His: Day Trip to Ancient Glacier and Sawn Rocks

On Wednesday we took a day trip to see some of the scenic Australian bush land. We traveled through some quaint little country towns which will be covered in a future post but we also saw two unique places that were just breathtaking.

Ancient glacier valley

The first place we stopped was a river where there was a glacier millions of years ago. It was off a small country road with just a small sign pointing to the ancient glacier spot and we almost missed the turnoff. We hopped out of the car and looked down to see an awesome river that had been carved out. There was plenty of rocks for you to hop around on and even Dad's little Dachshund had a good time climbing on the rocks in the valley.

Rocks embedded into the bedrock by the glaciers

Some of the rocks had a unique feature where smaller rocks have been embedded into the bedrock in the valley by the glacier. The immense pressure and weight of ice of the glacier would have pushed the smaller rocks into the bedrock and made them into one big rock. This made a interesting effect and can be seen on the photo to the left. The area also had a small waterfall and many different boulders in the middle of the valley. I had a lot of fun hopping from rock to rock and looking at the different formations.

Sawn Rocks

We had to walk about 1/2 a mile from the car park to see the second place --- the Sawn Rocks formation. On the way we saw an echidna which was not something you see in the wild every day. After walking for about 10 minutes we came across the viewing platform for Sawn Rocks. The cliff is a couple hundred feet high. The rocks have taken on a hexagonal shape so they look like logs hanging on the side of the mountain. Amanda said it reminded her of the logs used in log cabins at home. You could see where some had broken and the bits were lying on the side of the creek below. It is amazing to see a cliff of this size anyway, but to see the rock formation was truly impressive. I can't imagine how Mother Nature managed to form the rock into that shape. It was definitely worth the 10 minute walk.

Even though both of these attractions are off the beaten path it was well worth the drive. I had never been to either of these locations so it was a new experience for both Amanda and myself. Because it was in a remote location it was nice and quiet and not crowded which made for a better experience. I hope we get to have a few more experiences like this before we head back to the United States.