Ferntree Falls near St Helens Nov 2016.
Ferntree Falls
The day we visited Ferntree falls, we had already been to Meadstone Falls, and it was nearing dinner time, but I wanted to take in one more (these) before we stopped. Off we set, out of St Helens, along the Argonaut Road. After the bitumen ended, we turned left into Trafalgar Rd (a gps makes the unsigned Trafalgar Rd much easier to find. There are several other turnings left, none of which is signed). After a while, Trafalgar forked. On the left, I could see houses; on the right, the land dropped away to a creek, albeit not the creek the falls are on. We turned right.
Ferntree Falls: a delightful surprise. I thought we knew St Helens really well, but apparently not well enough to know about these.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have any instructions. Had I had some, I would have read that one parks here. No matter. Our way was actually more fun, as we had to navigate ourselves to the falls, and we got in a nice little circuit of over a kilometre, rather than just a tiny 200m track. We drove over the spur ahead and parked slightly beyond its crest, following a shallow gully down to meet the main river which we followed to the falls, past delightful rock pools. Climbing down on the right was very steep and unstable. I had parked my husband at the top while I gave it a go. Underneath, I scampered easily across the river and up the other side on a tiny path kind of thing, so the other side is definitely the go. My husband was able to negotiate that one easily to join me at the bottom.
Our route is on the map below. The slight gap in the circuit is where we parked. I deliberately stopped tracking to make that clear.
