Is Wolfe Creek Crater worth it?

by Geoff Hill
(Gold Coast)

We are unsure if we should see Wolfe Creek Crater or not. We have booked a 4WD camper, and are going from Broome to Kununurra via highway, and back to Broome via Gibb River Road and Mitchell Plateau.

Judging by your comments in your book, we would need to put aside virtually a full day (2-3 hours in, couple of hours there, and 2-3 hours back) to include Wolfe Creek Crater in our trip. Is it worth the day trip, or would that time be better spent somewhere else?

I understand all peoples tastes are different, and you can't tell us what we would like, but I thought it would be very interested to see something of that magnitude, but not if it is too far out of the way.

Thank you for your time and thanks for "Destination Kimberley", a great publication and so far very helpful in planning our 14-day trip in May/June 2009.

Geoff and Gayle Hill

Comments for
Is Wolfe Creek Crater worth it?

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Overnight trip would be better...
by: Birgit

Hi Geoff,

Uh-oh, I can't really answer that. You'll have to make that call.

What I can tell you is that you are correct, you'd have to set most of one day or one night aside. Wolf Creek Crater is certainly worth a visit, but if it's worth to drop something else for it depends what you would drop...

Personally, I think if time is very limited then there are better places to go. Not that the crater is not worth seeing, it sure is!
But time is just too precious to spend more than absolutely necessary in the car.

Especially if you make this a day trip. If at all, I'd make it an overnight trip and camp there, so you can experience the crater in the late afternoon and early morning light, when it's cooler and wildlife is more active.

I'm not sure you'd enjoy it in the middle of the day, after rattling for a few hours to get there, and then rattle for a few hours back.

But then again, I'm not you, and I also don't know just HOW limited your time is or what you would need to drop. Because yes, the crater sure is a great place... Very hard to make these kinds of decisions...

Visiting Wolfe Creek Crater
by: David

We travelled to Wolfe Creek last July and felt it was well worth it. We were advised at the Halls Creek visitors centre that the road was heavily corrugated and that the last part of the road into the Park was extremely poor. This proved to be bad advice and the road was very good all the way.

At the time there was a lot of road work going on and in places a brand new road was being built.

The crater (in common with much of the Kimberley) gives you a wonderful sense of how old our landscape really is.

Your travelling times are spot on. We went down in an afternoon and came back the next morning. It's worth camping overnight- the stars are brilliant! My wife dropped my favourite torch into the long drop - it's still there!

Wolfe Creek Crater
by: Kaye Wilde

Hello Geoff,
Besides the Bungles,the trip to Wolfe Creek Crater was definitely a highlight of our 18,000 km trip mid year. I would certainly advise staying overnight, if only to experience the sunrise/sunset over the crater. We were lucky enough to be there on a night of a full moon, and it's a sight I will never forget. We sat on the crater rim and watched the sun set on one side and the full moon rising on the other. The next morning we walked the 800 metres across the crater floor and watched the sun coming up over the rim. Truly awesome!!

As Birgit has already advised road conditions change frequently but we found the track into the crater was even worse than the Tanami and took over an hour to get there from the turn off. (But then we heeded all the advice and travelled slowly.) I hope this information is useful.

The speedier version
by: Ian

While other's comments are a good guide for some, I thought I'd just add another guide for those with a little less time on their side, so they too don't miss out on this experience. Firstly I must say that I was concerned about whether it would be worth the trip and various people had tried to suggest it wasn't worth it. Even my family decided they would stay in Halls Creek for the morning. However, once I was there, I discovered it really was worth the trip and I'm so glad I went. You simply cannot appreciate the size and mysteriousness of a meteorite crater by looking at photos. I've seen the bigger one in Arizona and I really wanted to see this one too, and it was amazing. To sit there and think what happened on that day! Anyway, I was short of time, with family eager to get on to the next stop, so I had to rush. The visitors centre told me that the road was in poor condition and worse than the road into the Bungle Bungles. This turned out to be completely wrong. I would compare the road to the best parts of the Gibb River Road, and in pretty good condition for a dirt road. You actually can't drive too slowly over corrugated roads anyway or else you and your car will be rattled to pieces. I only required half a day, which included a walk to the centre of the crater. I spent about an hour-and-a-half there. So for those with experience travelling on dirt roads, and a little short of time, half a day will be sufficient. We continued on to Fitzroy Crossing by the end of the day.

Wolf Creek
by: Anonymous

Even though time now would have passed since your holiday, I would still like to make a few comments about wolf creek crater.
I have been to the crater and I think it is a very well worth it trip.
I would have regretted not going there if I didn't.
It is an amazing site and something that can't be seen anywhere else. The trip there takes a while but it is not annoying or anything of the sort- just a bit bumpy. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip and am happy I went.
I am now doing a report on it at school because it has influenced me so much which is why I am on this site.
Thanks for reading this- if anyone has
and have a great time at wolf creek crater, I know I did :)

Go for it
by: nailer

Two points - Tanami is OK. Problem is not with corrugations but large pipes across the road. They create just a small hump but when we travelled at 90-100 kmh and became airborne few times.

Recommend hiring a satphone. Kimberley is the most beautiful place in Australia, but sparsely populated. At $15-17 a day, it is a very good insurance policy.

Go for it
by: Anthony Dalton

For anyone going to the Crater, you must see it to appreciate it. As a geologist it blew me away to think of the impact event happening and if you know what to look for you can easily locate fragments of the meteorite inside and outside the rim. I have been their twice and the Tanami section from the WA border to Halls Creek was as rough as guts but I did make it ok and was only in a 2WD ford courier ute. The road into the Crater from the turnoff was badly in need of the grader blade and I even managed to snap off my UHF aerial. I was lucky to sit on the Crater rim that night in pitch black darkness and watch an amazing lighting show in the distance which lit up the crater for a second to highlight its mystique. Well worth the drive and while visiting the crater I even managed to bump into Spida Everitt who was making a doco for his Great Australian Doorstep series. One of the best places I have ever visited!

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