Alexandra Falls is an incredible Daintree waterfall hidden in the Wet Tropics rainforest. The journey to Alexandra Falls was one of our favourite adventures in Cape Tribulation. The Daintree National Park is the oldest rainforest in the world and is where two UNESCO world heritage sights come together. If you’re up for an off-the-beaten-path adventure then add Alexandra Falls to your Cape Tribulation bucket list. In this blog post, I’ll detail my experience hiking out to Alexandra Falls in the Daintree Rainforest.
How to get to Alexandra Falls
To access to Alexandra Creek is via Turpentine Road, approximately 20 minutes south of Cape Tribulation or 25 minutes north of the Daintree River crossing. This is just inland from Thornton Beach in “Diwan”. Head to Heritage Lodge and Spa where you will find a small place to park your car about 100m from the entrance to the lodge. The gate entrance does say emergency vehicles only but to access the creek head down the private driveway about 50 meters. You will then come to Alexandra creek. We recommend bringing goggles as the water is crystal clear and there is lots of fish and we even saw a small turtle.
The Alexandra Falls “Hike”
Hiking distance: 3.2km each way
Duration: 3-4 hours
Elevation: 145m total elevation gain (mostly at the end)
The Alexandra Falls route begins at the creek crossing at Alexandra Creek. At the creek crossing you will also notice the ‘Blue Pools’ to the right. This is a beautiful site with pristine clear, aqua rainforest waters. However swimming in the Blue Pools is discouraged. By the traditional owners as this is a culturally significant birthing site for indigenous women. There is plenty of other places along the creek where you can swim with crystal clear waters.
From the creek crossing the trail heads left up to the waterfall. The trail follows creek upstream for approximately 3.2km. This is wh. Most of the walk will be wading through the water and the rocks are quite sharp and slippery. I’d definitely recommend wearing water shoes or other enclosed shoes. As you are in Far North Queensland we recommend being croc wise although I don’t think crocodiles will be wandering up this far up the creek. When we visited in November there had been a bit of rain but it was relatively dry. The creek was easy to walk up the entire way with the deepest section only being about waist height.
The aim is to follow Alexandra Creek the entire way to the waterfall. However, the creek forks in several sections, which can make finding the way a little difficult. The best way to find the way is to simply follow the main creek and avoid any detours to the smaller creeks. We made sure we could see the erosion along the creek wall which made sure we were following the creek the right way. There was a section where the creek was totally dried up and we got a little confused and was’nt sure if we were going the right way. But after about 250 meters we made it back to the flowing creek. The hike most of the way is relatively flat but there is a small boulder section up the creek and is quite slippery. Make sure to take care when walking along the rocks.
After roughly 3 kilometers, you’ll slowly approach Alexandra Falls in the Daintree Rainforest. This giant waterfall has a pretty lower tier with a deep swimming pool. However, the main event is at the top. To the left of the first waterfall there is a small rock scramble to the 2nd tier. There is a well worn trail to the top so is easy to follow but can be quite slippery. After spending close to an hour relaxing by the waterfall and taking photos, we headed back along the creek the same way back to the car. We completed the walk in just under 4 hours, at a fairly leisurely pace and lots of swimming stops along the way.
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