5 days in Adelaide, Australia- 5/17- 5/21/2024

Day 4-Remarkable Rocks, Flinders Chase National Park-5/20/2024

The next stop is at the Remarkable Rocks, one of Kangaroo Island’s true icons, and the landscape around them tells a powerful story of both ancient geology and recent recovery. Remarkable Rocks sit within Flinders Chase National Park, and they are more than 500 million years old, older than most mountain ranges on Earth. They’re made of granite, formed deep underground from molten magma that cooled slowly. Over hundreds of millions of years, wind, rain, and waves sculpted the exposed granite into the surreal, smooth, hollowed shapes you see today, some look like shells, others like animal silhouettes or giant sculptures. The first European to describe them was Matthew Flinders, the British navigator who charted much of Australia’s coastline in the early 1800s. He called them “remarkable” in his journal, hence the name Remarkable Rocks.

As our bus dropped us off, we started to walk on a boardwalk leading out toward the rocks.

Following the pathway.

At the beginning, the pathway gently curves through the landscape, a wide, paved or boardwalk-style trail designed to blend into the surrounding terrain and protect the fragile vegetation.

In the distance, the Remarkable Rocks appear like a cluster of giant sculptures sitting on a rounded, elevated granite dome, almost as if they’re floating above the sea.

The area around Flinders Chase was heavily affected by the 2019–2020 bushfires, which burned over half of Kangaroo Island’s vegetation.

 Along the pathway, I noticed some charred tree trunks and regenerating plants that is part of the island’s bushfire recovery story.

 On both sides of the path, the landscape still recovering from the 2019–2020 bushfires.  The blackened tree trunks you see are mainly eucalyptus and mallee species, which have a remarkable ability to re-sprout from buds hidden under their bark or from underground lignotubers (a kind of woody root structure).

Now, 4 years after the bushfire, you can see bright green shoots and new leaves growing around the burned stems, a striking contrast of black and green, showing how life is returning.

View of the South Ocean from the walkway. 

As we walked further, the path rises slightly,  and then, quite suddenly, the landscape opens up. Ahead is the Southern Ocean stretches endlessly, and the silvery clouds above cast a pale glow over the landscape. The green shrubs and re-growing trees along the path appear deeper and richer in color.

To my left, the Remarkable Rocks rise from the granite dome, their shapes dark and bold against the grey sky.

This massive granite dome, which is actually the exposed summit of an ancient geological formation, weathered and smoothed by half a billion years of wind, rain, and sea spray.

From a distance, they look like a single giant structure, but they’re actually a collection of huge boulders,  some leaning, some balanced, each shaped differently by erosion.

 All around the base of the granite dome, you’re seeing low coastal bushland, a resilient ecosystem adapted to strong winds, sandy soil, and salt air. These are mostly heath plants and coastal shrubs, which grow low and dense to resist the gusts that sweep in from the sea.

As we get closer, the cluster of rocks grows larger and more defined. What first looked like a single mound from afar now reveals a whole collection of boulders, some balanced precariously, others hollowed and curved like waves frozen in stone. The granite surface below them glows softly under the cloudy light, brushed with patches of orange and rust-colored lichen.

We are now a few feet away where the walkway ends and the granite world begins. It’s one of those views where Kangaroo Island feels raw, ancient, and alive all at once.

To my right, just below the rocks, one of the most striking boulders really does resemble a bird in flight, some people say it looks like an eagle, others like a prehistoric seabird frozen in mid-motion.

The illusion is especially strong when you look from below or from the path approaching the rocks, the sky behind them gives the shapes a dramatic silhouette, like a living creature caught in stone.

To my left as we stepped up onto the granite dome and walk among the Remarkable Rocks, we felt like we entered a giant open-air sculpture garden created by nature itself.

At the far end of the formation, this rock really does resemble the curved beak of a giant parrot, strong, hooked, and slightly open. From some angles it looks as if the “head” is watching the sea, standing guard over the coast. This shape was created by salt-laden wind and rain slowly eroding softer parts of the granite, leaving behind the harder, smoother “beak.”

If you move a few steps around it, the form changes, one moment it looks like a bird, the next like an upside down ship or a wave crest. That’s part of the magic here, every shift in viewpoint or light gives the rocks a new identity.

Close view of the rock. From the outside, its opening looks like a giant mouth or cave, smooth and curved, with the edges rounded by centuries of wind and salt.

Lisa and I we climbed inside a rock that could be a small shelter in the middle of this vast, open landscape.

To me this rock formation looks like a cake or a hat.

The lichen forms rough, velvety patches over the smooth granite. It gives the rock surface a mottled, almost painted appearance, like strokes of color on a natural canvas. Where the rock is most exposed to wind and sea spray, the orange is strongest; where it’s sheltered, you might see pale grey or even black lichens instead.

Climbing higher to the top of the granite dome.

This is called the howling rock.  In this light, under the grey sky, it almost feels alive, part sculpture, part spirit of the island. The cloudy backdrop softens the horizon, so the shape stands out dramatically, its edges outlined against the pale ocean beyond.

This rock formation looks like an animal lifting its head to howl, is one of the most expressive shapes in the cluster. Its smooth body curves upward from the granite dome, tapering into a head-like point that seems caught in motion. The “mouth” or “snout” opens slightly toward the sea, as if the creature is calling into the wind.

From this angle, the rock looks an animal skull lies low against the granite dome. Its surface is smooth and pale, with dark hollows that resemble eye sockets and a snout, carved naturally by wind and rain. The cloudy light softens the shadows, so the shape appears even more skull-like, ancient and fossilized, as if it’s the remnant of some creature from another era.

Behind it, rising against the horizon, is the “howling rock”, tall, curving upward, its form poised and powerful. Framed together, the two rocks almost tell a story: the “skull” at rest below, and the “living” shape above it, calling out toward the sea. It’s like a natural tableau of life and memory, captured in stone.

The surface of the rock isn’t just grey, it’s speckled and streaked with brilliant orange and rusty-red patches. That color comes from a type of crustose lichen, a tiny, slow-growing organism made up of algae and fungus living together. Together, they highlight every curve and contour of the formations, the “howling” rock, the “skull,” and all the others,  making them glow with life even on a cloudy day.

To me, this rock resemble a bird with outstretched Wings. As I look closer, that formation really does resemble a bird in flight, its “head” angled forward and its wings sweeping wide open to either side. The stone curves upward and outward in smooth arcs, just like feathers caught in mid-motion. From certain angles, it almost seems to be lifting off the granite dome, as though frozen in the moment of taking flight.

Sitting close to these rocks, surrounded by the orange lichen, the deep blue-grey ocean beyond, and the whispering wind, it feels like you’re in one of nature’s galleries, where every color and texture tells a story of time, weather, and endurance.

This is the Lion Rock.  From where we are standing, the shape is unmistakable once you see it,  a massive boulder with a proud, forward-tilting form, as if a lion were perched on the granite dome, staring solemnly across the ocean.

The rounded “head” rises slightly higher than the rest of the rock, and below it, the sloping “body” seems poised in mid-stride. In the right light, the curves almost resemble a mane flowing backward in the coastal wind. It’s easy to imagine this as the guardian of the coastline, keeping watch over the endless expanse of the Southern Ocean.

The curved, and often rounded shapes are the result of a relentless process called spheroidal weathering, working over approximately 500 million years.  The rectangular blocks were slowly carved into the smooth, rounded, and sometimes gravity-defying curved shapes you see today. The powerful Southern Ocean has essentially been sandblasting and dissolving these rocks for millennia. We took a moment to appreciate that every bizarre scoop, curve, and arch was carved entirely by wind, rain, salt, and time.

As we moved closer to the edge, the scene opens wide before us with the Southern Ocean stretching endlessly to the horizon.  Today, under the cloudy sky, the water looks a deep steel-blue, almost silver in places, with bands of white waves curling and crashing near the rocky shoreline below. You can hear the steady, rhythmic roar, a powerful, constant sound that fills the air and seems to come from every direction.

  At our feet, the granite surface glows with bright orange lichen, the color strikingly vivid against the cool tones of the ocean and sky. The patches spread across the rock like living paint, glowing orange, rusty red, and even a hint of yellow in some places.

The cliffs drop sharply beneath you, their edges smoothed by centuries of wind and spray. Far below, the surf foams and bursts against the dark rocks, sending mist upward,  you can sometimes even feel faint droplets on your face when the wind shifts.

The wind here is usually stronger, carrying the scent of salt, seaweed, and cool granite.

In this area, the sight is spectacular with those two boulders near the edge are among the most striking and photogenic at Remarkable Rocks, especially with their mask-like shapes and vivid orange lichen. As I approached them, the two huge boulders lean toward each other slightly, their curved faces shaped by wind and rain into forms that resemble a mask with deep hollows and smooth contours that almost look like eye sockets and cheekbones.

 The cloudy sky gives them a moody, sculptural quality, their outlines sharp against the pale horizon, while the soft light emphasizes every hollow and curve.

Here you can really see that it looks like a mask.  The rocks are almost cloaked in orange lichen, glowing brilliantly even under the overcast light. Up close, you can see that the color isn’t uniform, it’s a tapestry of rust, ochre, and amber, with small grey patches where the lichen is just beginning to grow or has worn away.
The contrast between the fiery orange and the deep blue ocean beyond is breathtaking, it’s as if the rocks are lit from within, a burst of color in the otherwise muted coastal tones.

Right next to these massive stones, the Southern Ocean stretches endlessly ahead. The waves crash far below, throwing up sprays of white foam, while the wind rushes between the rocks, carrying a low, echoing hum.

Standing between those two boulders is an unforgettable moment. There’s a sense of ancient presence, the way the rocks rise up like guardians at the edge of the continent, the way the colors burn against the cold air, and the way the sea and wind weave through it all.

The view of the Southern Ocean is magnificent, quiet, calm, peaceful, and so enjoyable.

We are now done with our visit and we leaving the Remarkable Rocks, and getting back to the Pathway leading to the parking lot..

NEXT... Admiral's Arch