Coalseam Conservation Park
So where does the name Coalseam come from?
Coalseam Conservation Park is one of the few areas where black coal can be seen at the Earth’s surface. It is also the site of the first coal mining in Western Australia.
The Irwin River has cut through the local rock exposing a striking cross-section of sedimentary layers, one of which is coal. Other layers of rock including siltstone and sandstone are exposed along the cliff faces beside the Irwin River.
Continuing from yesterday’s blog…
Through the rain, and some 4 plus hours later, we finally arrived at the park.
We were immediately met with an explosion of color.
Although they were not fully opened, Coalseam’s usual sparse grounds was covered in everlasting flowers.
As we went in deeper to the park, I learned that the flowers weren’t the only story here, the views from the lookouts were also something to behold. We would later drive on that very path we were looking at from here.
The cliffs from above were amazing to look at. My guess is though that in summer this view looks a lot dryer.
Zooming in, just another show of color, the wildflowers covering the hillside.
About to leave the lookout, I came across this very enterprising ant, carrying its load of acacia seed.
While we were looking down, behind us was an endless carpet of yellow flowers.
Driving down to the area we looked at from above, it doesn’t get less lovely at all.
Oh what a perfect spot…
…for a picture together!
This was as close as we got to the cliffs. Had the weather been better, perhaps we would have hiked closer to see the seam of coal as apparently the grey line is visible from here.
Now believing what we read on signs saying “Bridge was out” we did quite a bit of driving to get to the other side of the park.
Now we came to a crossing…should we go through?
I am not super great with the metric system but it looks OK to me.
John takes off his shoes and rolls up his pants to make sure. Oh yeah, we’re good.
And we crossed…
I had to giggle watching this later, that the song on the radio was playing “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart. Seemed to go with the story here. 🙂
Wasn’t long we came across another patch of water in the road.
I asked John to pause in the middle of the deep waters to get a shot of the cliffs from here.
The view from the other side of the park was …cold, windy, and rainy!
I learned that John is happiest when his truck is dirty and muddy.
Next…the drive back home.
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