Halls Gap with Kids - Mackenzie Falls

Mackenzie Falls is one of the jewels in the Halls Gap crown. It is one of the most popular spots for tourists to the town to visit.

It’s a little drive out of the township and you can stop at other spots a long the way if you are keen to see as much as possible.

If your husband considers himself a rally car driver then you may feel slightly carsick by the time you wind around the mountain and arrive at Mackenzie Falls. But otherwise the drive is pretty easy.

A view from about half way down.

When you get started you will notice that there are a options for walks, depending on your ability. We chose the hardest walk which is about a 2km return trip.

Once upon a time this path was pretty basic, more of a goat track with rocks to navigate, no longer is this the case. The path is now completely paved, there are stairs where once there were only rocks to climb on. I recall 20 years ago that this walk was much harder.

While there are the easier options the best place to view the Falls is from the bottom.

Mr H, Popps and I made it down very easily, Immy was tired from a big weekend and found the steps too steep to walk down. She is not a good long distance walker at the best of times. Mr H carried her most of the way down.

Downhill walking is easy for those with bad cardio fitness but Mr H and I both suffered from jelly calves at the bottom. That feeling that your calf muscles are wobbly.

We spent about an hour at the bottom, just paddling our feet in the rock pools, lazing in the sunshine and hanging out. You are not meant to swim in the pool at the bottom of the rocks, I am not sure if this is a new thing since the floods in 2011 which would have made it more dangerous but in the past we have gone in for a dip.

The walk back up is a tiny bit harder.

Immy survived about 30 metres before being carried the rest of the way. Mr H is pretty fit and he took off with Immy on his back and found it pretty easy.

This is me hiking up, not looking very glam!

I am not so fit.

I found the stairs on the way up a little tiring but there are stops every 30 metres or so which made it pretty easy. Popps took off fast and made it to the top of the stairs and then started to say she couldn’t make it. We stopped for a few minutes together and then headed up slowly. At the final look out she whinged that she didn’t want to walk up anymore, but we were only about 30 metres from the top and once she realised that she was fine.

Really Truly, it is a very short distance, there were many people who looked REALLY unfit but they were still managing this walk. It will get your heart rate up a tiny bit but it won’t last very long!