Glen Herring Gorge; stunning free camping near Marble Bar
The Marble Bar area is nothing short of exceptional. There’s a heap of great attractions, and we were thoroughly shocked at how beautiful the region is. We’ve since been back again to explore more of the great area, and spent a spectacular night at Glen Herring Gorge.
Sarah actually rated this our #1 camp site on our 3 weeks through the Pilbara, and given how many truly unbelievable places we saw that’s a pretty big call!
Where is Glen Herring Gorge?
You’ll find this place 53km South West of Marble Bar, just off the Hillside Marble Bar Road. The bulk of the drive is on bitumen, and then its good quality gravel road until you turn off to Glen Herring Gorge.
Do you need a 4WD to get there?
If you had a bit of clearance, I think you’d sneak a 2WD in here fairly easily. When you arrive, you get to a fairly flat area that dips down into a creek crossing. Park before the creek crossing and walk in, and you’d be OK.
The creek crossing is nothing difficult for even a stock 4WD, and takes you to a small area where you can camp, before turning into a more narrow track with limited turning options as you get close to the gorge.
If you’re chasing 4WD tracks in the Pilbara, we cover that in another post.
Camping at Glen Herring Gorge
If you want a magic night in the Pilbara, you can camp at Glen Herring Gorge. It’s completely free, and there are zero amenities. That means you need to take out what you brought in, and leave no trace.
There are probably 6 camp site areas suitable for a 4WD and caravan, with room to squeeze more in if you really wanted to, especially if you had a smaller rig.
The shadiest area is before the creek crossing, and once you’ve gone beyond this you need to provide your own shade as its quite open. We chose to camp close to the Gorge with water pools nearby for the kids to play in, nice views and with the sun being low in the sky we had plenty of shade without setting anything additional up.
Accessing and swimming at the Gorge
If you want to access the Gorge, stick to the left (West) side and its a very easy 5 – 10 minute walk in over a few little rocks and sandy sections.
Alternatively, do what we did when we first visited and struggle to make your way through tight scrub, up and down big rocks and jumping over water, then realise that you could have just walked in with no issues on the other side!
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay here, and will be back again one day. Have you been to Glen Herring Gorge? What did you think of it?
