Australia Destinations National Parks and Historical Parks Nature

Yanchep National Park, Australia

DrFumblefinger 11/18/225:00 AM

About 25 years ago my wife and I spent a few weeks visiting Western Australia. I'd a meeting to attend in Perth, after which we rented a car and spent more than a week exploring a large chunk of the land down under.

Western Australia 9-1997. 067 Yanchep National Park

One of our first stops was Yanchep National Park, just 42 km (26 mi) north of Perth. The park is well known for its caves, native flora, and koala colonies.

The area of Yanchep NP has been inhabited by aboriginal peoples for thousands of years. The first Europeans arrived in 1834 and the caves were noted by them in 1838.

We spent about a half day at Yanchep and enjoyed our visit. We did see a number of koalas, most of them so high up in gum trees that they were hard to see or photograph, but the chap below posed nicely for us:

Western Australia 9-1997. 070 Yanchep National Park. Koala

Mostly we wandered the park's hiking trails, enjoying the native trees and bushes, lakes and ponds....

Western Australia 9-1997. 083 Yanchep National Park.

Western Australia 9-1997. 086 Yanchep National Park.

Western Australia 9-1997. 087 Yanchep National Park. Sylvia (My wife on one of the trails)

Western Australia 9-1997. 099 Yanchep National Park.

Western Australia is famous for its wildflowers, best seen in the spring, which fortunately is when we visited....

I think the highlight of any trip to Australia is to see its amazing assortment of wildlife, especially the birds. Yanchep NP is home to grey kangaroos and wallabies, but we didn't see any marsupials on our visit. Still there were lots of birds....

(Pink and gray gallahs)

(Dusky Moorhen)

(Australian ringneck parrot)

(Spoonbill)

(
(Emus)

(Kookaburra)

Yanchep National Park has more than 400 caves, most not accessible. We took a tour of Crystal Cave, which is visited on guided tours departing from the Visitor's Center. The cave offers the usual formations you would expect to see -- stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, etc. I like caves a lot and enjoyed exploring this one.

The park has a variety of expected services, like a visitor center, restaurant and tea rooms, picnic and camping facilities -- even golf and ziplines. Cultural educational programs are offered in partnership with the local Aboriginal tribe.

Yanchep is a nice park, and I thought especially a treasure to people living in Perth because of its closeness to the city.