Canns Creek Section (again)

White Mountains – Canns Creek Section (again)

An excellent four day ‘next level adventure’. Planned as a three day trip, which turned into four days for some of us.

White Mountains National Park - spectacular white sandstone bluffs and gorges and brilliant wildflowers. Golden-orange, cream and red grevilleas, wattles in all shades of yellow, grass trees, white clustered ironbark flowers, and numerous other flowers of various purples and other hues adorn the park at this time of year.

This was the third trip this year to Canns Creek Section of White Mountains National Park – yeah, an area I have thought of disparagingly over the years and written off as not worth it compared to its impressive western cousin– how wrong am I ! (hang on, I am never wrong - just misunderstood occasionally ok).

Friday – the drive to Canns Creek section, start with afternoon explore of Sawpit Gorge area. On the drive in, a quick detour to Sawpit Creek Gully lookout, which has bushwalking potential. Future idea is a day hike to explore the two Sawpit Creek Gullies as a loop walk. But today, we do a drive around the Sawpit Gorge rim to find areas of interest there – a colourful drive with dense yellow wattle and flora of other vibrant colours (e.g. purple, red). We stop to look at a sandstone outcrop – we are well dressed, in thongs and comfortable driving clothes – not going far. RIGHT ! So standing on edge of the sandstone outcrop, a scrubby gully below, an interesting sandstone pinnacle the other side – yeah, you guessed it, we just had to clamber down in scrub into the gully, and around the base of the sandstone outcrop which was worth it for lovely white sandstone eroded features. There were many calls of “why are we wearing thongs in this crap?’ - I got the blame for that. Up the other side, then back on the rim to the cars. Drive a short distance back to Sawpit Gorge Lookout, put on proper footwear and clothes, and go for a short but spectacular hike in this gorge. The girls saw a crevasse and just had to get into it. Sign of what was to come. Then a short drive to the campsite and refreshments.

Saturday – the main plan – a through walk from start of Canns Creek all along the gorge, through the canyon, all the way to the camp site – about 12 km of rugged spectacular sandstone gorge landscape. We set up the car shuttle including a car at the canyon lookout at mid-point as a just in case thing. Starting from Sunset View car park, we hiked north along the road for about 1 km – dense yellow wattle bordered the road. This will be fun to bash through I was thinking- not. Close to the entry point I had selected for 2^nd Finger Creek, the wattle thinned out and we went bush – the adventure starts. We quickly found a depression where a creek starts, and shortly entered the main creek line as planned. Thinking this would be a long bush bash along a gully for an hour or so, we were surprised when the gorge suddenly appeared and drop- offs abound – and a small canyon was located. The girls just had to explore that canyon, it was very good. But if they insist on exploring every nook and cranny, gunnna be a long day lol. Proceeding downstream, the gorge became larger and the going became easier in the creek bed. There are many side gorges and crevasses. Mel disappeared into one – I wasn’t overly interested being destination focused today (not even taking many photos). But calls of ‘you gotta see this’ and ‘wow’ - We went in, what a great find - a spectacular bowl like gorge. Called it Mel’s Cave.

Downstream we shortly came to the junction we reached coming upstream on the June trip, a great smoko stop with nice pools. Now we had reached this known spot, we were confident we would complete the through walk today. After a pleasant break, complete with choc brownies and other goodies, we exited the gorge to avoid a blockage, and walked along the escarpment for spectacular views. Then back down into the gorge. We reached the main canyon at midday, to have lunch inside the towering walls. There was talk of ‘’you know, the middle car is just above us      ” - but, no

wimping out. After lunch we negotiate a blockage, then proceeded into the red sandstone part of the gorge, a different look. We found a side chasm to explore, a narrow red lined chasm, a metre wide, with towering walls above. We called this Red Chasm. Awesome. We might try to see this from the top on another day (we did on Monday). A short distance down the main gorge another red chasm, but smaller, Little Red Chasm. Then, the 5 km sand slog, even though still surrounded by red walled gorge, the sand slog was now our focus. We made good time and reached the camp early.

Retrieved the two cars, although one was very late getting back – “I stopped to talk to some cows    ”. Then a great reward, Salted caramel macadamia choc coated ice creams – yep, ice creams

were in one of the cars. Great way to finish an awesome day hike.

Sunday – A quick morning explore to Red Hands Cave for the hand stencil art. Are they genuine ? They don’t seem old, and some of the finger symbols do seem modern. Doubtful that they are old, maybe not even genuine, certainly unlike the 3,500 yr old rock engravings on the Flinders River side. Then two of the adventurers went home (some people have jobs to go to on Monday), while three stayed for the ‘next level adventure’.

Starting at Sunset View, we head south for a different gorge system we haven’t done before, and what an adventure this was. We were soon blocked by numerous side gorges and bluffs, and navigated our way downstream on top of the plateaus and bluffs searching for a way down in to a gorge – any gorge will do. But steep sided cliffs with no way of accessing the gorges bottoms blocked us. I was happy to be on top of the plateau, spectacular views, and I was eyeing off a large bluff ahead (but we were on wrong side to get to it -damn). We reached a sandstone bluff that we had aimed for, deep gorges either side.

But Miss ‘I must get into the canyons’ insisted, so we had to go down. We found a way, unsure if really doable, is there a cliff at the bottom ? There was, but we could scramble to the left to avoid it and slid down into the gorge creek bed. The plan was to go a long way downstream today. Going forward, surrounded by high sandstone walls, clambering over numerous boulder blockages and around pools, great scenery. We had been hiking for nearly four hours, and only ¼ of the way down where we had planned (my fault for not sticking to planned route). But it was time for lunch and to turn back. Study the map – ‘um, straight line, we are only 2.25 km from the car at Sunset View ya know’ ! In this rugged country, it takes time to traverse around side gorges, bluffs, and numerous obstacles. After lunch, we retrace, but being smart I say ‘let’s try another exit point out of the other gorge up to the top plateau, I think it will be easier’ – that worked well (not), large boulders blockage with a crevasse underneath blocked by large deep dark pool – and no guarantee of getting out to other side. So back track to our original route on the other gorge, and exit that way. Then, knowing the terrain now, we made a faster direct route back to the cars that only took 1 hr 15 minutes ! Today was next level adventure and very spectacular. We called this area The Mazes, because that it what it is, a maze of numerous bluffs, gorges and canyons. Wonderful stuff. Lot of potential for future adventures at the heads of these gorges near Sunset View. You don’t have to walk far to get into great scenery and adventures.

Monday – have we had enough ? – NO ! Time for a morning explore before the afternoon drive home. We want to explore other creek branches of the headwaters of Canns Creek Gorge starting at Hill 610. We call this area The Fingers, numerous spidery fingers of gorges. A short bush bash, we reach start of a deep gorge. We find a way down into it (it was mandatory), and explore crevasses. We venture downstream, again inside a deep rugged gorge. We aim for another finger creek on the map, reach that junction, doesn’t look like much here. Ah well, maybe use it as an easy exit. About 200 mr upstream, the flat surrounds suddenly become a narrow deep canyon. We explore upstream, until we come to a massive boulder fall blockage. We explore a crevasse under the blockage trying to find a way through, but no luck. As we scramble on hands and knees in the crevasse, bats fly out, hitting us. A very good explore though. So we retreated, back downstream, and at the creeks junction, exit the creek lines and get onto the escarpment. Head along the escarpment upstream, looking down into slot canyons, amazing. It was time to leave, and we still have one more short walk to look at elsewhere, so we bushbash back to the cars.

We then drive down to another spot to see if we can get to the top of Red Chasm that we found on Saturday. Park cars, then a short 800 mr bushwalk and we arrive at the top of the Red Chasm, spectacular. But this red sandstone is fragile and crumbles easy - no standing near edges for photos.

And that was the end of the awesome adventures. Back to the cars, then drive home.

A spectacular next level adventure weekend. There is so much to explore in this area, it will take many more trips to see it all. Many more gorges and canyons yet to be explored. Plus, we will explore the Warang (middle) section in future as well.

This rugged, remote park covers 108,000 hectares and is only suitable for well-equipped, experienced bushwalkers. There is no signage or information about remote bushwalking locations for this park.

If interested in the flora of the park, an excellent and locally produced book is Plants of the Burra Range, White Mountains National Park, by Betsy Jackes, published by JCU.