Hartley's Creek Falls Walk, Macalistair Range National Park - May 2022

Hartley's Creek Falls.

Your old and broken correspondent in his natural habitat!

Sam and I relocated from Cairns to Port Douglas today and with a fair bit of time up our sleeves before we could check in at Port Douglas we decided to stop and explore a little bit. Around 45 years ago I'd visited the crocodile farm at Hartley's Creek with my parents however I didn't realise that there was a waterfall up stream until very recently. The croc farm is still there, although it has now been relocated a few hundred metres down the Captain Cook Highway towards Cairns, so while I went chasing waterfalls Sam went and checked out the crocs today.

It's a fairly low key trail head...

... look for the home made sign up in the tree. 

The track to Hartley's Creek Falls starts off beside the site of the old croc farm (it's now a low key resort) and the track follows its fence line west into the scrub. Soon after the fence line finished I entered the Macalistair National Park and passed by the distance signposting - at least I knew that I was on the right track now. The old 4wd track wasn't the most inspiring walking as it climbed and descended it's way west across numerous gullies, a situation not helped by the rocky and sometimes eroded surface. By-passing the Flat Rock swimming hole I continued my walk up to Hartley's Falls, the track continuing it's climb into the mountains.

After walking past the old crocodile farm...

... I arrived at the national parks sign and was on my way!

It's not the most visually pleasing track.

The old 4wd track finished abruptly on the bank of Hartley's Creek - the next couple of hundred metres up to the waterfall is pretty rough going.

After around an hour I arrived at the end of the 4wd track on the banks of Hartley Creek. From here to the falls requires a 200 metres rock hop and this bit of the walk required a little caution as some of the rocks were pretty slippery. By the time I arrived at the deserted Hartley's Falls I was well and truly ready for a swim this afternoon, and thankfully I found a nice easy entry and exit point. Once in the water I spent some time exploring the big plunge pool, with all the recent rain there were two streams of water cascading down into the plunge pool today. 

Rock hopping the last few metres up to the waterfall. 

These old trees have seen a few floods I'm thinking. 

Hartley's Creek Falls - time for a swim!

There was plenty of water coming down today.

Looking downstream from my plunge pool.

Hartley's Creek Falls plunge pool. 

Down stream of the falls Hartley's Creek cascades through an avenue of Paperbarks. 

All good things have to finish sometime though and with some regret I emerged from the water to drip dry for a few minutes before pulling on my shirt and starting the journey back down to Sam. The walk back down was punctuated by a swim at the Flat Rock Cascades, the swimming here was actually better than up ate the waterfall I thought, with plenty of big pools, spa baths, rock slides and even a waterfall where I could get behind the curtain of water. If people visit here just want to have a swim then cut the walk in half and stop here. As with Hartley's Falls the last 100 metres or so to the Flat Rock area is a slow rock hop so keep that in mind if visiting. Just as I emerged from the water Sam rang me to ask where I was, yes I'd been enjoying my day out so much I'd lost a little track of the time - so the rest of my retrace was done with minimal stops.

Hartley's Creek, Macalistair Range National Park.

Passing by the big termite mound...

... I dropped back down the old 4wd track to Flat Rock.

I found my version of paradise at Flat Rock.

Flat Rock.

It was possible...

... to get behind these falls. 

The Dirt.

My GPS dropped a cog again today so I'm going with my Alltrails Map, according to that I walked around 8.5 kilometres and climbed about 255 metres on what I'd call an easy - medium grade stroll. There is room for half a dozen vehicles near the front gate of the resort (under a bit fig tree). The track heads into the bush to the left of the resort entrance - look for a homemade sign nailed high up on a tree. The 4wd track is a little average - eroded and rocky. The last few metres to both swimming spots are rough and slow going across rocks and roots. The swimming at Hartley's Falls was great, although there are a lot of submerged rocks and a decent current so care is required. The swimming at the Flat Rock area was the best spot that I found today and it was hard to leave. This walk is written up in Woodslanes Best Walks around Cairns & the Tablelands. I used my Alltrails App and my GPS topos today.

Relevant Posts.

Manjal Jimalji (Devil's Thumb) Walk, 2022.

The Flat Rock cascades. 

I was obviously enjoying my little adventure going on the number of self indulgent photos that I took!

Flat Rock rock slides.

We actually had access from our balcony to the pool at our accommodation in Port Douglas - I'd still rather be at Flat Rock though!