Rating: 7.5/10
Last visited: April 2021
West Mulgrave Falls, the lesser known and lesser explored neighbour of Windin Falls. Whilst not as popular as Windin next door, we absolutely love West Mulgrave Falls, it is a stunning waterfall and the best thing, unlike Windin, you won’t have to fight off crowds of people to enjoy this spot.
What you need to know
The hike is backwards to your usual hike, you lose elevation on the way to your destination and then have to gain it on the way back. Whilst most of the trail is easy to moderate, there is one extremely steep section as you descend down to the first creek (we estimate this section to be around 1km) this section is 100% strenuous. It is hard not to think about how painful the return trip will be as you quickly lose elevation during this decent. Try not to let this deter you.
There are two creek crossings, you should go into this hike expecting to get your feet and shoes wet and probably up to your waist deep realistically.
Some parts of the track are overgrown, this trail is certainly not as heavy trafficked as its cousin, Windin Falls.
When we visited the track in April 2021 it was well marked with pink and orange tape. We assume someone has gone through recently.
Do not, I repeat, do not attempt this trail in the wet. In fact heed our warning and avoid all trails in Wooronooran National Park during and after rain. This hike would be our worst encounter with leeches to date. We were absolutely covered in leeches head to toe as it started to rain on the way back. Despite our best efforts of flicking them off, one of our companions ended up with one of the little suckers on her eye ball. Yes you read that correctly, on her EYE BALL. She had to walk around 30 minutes back to the car where we had to remove it with tweezers. Not pretty and certainly not an experience we want to repeat.
AllTrails has this track mapped out at 10 km. We all tracked different mileage on our personal trackers with some trackers reporting distance covered 15 km.
In between the creek crossings keep a very careful eye out for stinging plant. One of our companions got stung on the way back through this section. The plant managed to sting him through the tights he purposely wore to prevent being stung. Lesson learned, tights will not shield you from the perils of stinging plant and it is best to just avoid them all together.
We completed the round trip, including time at the falls for a swim in around 5 hours and 30 minutes. The trip back was slow with one of our buddies struggling under the pain of the stinging plant and the rest of us stopping constantly to fend off leeches.
If you are looking for an easier hike with a great reward, read our blog on Windin Falls.
Trail Notes
The trail starts at the carpark to Windin Falls. You can plug this into Google. When you arrive at the carpark, follow the trail for around 100 metres until you reach the below sign to Windin Falls. At the Windin Falls sign take a hard right. This will lead you along a fence and out onto what appears to be an old fire trail. Follow the markers.
The trail is very well marked, however we did notice that there appeared to be a few alternate routes marked with Pink and Orange tape. You shouldn’t go too far wrong following either of these markers, although we tended to prefer the pink.
The markers will lead you through different sections of rainforest. You will eventually have a very, very (emphasis added) steep section to descend. At the bottom of the very steep descent you will come to a creek, you are going to have to cross this creek and continue following the creek on the other side up the bank and downstream. The markers in this section are a little hard so keep your eye out.
Once you cross the first creek and pick the markers back up, keep following the markers (with a careful eye out to avoid stinging plant) to the second creek crossing. This creek crossing is about waist height, so I would not recommend this hike if there has been a lot of rain as it might be too high or too strong to cross. Below are some photos of the crossing for perspective.
Once you cross the second creek, you will turn right and keep following the creek (and markers) upstream towards the falls.
On a nice day, this waterfall is the perfect spot for a refreshing swim
Below is a snap of the actual trail
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