Nancy Peak | Devils Slide
Porongurup National Park
Directions - Located in the Porongurups, the turnoff for the Tree in the Rock car park is located along Mt Barker - Porongurup Rd at the end of Bolganup Rd. The trail head is located on the western edge of the car park.
The Hike - The Porongurups, located 50km north of Albany, is home to two very nice day walks in the Castle Rock Granite Skywalk and the awkward Frankenstein mix of Nancy Peak/Devils Slide/Wansbrough Walk. The latter is one I had been wanting to do for quite a while now and had it pencilled in for around this time last year before inclement weather on my planned day of visit laid that plan to bed. I am back though for another visit to this amazing area and was fortunate enough to have the weather on my side with some dark and moody cloudscapes haunting my hike. This was the start of a planned two week road trip taking in plenty of hikes in the South West around Albany, Denmark and Pemberton but the best laid plans... (more on that in future posts). Leaving Perth in the morning I had loaded up the phone with podcasts and enjoyed the lovely drive down to the turnoff at Mount Barker. The skies in Fremantle when I left were sunny and clear but when I hit Armadale things changed and the clouds settled in for the day. This was fine by me as I love clouds to liven up the photos, so long as the rain stayed away. I located the correct road and car park after discovering that Porongurup is actually a small hamlet with a fuel stop and cafe/art gallery instead of just the name of some ancient pieces of granite north of Albany.
Devils Slide - Being AFL Grand Final day I didn't expect there to be many people out and about but there was a smattering of holiday makers soaking up the freedom that comes with school holidays. The Tree in the Rock day use area is a typical Parks and Wildlife affair with a gazebo, BBQ facilities, information board and big gravel car park. Given I had been driving for four hours I was keen to stretch the legs before setting off so checked out the information board to see what was what. As my planned hike was actually three separate hikes all rolled into one hybrid, I had to decide how best to tackle it and eventually thought it would be better to do the planned loop in an anti-clockwise direction so the less stimulating stuff was out of the way first.
With my hiking boots on and the drink bottles topped up, I set off on the 4x4 track that is the Wansbrough Walk section of my loop. It's a nice warm-up to the hills I would eventually be tackling given the slight gradient and open nature of the trail. At certain points you can see glimpses of the formation known as Devils Slide and the sounds of a running stream had me excited for what I would find later on in the hike. For now though it was a pleasant introduction back to the Karri forest, which only survives here because of the run-off from the bubble like granite formations in the Porongurups. It wasn't long before I reached the small information board telling you where you are and providing a map of the various routes from this intersection.
The Wansbrough Walk continues on to the border of the park and wasn't something that particularly interested me so today I would be doing the Nancy Peak loop with a side trip up Devils Slide. I've always wanted to see what Devils Slide is all about because with a name like that it has to be interesting and I would love to know the history behind it as it does not sound like any other trail name in Western Australia. Perhaps it has something to do with Devil's Marbles but it would be nice to know if anyone knows the full history given DPaW and TrailsWA is a little dry. The end destination for the Devils Slide side trip is to reach Marmabup Rock and experience the awesome views of both the Porongurups and the Stirling Range to the north.
The ascent is quite steep and follows the course of a small gully that thankfully had some water in it when I visited so I was treated to areas of bare rock that has a small cascade of water falling down them. As you exit the Karri forest and climb up the granite path you get to see the formation on the other side that is the trio of Nancy Peak, Hayward Peak and Morgan's View. One noticeable feature is the abundance of dead looking trees poking through the canopy, remnants of a bushfire from over a decade ago giving off a spooky vibe to the landscape. A wooden walkway helps you over a tricky section of granite and it very much reminded me of a similar structure located at Mount Frankland, so I was brought back to that wonderful experience last summer.