Carnarvon Gorge Camping 2021 (Carnarvon National Park)

Our second trip to Central Queensland’s Carnarvon Gorge National Park in one year shows how much this place attracts and captivates thousands of visitors each year.

The fact that the visits were about 11 months apart is purely a distance thing with it being around a ten hour drive from Brisbane. We chose both times to tow our caravan up there and spent a few days exploring along the way including a stop at Lonesome National Park just down the road.

Or if coming from the west try Salvator Rosa section of Carnarvon National Park. Unfortunately it was closed on our visit but is definitely something to go back to.

Carnarvon Gorge Accomodation 

From a caravan perspective you can stay at Takarakka or Sandstone Park. Both these parks offer tent or van camping with Takarakka also having cabins. Takarakka is located along side the creek and has full facilities while Sandstone Park is up on a ridge with only toilets but spectacular sunset views.

We stayed in both and can say that they are hard to split for each of their respective strengths.

Carnarvon Wilderness Lodge is located a little closer to the park entrance and while we haven’t stayed there, we have dropped into the cafe and it is absolutely worth a visit (closed Mondays at time of writing)

The walks,

You can do anything from a 300 meter walk to the Rockpool up to a multi-day hike at Carnarvon Gorge.

Some of our favourites are the standalone Mickey’s Creek and the main gorge to the Amphitheater, Moss Garden, Ward’s Canyon, Cathedral.

Take plenty of water in the form of a camelbak as there is no water on the trail and the gorge sections could take six or seven hours if you do the full gorge to Big Bend with stops at each of the above.

Sun protection and a good camera is a must for this trip but whatever you take you are carrying it a long way. Hiking sticks help with the creek crossings and remember to bring your rubbish out with you.

Best time of year would be April to June and August to September.