Barron Gorge National Park

The second day of our trip to Australia (Thursday, June 9), my wife and I spent most of the day driving the Davies Creek Road in Dinden National Park.  On the way home we went to Barron Gorge National Park and walked the rain forest trail at the upper end of the gorge.  We had seen the lower end of the gorge the day before and had been disappointed by the lack of hiking.  We were not disappointed this time.  Barron Falls, though only a trickle at this time of the year, was impressive, and the rain forest walk was beautiful.  Among other things we saw our first Brush Turkey, an exciting event that would soon pale when we realized these birds were everywhere.  We also discovered later that some of the flowers vines and shrubs we saw were not native to Australia, but we enjoyed them anyway.  The walk takes you to the railroad that cuts through Barron Gorge and to an overlook for the falls.  The light at the overlook was not very good but we took some pictures anyway before heading "home" to our youth hostel.

Barron Falls

 trees and leaves

 Ulysses Butterfly

 Glory Bush (non-native)

Tibouchina semidecandra

 unidentified skipper

 Cuckoo Wasp (I think)

Female Scarlet Percher Dragonfly

 Golden Trumpet (non-native)

Allamanda cathartica

 Brush Turkey

 Finished at the falls, we hiked to another lookout that gave us views of the lower end of the gorge, the area we had visited the day before and of the city of Cairns.