{"id":173,"date":"2012-12-21T18:27:51","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T10:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.joel.net.au\/?p=173"},"modified":"2026-06-20T19:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:36:24","slug":"porcupine-gorge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/day.lat\/lon\/2012\/12\/21\/porcupine-gorge\/","title":{"rendered":"Porcupine Gorge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Porcupine Gorge + White Mountains National Park: Porcupine was gorgeous (sorry, Ithaca) and a nice place to camp. I couldn’t book the campsite in advance, but fortunately, there were plenty of spaces available. Only 2 other couples camping. <\/p>\n

\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like Carnarvan Gorge, Porcupine Gorge seemed to have its own micro-climate of lush green tropics, even though the surrounding landscape was brown. It’s an odd name for a national park in Australia that has no porcupines (just echidnas). The name came from European explorers who were referring to the native spiky grass (Triodia) found in the area. The camping was on the ridge at the top, but there was a 1km trail I hiked down to visit the gorge floor first thing in the morning (while it was cool). <\/p>\n

\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Wallaby
Wallaby in Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kangaroo
Kangaroo in Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Flower
Flower in Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Porcupine
Porcupine Gorge National Park, Queensland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Afterwards, I headed for White Mountains National Park to re-evaluate whether I wanted to camp in the hot, dry, isolated (snake-infested?) place and decided to just mountain bike the 10 km 4WD track in there instead. Racked up 25km round trip (including a little side exploring in the forest), which felt good for a change from driving all the time.<\/p>\n

Exploring Porcupine Gorge National Park<\/strong>
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