Kinnane’s Falls – Cascades (Main Range NP) 5 – 6 hrs.  Moderate – off track. This off-track walk is to a beautiful waterfall that is all but hidden from view; then further on up stream to a surprising series of waterfalls cascading through rock pools. The start of the walk lies just off the Head Road and a narrow track traverses the cliff-line leading to the falls. Over aeons Wilson’s Creek has run down off the Wilson’s Peak ridge carving a series of tiny ‘canyons’ into the bedrock culminating in Kinnane’s Falls which consists of several drops into hanging pools down the cliff face. (Not accessible or really visible to walkers!) The cliffs either side of the falls are covered in Giant Spear Lilies and the ridges are often frequented by Glossy Black Cockatoos.

Our route as viewed on Google Maps

I have described the first part of the walk to Kinnane’s Falls in my earlier blog here and as it was similar today I won’t repeat it. We left the road around 8:45am and an hour later we passed the falls.

Kinnane’s Falls – less water this time.

We kept going past the falls walking upstream along Wilson’s Creek stopping for morning tea in a lovely little clearing beside the creek.

This tree was where we stopped for morning tea. It had its own garden growing down it with staghorns and orchids along its entire length.

As we walked along we were continually confronted with many types of wildflower. So many species seemed to be flowering at this time of year.

King Orchid

Spear Lily flower about to open up

This was pretty!

This is the vine the above flower was on.

Wombat Berry

About 1.5km above Kinnane’s Falls we came to the Cascades. While it wasn’t that steep of a walk, we were continually walking across a slope and the grass was extremely slippery so our ankles were feeling the strain. But the Cascades were a lovely spot so it was all worthwhile.

Hoop pines along the ridge above the Cascades

A waterfall at the top of the Cascades

The rock pools had all types of life in them. Here you can see a tadpole with his head buried in the bottom. He would have been at least 50mm long.

The Cascades are a series of rock pools

Lunchtime

We stopped at the Cascades for around an hour to explore and have lunch. The rock pools were teeming with life with tadpoles, shrimps and many other creatures to see.

On the return journey, we retraced our steps stopping off at the rock pools above Kinnane’s Falls to have a wade. A few of us did this on our last walk back in April but this time while the water level was much lower, it was also much colder. About half of us braved the freezing water to wade down through two pools to view the top of the falls. There were two splashes along the way as two of the group slipped and got more wet than they intended. Then we waded back, got dressed into dry clothes and continued on our way back to the cars.

A plot of the elevation along the walk

I was home by about 3:15pm where a hot shower was in order followed by a coffee down town. Another enjoyable day spent in the great outdoors!