Around Cooktown

Black Mountain, Keating’s Lagoon, Endeavour Falls and Isabella Falls are all close enough to Cooktown to be easy day trips for anyone staying in the town. The first two are on the Mulligan Highway so they are also potential stops on the way to or from Mareeba.   

Black Mountain

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Black Mountain (Kalkajaka) looks like an enormous pile of black boulders, quite alien and somewhat intimidating, even spooky. It looks as strange from above as it does from ground level, too. It has a reputation, perhaps exaggerated, for people disappearing without trace, and for sightings of a large cat-like animal. What is known for sure is that it provides habitat for several unique small animals including lizards and a frog.

Geologically it is a granite peak which has been internally fractured and eroded over millennia. The boulder field is riddled with caves and watercourses but there is a solid core underneath it.

The National Parks site says that, “A lookout on the eastern side of the crest of the Kalkajaka boulder field is the only public access to the national park.”  I can see that the rule is probably in our best interests but I’m still disappointed that we can’t explore. The park is only 25 km from Cooktown and it’s well worth a short visit.

Keating’s Lagoon

A small wetland conservation area just off the highway, ten minutes’ drive from town, Keating’s Lagoon Conservation Park (National Parks site) is primarily a waterbird habitat. When we visited in October it was spectacularly covered in waterlilies.

Keating's Lagoon
Keating’s (shallow) lagoon

We saw Magpie Geese, Burdekin Ducks (aka Radjah Shelduck, Radjah radjah) and several other species – even, after hearing them calling incessantly for an hour or two, the surprisingly elusive Green Oriole, Oriolus flavocinctus (links are to my photos on iNaturalist).

Endeavour Falls

Endeavour Falls
Endeavour Falls
Endeavour Falls
The not-swimming hole below Endeavour Falls

The road following the Endeavour River inland from Cooktown continues  past the Falls to either Hopevale (indigenous community) and Elim Sands, or to Isabella Falls and on to Laura via the Battlecamp road. Access to the Endeavour Falls themselves is by walking through the long-established tourist park. Swimming, unfortunately, is discouraged because of crocodiles.

Isabella Falls

The Laura road crosses a small creek about six kilometres past the turn-off and there is a bush camping spot just beyond the causeway. The falls are small but beautiful and the pool below them is as safe as any natural swimming hole can be. Altogether it’s a lovely spot to spend a few lazy hours or days.

Isabella Falls Cooktown
Isabella Falls in the dry season.
Isabella Falls camping ground
Isabella Falls camping ground, showing all the facilities

This road, by the way, is not the main access to Laura and the northern Cape. Coming from the south, the best route is to turn off at Lakeland.

One thought on “Around Cooktown”

  1. A Cooktown tourist booklet mentioned “Annan River” Gorge as a good birdwatching location so I tried to find it on my way back from this, my second, visit to Cooktown.
    It turned out to be, in fact, the “Little Annan River” Gorge, just off the highway, just South of Black Mountain. I found a turn-off on the Eastern side of the road, just South of the bridge. It led to a very basic picnic area and a rough track down to the water, all in easy walking distance: pretty enough, but no gorge.
    Googlemaps, when I got home, showed me a gorge with a grandiloquently named “Esplanade” beside it, on the other side of the river and the opposite side of the road. Next time!

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