Rating: 9.5/10
Last visited: April 2021
Wow! What a hike, what a waterfall! Whilst this hike is somewhat out of the way, we think it’s well worth the detour. Located in Girringun National Park, it’s approximately 5km of well-marked track and creek before arriving at the top of stunning Raspberry Creek Falls. We were lucky enough to have Rochelle’s drone to capture the falls in all their glory, but even if you don’t have one, you can still get absolutely beautiful photos at the top of the falls. We didn’t go swimming as the water flow was pretty hectic due to it being the wet season (also because we were running out of daylight due to a change in original plans), but if the water levels were down, it would make a great place for a refreshing dip.
What do you need to know?
The total distance is 5km, or 7km if you don’t have a 4WD
We kept a pretty quick pace up as we were nearing mid afternoon and wanted to make it back to the car with plenty of day light. Our walking time was just over 90 minutes, but you will want to leave plenty of time to take pictures and videos (and swim)
We would rate this hike easy to moderate. There are a few steep sections but overall, the hike is not difficult and would be manageable for most people.
The track is very well marked through the rainforest until you hit the creek. From reading other resources, a track has been formed beside the creek, but we mostly just traversed through the creeks (we visited after a big storm so there was a lot of trees down and debris over the trail along the creek). We went in, boots and all as we were pushing against the clock but you could easily walk this section barefoot (it is a sandy creek bed, much more pleasant between the toes than a mud)
Towards the top of the falls, the track re-enters the rainforest to the left but we found this very obvious to find (which is saying something coming from us!)
If it’s been raining recently (as it had when we went) the rock faces will be slippery and the water too dangerous to swim in but it didn’t stop us absolutely loving the hike.
How to get there
Drive through the town of Ingham. Continue straight onto Lannercost St for 8.8km before turning left onto Stone River Road. You will follow this road for 19km before turning right to stay on Stone River Rd. After approx. 6.5km, turn right onto Mount Fox Rd. Follow this road for 22km before turning right onto Oak Hills Rd for 5.3km.
Turn right onto Western Raspberry Break. This is a dirt road that requires a 4WD or an extreme dry season (which, lets face it, is not likely in Far North QLD!) If you, like us, don’t have a 4WD, you can park your car safely off the side of the road and walk approx. 1km to the start of the trailhead.
Coordinates: -18.78659,145.84459
Below is a picture of where to turn off Oak Hill Rd onto the 4WD track. If you continue along Oak Hill Road and pass a house to your left, you have gone too far. Western Raspberry Break is to the right and is a 4WD track (Not on Google Maps!)
Below is where we decided that the Mazda is not a 4WD and parked the car to begin the hike. We thought adding about 1km each way (which was a relatively flat 1km) was a small price to pay for not writing off Sarah's car or getting bogged with no reception.
We were relieved when we found this sign. Until this point, we had been following coordinates for Google Maps all the way from Ingham and just hoping we had followed all the instructions correctly. Turns out we had! Take the fork to the left here to start the hike. Follow the ribbons and trail markers all the way until the creek. It is very well marked-> you should have no problems finding the track to follow if we did.
Some of the creek has dried up, making for easy walking across sandy creek beds.
Other parts of the creek require getting wet! The deepest it got was mid-shin and there was no current, so it was easy enough to get across.
The hike is well worth the views at the end.
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