Just a short walk north out of the Halls Gap town centre, you’ll find a tall flowing waterfall about half-a-kilometre below Boroka Lookout.
Heading here in summer, you’ll probably only see a trickle but after some heavy rain or a few consistent days of light rain, you’ll notice a heavy flow. Regardless of the volume of water at Clematis Falls, it’s normally always a pretty wet place as it’s mostly sheltered from the sun with huge sandstone cliffs surrounding the 20 metre waterfall.
The trail to Clematis Falls is easy, but a beauty. You’ll be able to checkout plenty of typical Australian native plants and trees while the occasional curious Wallaby checks you out.
Before starting the walk to Clematis Falls, it’s worth heading to the Botanic Gardens as you’ll be able to take a look at over 20 plants that are only found at the Grampians, then try to spot them out on your walk to the waterfall. This will also make you more vigilant and increase your chance of spotting some wildlife, such as Kangaroos, Lizards and Birds along the way.
Getting to Clematis Falls from Halls Gap
Clematis Falls is only about a 15 minute walk from the Halls Gap Recreation Reserve (..the Cricket Oval covered in Kangaroos). You can park at the reserve and walk around the back of the oval, there’s just one path that then leads into the bush and heads almost directly to the waterfall. It’s just over a kilometre from the oval.
If you’re not just on a mission to get to Clematis Falls via the most direct route and have a couple of hours up your sleeve, then you’re in luck as you can take the long way round and head there when hiking the Chatauqua Peak Loop.
You can still start at the cricket oval and do the loop in reverse, otherwise the loop walk begins/finishes at the Botanic Gardens, heads over to Bullaces Glen, up to the stunning peak with a short ridge walk and back down the small mountain (200 metres elevation) to Clematis Falls. You even have the option of going around the peak to make the trail a little lighter on the legs and safer if you have young kids or clumsy friends along for the walk.
Camping at Clematis Falls
Camping isn’t allowed at Clematis Falls and even it was, it’s not an ideal location. The area doesn’t get a lot of a sun, due to the huge cliffs and there’s not a lot of flat ground or open space to set up a tent.
A good option is to head back into Halls Gap and either book a campsite at a caravan park or there are plenty of free campgrounds with-in a 20 minute drive.
