Pink Lakes Walk, Murray~Sunset National Park - May 2019

Lake Kenyon

First up I’ve got to say that this is a really good walk, but it’s not an easy walk as it requires a fair bit of off track walking with some long sections on salt lakes. The pay off for the extra navigation and sometimes tricky lake surfaces was that for the most part I was on my own on this walk, I did cross the occasional dirt road and walked a few short sections of walking track but the majority of the stroll I was just making my own way through the desert, so crowds weren’t really an issue.

I started this walk at the day use area at Lake Crosbie.

My rough plan today was to visit three of the bigger lakes in the Pink Lakes area of the Murray-Sunset National Park, Lake Crosbie, Lake Hardy and Lake Kenyon, joining them together via a variety of different routes. Parking the ute at the day use area at near Lake Crosbie I reset the GPS and set off north, initially following a short section of the Kline Nature Walk. I’ve written about the Kline Nature Walk before on my blog and it also makes for a nice, although a lot easier and shorter walk around the Pink Lakes area. I followed Kline Nature Walk north beside Lake Crosbie all the way up until I reached the Open Air Salt Museum, the lake side walking track mostly keeping just above the shoreline, however with only low Saltbush between me and the salty surface the views across lake are still pretty extensive.

Lake Crosbie

I followed the Kline Nature Walk for awhile.

Lake Crosbie

Arriving at the Open Air Salt Museum I poked around for awhile checking out the rusting old mining machinery and remaining mounds of salt. After a run of about 63 years salt mining only finished out here in 1979 when the area was declared a State Park, before a couple of years later being incorporated into the Murray-Sunset National Park. The salt mining history of the area is well explained with an excellent information board and it’s worth poking around for awhile checking things out and imagining what life would of been like back in the day.

It's worth poking around the Open Air Salt Museum for awhile.

Back on Lake Crosbie.

Leaving the Open Air Salt Museum I left the formal track and dropped down onto the shore line of Lake Crosbie. I now meandered my way around to the northern most point of the lake, mostly walking the small no mans land between where the Saltbush ended and the salt started, although I occasionally ventured out onto the salt to take a photo or check something out. Arriving at the northern end of Lake Crosbie I climbed an informal track up a red dune to arrive at a lookout just off Pioneer Drive. From the lookout I followed quiet roads for a few minutes to soon arrive at the deserted Lake Becking Picnic & Camping Area.

This is a harsh environment.

Reaching the northern end of Lake Crosbie I left the lake and climbed up to this lookout.

Lake Becking Picnic & Camping Area is the spot where the long distance Sunset Remote Walking Track heads off into the desert so I was interested to get a bit of a lay of the land, as it’s a walk that I want to do one day. Leaving the picnic area I climbed a walking track over a dune and Lake Becking suddenly materialised before me, the lake having a few pools of water shimmering under the midday sun. I was now planning on circumnavigating Lake Becking, initially I dropped down to the lake shore and followed the Sunset Remote Walking Track as it headed around the southern shoreline for awhile. As with most of these lakes up here you don’t have to look far to find evidence of the old salt mining (harvesting?) history and I seemed to spend more time poking around the lake shore checking out the old relics than I did on the track along here.

Approaching the Lake Becking Picnic & Camping Area.

Lake Becking Picnic & Camping Area.

Another one on my bucket list....

Lake Becking is on the other side of this dune.

My first look at Lake Becking today.

I followed the Sunset Remote Walking Track above the lake for awhile.

The salt miners laid these trees down on the lake surface to help transport the salt.

Lake Becking

The Sunset Remote Walking Track.

Soon enough though the Sunset Remote Walking Track headed off into the scrub and I set off on the rest of my circumnavigation of the lake. I now alternated between the very edge of the lake interspersed with a few exploratory short cuts across the wet salty lake surface. Walking on these salt lakes can be a bit hit or miss in my experience, whilst sometimes the surfaces are baked rock hard enough to drive a car on, in other spots there is only a very thin crusty surface which is covering a seemingly bottomless pit of stinking black mud, the thing is it’s hard to pick which is which without stepping onto it. My one rule of thumb is to be a little suspicious if there is any surface water on these salt lakes, of course as this was Feral style walk there’d had been some unseasonal rain in the last few days, hmmm.

Some more corduroy roads at Lake Becking.

Red dunes back the lake along its southern and western shoreline.

The Sunset Remote Walking Track heads left here - I went right.

Lake Becking

I mostly walked the narrow no mans land between the salt and the Saltbush....

.....although sometimes I took to the salt.

Lake Becking

Thankfully I made my way successfully around Lake Becking without sinking below the surface. Probably the highlight for me was walking along the western shoreline as the red sand dunes came right down to the white salt surface, the contrast between the colours along with the bright blue sky was intense. Rounding the northern most point of Lake Becking the dunes retreat a bit but I once again started to see a bit of salt mining history in the form of old logs laid out onto the lake to form corduroy roads out onto the soft surface. Keeping an eye on the shoreline I soon picked up a section of the short Lake Becking Nature Walk and found myself on the long abandoned old railway. This old railway was a spur line that was used to transport the salt out to the main line, although the old salt miners spent more time clearing sand from the old railway line than actually transporting salt apparently, for the most part camels were the more reliable choice out here. After checking out the old railways I got one more look back over Lake Becking before once again dropping down to the Lake Becking Picnic & Camping Area.

Lake Becking shoreline.

Lake Becking

Lake Becking

Lake Becking

Lake Becking

One of the old mining relics on the abandoned tramway.

The Lake Becking Nature Walk follows this abandoned tramway for awhile.

After a bit of a break and some lunch listening to the Casuarina’s leafs sighing in the breeze I shouldered my pack again and set off towards Lake Kenyon. Following the Lake Becking access road out to a 4 way junction I left the quiet roads a climbed up onto a low grassy ridge. The open country making for very easy off track walking as I followed the crest of the ridge in an easterly direction, meeting up with some more rusting mining relics I could now easily see Lake Kenyon in the middle distance. With a broad open valley opening up to my east I decided to drop down into it, heading towards the shimmering white salt of Lake Kenyon. The shallow valley is actually home to even more rusting machinery but I’d be a little careful here, it looks to almost be an old dumping ground and there was what appeared to be an old steel oven that had what looked like asbestos in it, so this probably isn’t the place to be disturbing things.

I followed the access road for a few minutes....

....and then climbed onto this low ridge.

Lake Kenyon has come into view.

I dropped down to Lake Kenyon through a shallow valley that featured a few more mining relics....

....although I wouldn't poke around here too much.

Approaching Lake Kenyon I was back in the red dunes again.

Eventually my valley funnelled me onto the Kline Nature Walk again and I was soon walking onto the salt at the extreme western end of Lake Kenyon. Lake Kenyon is a little bit bigger than Lake Becking so my circumnavigation was going to take a bit longer which was all well and good, what I wasn’t counting on though was a sudden change in the weather. So far today I’d been ambling around under a fairly clear blue sky but part way around Lake Kenyon dark clouds rolled in with a cold wind. Now the change of conditions meant snow blindness on the salt was less of a chance but my photos now suffered a bit, I was now going for atmosphere!

Lake Kenyon, I went left.

Lake Kenyon

Lake Kenyon

Lake Kenyon

Red dunes line the northern shoreline of Lake Kenyon.

The weather was starting to look a little ominous.

Lake Kenyon is fairly narrow in spots.

Hmm, time for a Feral retreat!

After an hour or so I reached the extreme north eastern end of Lake Kenyon, Pioneer Drive visible close by through the trees. Apparently this is the site of the old E.B.Jones & Co.’s salt lake workshop but I didn’t leave the lake bed to head up and find it, I was more concerned now with getting back to the ute before any storms arrived. Apart from the old salt works this is also the area of an Italian Internment Camp from WW2, the internees being put to work in the salt mines…who knew? I now started the long walk back along the southern shoreline of the lake, where as the red dunes had bordered the lake along the northern side along here it was just salt flats covered in Saltbush.

In some places the salt was the best surface for walking.

Lake Kenyon

Lake Kenyon

Lake Kenyon

If you do consider short cutting the walk across the lake bed then maybe picking a spot like this.

Lake Kenyon

I had a bit of a choice in front of me now, I could continue my circumnavigation of Lake Kenyon until I once again met up with the Kline Nature Walk again or I could short cut the walk a little by climbing over the low ridge that was separating me from the ute over at Lake Crosbie. It was a no brainer really, the open country not really making the walking track necessary. Spying a large dead tree on the crest of the ridge at about the spot that I needed to cross over it was just a matter of gently climbing the open slopes until I arrived at my tree. Somewhat fortuitously my dead tree had a mate near by that had toppled over so I now had a seat for afternoon smoko. Sitting up here on the ridge with Lake Kenyon in one direction and Lake Crosbie in the other, the light constantly changing as the clouds scudded by, life was pretty sweet.

One last close up look out over Lake Kenyon as I left the lake bed.

Looking back down to Lake Kenyon from the ridge top - overhead conditions were fairly variable now.

All good things come to an end they say and after a decent break savouring the peaceful scene around me it was time to grab my pack agin and drop back down to Lake Crosbie. For a change my navigation was fairly well spot on and I dropped down to the Lake Crosbie shoreline and picked up the Kline Nature Walk only a couple of minutes walk from the ute, all good. Before jumping into the ute and heading off I took the time to check out Lake Crosbie again, the lake now looking dramatically different to the lake I’d waked past on the start of my walk hours ago under the blue morning sky.

This old dead tree on the ridge makes for a handy reference point.

Lake Crosbie from the low ridge.

The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 15.7 kilometres and climbed 126 metres on this medium-hard grade stroll. I’m really only rating this walk medium-hard due to the fact that is largely off track so it requires a little navigation. The salt lakes and open semi-arid environment make off piste walking and navigation fairly easy but there is a lot of it. A couple of other things to consider is the salt lake walking, the surface can vary a lot from very firm to a quagmire - and it’s not always easy to pick the difference until you step on it. Also the salt reflects the sun so snow blindness is a real risk in bright conditions so sunglasses are a must I think. Lastly don’t even think of doing this walk on a hot day, the weather up here can be stinking hot in our warmer months and this walk would be a real slog in hot weather. As far as I know no one has published the walk as I did it today although Mr Thomas, Ms Ball and Mr & Mrs Daly have all published wing notes that feature bits of my stroll.

Relevant Posts.
Lake Hardy Nature Walk, Murray-Sunset National Park, 2019.
Kline Nature Walk, Murray-Sunset National Park, 2019.

Back at the ute the conditions had changed a little since I'd left earlier in the day.