Parking
Begin at Joffre Gorge day-use car park; the marked lookout path starts there.
Overview
About Joffre Lookout Trail
Why go
- A dramatic amphitheatre view for a short walk.
Heads up
- Rock steps make it unsuitable for step-free access.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Karijini map
Full mapElevation684–699 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Karijini Tour Guide
Your drive to Joffre Lookout Trail, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Karijini National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Karijini audio tourRecorded for this trailhead
Joffre Falls and Lookout0:00 / 0:32
“Up ahead is Joffre Gorge, where a curved red cliff wraps around a dark pool like an amphitheatre. I’d choose the lookout for a short stop: allow about twenty minutes return on an uneven path with rock steps.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Karijini Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Karijini Eco Retreat and Outback Restaurant
- How a Kestrel Hangs in the Air
- Rain Beneath the Surface
- The Scales in a Moth's Pattern
- 141 audio storiesacross Karijini’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Dingo, Rock Wallaby, Mulga Snake, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 22 trails, 30 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Joffre Lookout Trail
The short routeJoffre Lookout Trail is a 240 m (0.
Joffre Lookout Trail is a 240 m (0.15 mi) out-and-back from Joffre Gorge day-use car park to a metal-grid viewpoint above the gorge. Allow about 20 minutes. It is a Class 3, moderate walk with a short descent on rock steps. I’d choose it for the amphitheatre view when you want the quick lookout; the much longer Class 5 walk into the gorge is a separate route.
Down to the platformFollow the marked, unpaved path from the car park, then take the rock steps to the lookout.
Follow the marked, unpaved path from the car park, then take the rock steps to the lookout. You return the same way, so the walk out is the main effort. The short mileage can make this sound flatter than it is: the route is not step-free. No dogs or other pets are allowed in Karijini National Park.
Joffre GorgeThe platform looks into a curved amphitheatre of layered red rock above a dark pool.
The platform looks into a curved amphitheatre of layered red rock above a dark pool. Water runs down the stepped cliff after rain, but the flow can be absent in dry conditions; the rock bowl remains the view. From the platform, frame the pool beneath the curved wall. The gorge-floor pools require the separate, much harder descent.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Karijini
44 sightingsDingoMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
18 sightingsRock WallabyMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
15 sightingsMulga SnakeMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
36 sightingsHamersley Rock MonitorMost seen around 9 AMSighting map
13 sightingsWestern BowerbirdMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
34 sightingsChildren's PythonMost seen around 8 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Karijini. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
