Loop walk
Kalbarri National Park
Directions - The Loop Walk is located in Kalbarri National Park, a 30-minute drive east of Kalbarri. From the centre of town, take Ajana-Kalbarri Road east until you reach the turn-off for the national park. Turn left and continue driving, stopping at the pay station if you don't have a national parks pass, and turn left when you reach the end of the road. Follow the signs for Nature's Window, where you'll find ample parking, although it does get busy during the July school holidays.
The Hike - The Loop Walk in Kalbarri National Park is often rated as one of the best day hikes in WA, and one that I was really looking forward to hiking when I finally visited the area in 2024. Kalbarri has always been a destination I've wanted to visit but my annual leave has been used on other trips in the last few years. With a family holiday planned to the area for July, I was more than happy with this decision, as it meant I didn't have to plan a separate trip, that was on the cards before the family holiday was announced.
Driving up to Kalbarri, the surrounding landscape was much greener than I was expecting, with lush farmland and roadside vegetation all the way to Kalbarri. The reason for this was the high amounts of rainfall this part of WA had received in June and July compared to normal, with 317mm falling in June, and about 100mm up to the time of this hike in July). While this meant some rare sights along this trail, that you'll see further into the post, it also meant that leading up to this trip, the Loop Walk and Z-Bend had been closed by DBCA for safety reasons. Thankfully the Loop Walk had been opened the day we arrived, and with heavy rain expected for the following night, I figured that I'd better hike this trail before it closed again. Plans were discussed with everyone, and I was alone in the desire to get up super early and go hiking. With everyone keen to visit the Kalbarri Skywalk, I said I'd meet everyone after I finished the Loop Walk, so was awake before dawn, driving out to catch the Skywalk at sunrise.
After that lovely experience, I drove the short distance across the gorge to the Nature's Window car park, ready to tackle the 11km circuit. As with the Skywalk, it was too early for the masses of tourists I would see later on, so there was only a handful of cars already in the car park. Checking out the information board at the top of the stairs leading down to Nature's Window, there is a handy little temperature gauge showing how warm it currently is in the gorge. Designed to deter unprepared hikers from tackling this trail during the warmer months, it was a chilly 13 degrees when I started, and I hadn't yet removed my jacket. It was going to get to 25C today, which is much hotter in the gorge, hence the warning gauge up here. Descending the stairs from the car park, you initially walk along a paved path that provides some lovely views across the Murchison River Valley, as it snakes and meanders quite a lot through the landscapes of Kalbarri National Park.
Descending down towards a narrow neck of the gorge, this part of the Murchison River does a long loop from the east of where you are, right around to the north, before flowing south and then west once again. This forms the basis of the aptly named Loop Walk, as you follow the path that the river has carved out over the millennia, back to where you started. Reaching a lookout with views over the western bend of the river, this is where the pavement ends and you continue along the bare rock of the upper gorge. Even if you're only doing the walk down to Nature's Window, this is a stunning section, as you reach the narrow point where you have the two sections of the river on both sides. Getting views looking down to your right that will be familiar for the first part of the journey, the real treat that I could take my eyes off were the views looking to the north, as the river winds back around, and then off towards the wedge-like cliffs to the west, where the Kalbarri Skywalk is located.
I had a lot of time here to soak in the views and photograph every little angle, as I had not timed my visit very well. I was slightly behind a group of three girls, and the tourist code meant that they were at Nature's Window first, so were entitled to take all their photos before me. This did take a while, so I gave them space while I wandered downhill a little bit and admired the stunning early morning views. Eventually they departed, and I got my time with this famous tourist location, which frames the river valley below via an eroded section of sandstone. It's a pretty cool spot when you have it on your own, and I had fun photographing it from various angles, although didn't get the shot of the sunrise shining through the frame. Deciding to move on, I ventured downhill again, following the while poles that guide the way along the rocky trail that will become familiar. The top of the gorge gets quite narrow here, and the way the markers are setup guide you to complete this walk in an anti-clockwise direction, which was more than fine with me.