction you are walking but I made do with what I had.
Leaving the build up area behind, you follow a stretch of single trail that was lined with an assortment of wildflowers during my visit. Wanting to catalogue everything I saw for iNaturalist, along with showcasing it here, I snapped away at all the different species that included Fuchsia Grevillea, Couch Honeypot, Prickly Moses, Honeybush and Granite Petrophile, among many others. Off to a fantastic start, you gently amble along the edge of Jane Brook as you head through the forest towards the second big highlight of the trail, National Park Falls. Starting to see more exposed granite, the views open up, showing off the Railway Reserves Heritage Trail on the other side of the valley. A wide trail connects the Eagle View Walk Trail with the RRHT, with a bridge over Jane Brook near the top of the falls. To get the best views of the falls, you need to follow the steps down into the valley, where there is an old platform overlooking the falls (that they've tried to fence off rather than repair for whatever reason).