Morialta Falls

I went to Morialta in December once and saw a dry creek bed and a cliff with a dark streak down it. Somebody had told me there were waterfalls. I took a photo of the streak anyway. Winter is a different park. Adelaide's rain mostly falls between May and September, and that's when Fourth Creek fills up and the three falls do what they're supposed to do. It also makes the tracks slippery, so don't wear your smooth-soled shoes. But if you want a proper hit of forest air without leaving the city, this is the time. The whole gorge feels like one big oxygen bar. Parking, which is the annoying part Put the car park with the toilets into your maps app. That's the one at the end of Morialta Falls Road, right by the trailhead, and it's easily the most convenient. On a winter weekend it fills up early. Go late and you'll be parking a long way back down the road and adding a walk to your walk. I'd get there in the morning. If you'd rather skip the car, I took the H30S bus. The stops for the park are 26 and 27 on Stradbroke Road, and the ride wasn't long. Check the timetable before you plan around it, since some of the services only run on weekdays. First Falls There are three waterfall walks, and I'd point most people at the first one. It's the easiest to walk and the best for photos. You follow the creek along a flat track, cross a few little bridges, and end up at a viewing platform at the base of a cliff about 30 metres high. After heavy rain the spray reaches the platform, so you may leave a bit damper than you arrived. The park has koalas, so keep looking up into the trees. On the walk back I passed the turn-off to Giant's Cave, a short climb up some steps to a big hollow in the rock. From the cave it's a few minutes back to the start. Altogether the First Falls walk took me about an hour and a half with stops, which is short enough to squeeze in before lunch. Second Falls The second walk goes further up the hill, and this is the one I liked for the view. The path takes you along a boardwalk and over the top of the falls, so the water is right there underneath your feet, and everything opens out around you. You're higher up, you can see across the gorge, and it feels a lot bigger than the first walk even though you're still in the same park. Third Falls, or the one I didn't finish Third Falls is the longest of the three, and on one of my winter visits it was closed. It had rained for several days beforehand. If you're heading out after wet weather, look at the SA Parks website first. On a different day I decided I was going to do it. This was a mistake, mostly because of when I started. I set off at half past three in the afternoon. The track is dirt with a lot of loose stones, and it just keeps climbing. I walked uphill for about an hour and a half, and then I looked up and noticed the light was going. Everything was dust and gravel underfoot, and I had no torch. It didn't feel safe to keep going, so I turned around. Going down was so much easier. And then, on the way, a little koala was sitting right in front of me in a tree, chewing on leaves and not caring about me at all. I stood there and watched it for a while. From that spot it was about twenty minutes back to where I started, and then five more minutes to the cave at the second car park, and ten to First Falls. If you want to do Third Falls, go in the morning. The map says about three and a half hours return, and I think that's not enough time. And park at the trailhead. I left my car at the picnic area, which meant a long extra walk at the end of a tired day. When to go Now, basically. Winter and early spring is when the falls are at their best. Don't go in summer. When I went in December there was practically nothing coming over the rocks, and that trip taught me more about drought than about waterfalls.