Because of the heavily promoted Wave Rock, we had fun with the 'wave' signs like this one and others that said "Welcome to the Wave Region" and invited us to "Come back soon for another wave soon."
We had a fairly easy trek on this 66-km-long dirt road, considering we foolishly thought that we knew better than to trust Google Maps' 17-km-longer route. We were lucky not to be caught in a flash flood or other calamity on the almost deserted road, with only one truck passing us for 25 km.
Luck was also on our side that the gravel and dirt road was well sealed, making it comparatively easy to drive. We only hoped that our first sight, Buckley's Breakaway, would be worth driving all this distance for.
How cute was this?! There was no issue when I asked Steven to make a U-turn so I could take this shot of the decoration by the mailbox, as there had been only one vehicle in 61 km!
This was probably the first and would be the only time we'd ever come across a Mallefowl Crossing sign!
Buckleys Breakaway (correct, no apostrophe 's'!) was set amid a massive granite landscape that took up most of the southwest corner of the Australian continent. The geological area, known as the Yilgarn Craton, dates back 2700 million years. We read that although much of the granite was hidden by a veneer of sandy soils, hundreds of granite rock outcrops dotted the undulating landscape known as the Wheatbelt, which covered most of the Yilgarn Block.
After being cooped up in the car, we looked forward to walking along the unmarked trail to the base of the breakaway formation. We kept our fingers crossed that we might spot and hear chattering groups of wood swallows and enjoy colorful wildflower displays as we walked through blue mallet woodland and shrubby native cypress trees.
Over millions of years, unrelenting weathering corroded the Craton's granite, creating breakaways. As the water table fell, sodium, calcium, and magnesium leached out and were concentrated in the soil. Minerals such as mica and feldspar were altered to form the soft, white kaolin, or clay, that formed the breakaways. Our first view of Buckleys, one of the most distinctive in Western Australia, took our breath away.
The site was sheltered in a valley, so it was less windy.
One of the formations was especially magical! Some reminded us of the hoodoos at Utah's Bryce Canyon National Park.
The rocks looked like they had been spun by sugar!
The sun made a brief appearance, which accentuated the rocks' coloring and stunning beauty.
Runoff created deep furrows and exposed the weathered granite underneath.
This formation was less magical and more in the bizarre category, in my opinion!
It seemed surprising that the tour book, the highway, etc., made no mention of Buckleys Breakaway, with all the advertising funds going instead to Wave Rock up ahead. We thought that the breakaway deserved its own publicity. Not surprisingly, we were the only ones there when we visited. I only found out about Buckleys Breakaway when I spotted it on a map.
The vast expanse of Australia's Wheatbelt hit us anew as we continued to Hyden.
Big excitement - only the third vehicle in two hours since leaving Lake King that morning!
We joked we'd hit the big time when we drove into the laid-back little bush settlement of Hyden, located about 300 km east of Perth, but of course we had taken the very roundabout route, heading straight south first along the coast! A sign proclaimed that Hyden had celebrated its 75th anniversary in 1987, long after the heritage towns we had visited so far in Australia's southwest corner. In 1922, the first European farming settlement began in the area, with the first local wheat crop harvested five years later. In 1922, farms were about 400 to 600 hectares. Now, they ranged from 4,000 to 12,000 hectares.
While Aborigines were the first inhabitants of the Hyden area, they gave the district a wide berth after settlers arrived. Grinding stones used by First Nations people have been found throughout the area, along with painted hand marks on rocks. Before European settlement, granite outcrops were important to the Noongar people of southwest Western Australia.
The outcrops provided an easily visible meeting place; people could climb to the top to plan their journey through the surrounding countryside; caves and overhangs provided shelter from inclement weather and the heat; and some were used as art sites. Granite outcrops often contained water holes called gnamma holes that the Noongar relied on during summer, and they also attracted wildlife that would have been a critical food source.
Hyden prided itself on catching one of Australia's biggest waves, even though it was nowhere near the ocean, because it was the community closest to the world-famous Wave Rock, a giant multi-colored granite cliff shaped like a breaking ocean wave. Despite the dramatic differences between Buckleys Breakaway and Wave Rock, both were shaped by water erosion and were granite.
As was no doubt intended, we had to smile when entering the Hyden Bush Bakehouse. As you might have guessed by now after reading comparable comments in previous posts, Australians are known for their witty sense of humor!
This sign could benefit many homeowners!
The Wave Rock Walk took us along the foot of the rock formation to the old quarry site at the far end. Though the area was quite small, the natural world around Hyden was remarkably rich and diverse, with habitats changing quickly over short distances. They ranged from deep, well-watered soil to dark caves to bare, exposed rock surfaces.
A salmon gum eucalyptus tree:
Even though we'd been prepared because of all the signage for hundreds of kilometers for the sight of Wave Rock, known as Katter Kitch to the Noongar people, our first sighting was still breathtaking. The spectacular rock was a 15-m-high concave wall of granite streaked with black and orange algae remains. The shape had been carved out of the slopes of Hyden Rock by the weathering action of soil abutting the rock.
We couldn't have scripted it any better if we tried, as the sun appeared just as we approached the rock!
In a dreaming trail recounted by generations of Ballardong people, the rock was created when the Rainbow Serpent dragged her swollen body after consuming all the water in the land. I much preferred that origin of the wave's shape, believed to have formed over 2700 million years ago like Buckleys Breakaway, which resulted from gradual erosion of the softer rock beneath the upper edge over many centuries.
If we'd been in the area overnight, it would have been glorious to watch it at different times of day, as changing sunlight altered its colors and appearance.
As erosion exposed more and more of the outcrop, the wave seemed to rise up like a breaker on a beach. The weather was dry as a bone when we stopped at Wave Rock. However, after a rain, the rock was described as being "bejewelled with sparkling Gnammas or rock pools, which can contain up to a hundred different species of tiny aquatic invertebrates."
The trail led to the immense Hyden Rock, of which Wave Rock was just a part. Hyden Rock was unusually high and long because it formed in deeply fractured rock, which let water penetrate easily; the saline water promptly attacked the granite; and the outcrop had been stable for a very long time, keeping this surface exposed.
The walk also branched off to Hippo's Yawn Loop, an unusually shaped piece of granite, which used to be part of a much larger outcrop.
The darker bands of color at the top reflected the denser sheoak-dominated vegetation close to the rock, because the rock's runoff fed the deeper soil.
Believe me, I didn't Photoshop anyone out of the shots - there was only one other person there, and my shot of him and the wave wasn't worth including.
Almost in the blink of an eye, we were surrounded by brush, and Wave Rock was almost a distant memory!
But the farther we walked, the more the rock's shoulder cracked and broke into massive slabs, some of which slipped down the slope toward the trail. A hardy granite kunzea grew from one narrow slit. They can live for many decades and produce large bright red flowers each spring. Around and under these slabs live a variety of small lizards, including the ornate dragon. Rather than the fire-eating creature of myths, it's a small, gray lizard barely as long as a shoe.
I'll give you just one guess to figure out the name of this fun outcrop. The clue was above, by the way!
Pat yourself on the back if you correctly guessed Hippo's Yawn! You're probably wondering what made the hippo yawn. In essence, it was a tafone, the Italian word for a window or aperture. In geology, it refers to large hollows that develop in big boulders and are commonly caused by the scouring action of wind and water.
Unlike Elephant Rocks at Williams Bay the prior morning, however, this rock was easily identifiable!
Some of the tallest trees grew around the outcrop. One was the so-called "king of the canopy," the rock sheoak, known by local Noongars as kwowl.
What a luxury to have these magnificent sights and trails to ourselves!
We were too close to the rock wall to have seen the colossal boulders earlier. I wouldn't have noticed them either once we were further away if Steven hadn't looked up at that exact point.
Another big attraction 20 km north of Wave Rock was Mulka's Cave, an immensely important cultural site for the region's Nyaki-Nyaki people, and one of WA's most significant rock art sites.
A total of 452 stencils or paintings have been recorded in three chambers of the cave. As a registered Aboriginal site, it was protected under the WA Aboriginal Heritage Act, 1972, and placed on the Register of the National Estate to further protect the traditional Noongar culture of southwestern WA.
The large area in front of the cave, protected by the steel walkway, was likely a meeting ground, but it wasn't known whether large groups used it occasionally or smaller groups more frequently. Another question was where the main camp was located.
While Aboriginal hand stencils and other motifs occur quite commonly in the region, most sites had fewer than 20. The proliferation of stencils at Mulka's Cave clearly indicated the site's significance to researchers and the associated myths that connect areas from the desert to the coast.
I read that extensive research determined that seven colors were used, with a purple-red shade making up the majority at 50 percent, and that 18 different motifs were detected, with hands making up the greater part. However, I had difficulty finding any color other than the stated purple-red or noticing anything other than hands. This was where I would have appreciated a guide literally pointing out variations in color and design.
Most of the artwork was hand stencils, made by placing the hand on the rock and then blowing pigment over it. Researchers thought it was a type of signature left by those with rights to an area. The hand motifs wer3e measured to determine age and/or gender. Except for two small infant prints, the vast majority were adults or older adolescents.
There was little doubt that the cave, a great place to shelter from rain, cold winds, and intense heat, had been there for tens of thousands of years, offering safe haven. But who had been using it, why, and for how long was more of a mystery. The lack of accurate dating added to the mystery surrounding life at Mulka's Cave, until future archaeological research may answer some of these questions.
We appreciated the cave more for its intrinsic value to the Noongar people, not because we found anywhere close to 400 motifs. What we did find staggering was how clearly the pigments had held up over time.
However, it was tough slogging through the undergrowth at first. Not only were there no trail markers, but the trail was also atrocious. As much as we generally liked being by ourselves, conditions like these made me concerned that if one of us tumbled, there was virtually no one around to help.
Hunting rabbits, or rabbiting, was a 'goldmine' for Aboriginal people until the animals were killed off by myxomatosis. Three hundred rabbits could be caught each night after setting traps in the afternoons. They hung the rabbits in pairs on the fence to wait for a buyer to come by and pick them up.
An interpretive trail sign said that Noongar people traveled around doing seasonal farm work, including clearing country, root picking, shearing, and dead wool picking, which meant picking up wool from dead sheep.
These ragged trees were sandalwood and parasitic, meaning they often attached themselves to mulga or jam trees, which were so common.
Once the trail opened up, it was far easier and safer to follow.
It was a relief to finally come across the gnamma holes, since seeing the shallow depressions holding water was our reason for the hike.
Though most gnamma were only several centimeters deep, this one was much deeper.
Returning to the car, we were very thankful for having the AllTrails app on our phones, as it saved our hides!
The weathered granite domes near the parking lot were precursors to the much bigger Humps, an enormous outcrop similar to Wave Rock, rising 80 m above the nearby plains.
We didn't understand the rationale behind having the elevated toilet.
Leaving Hyden for the three-hour drive to our accommodation in York, we remarked on how strange it had been not to see any Aboriginal names for any of the communities that day. Not only that, we were heading west for the first time since beginning our mini getaway from Perth so many days ago.
The highway was endearingly known as the Tin Horse Road!
We had our second night in a row of rolling into our accommodation as the sun set spectacularly. However, we were also concerned that we were skirting the edge of breaking the car rental rules about not driving at night in the country.
Dress code for dinner at York's Imperial Homestead simply stated that footwear was compulsory! We were glad to oblige after our last full day away from Perth.
Next post: Exploring York, WA's first inland town, and then the kangaroos at Yanchep National Park on our way back to Perth!
Posted on August 21st, 2026, from steamy Littleton, where Steven and I had so much fun catering to every whim of our six- and 3.5-year-old Chicago granddaughters or their parents mentioned in the last few days while they stayed with us! Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
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