Cania Gorge National Park is an awesome place to explore with kids. Located just outside of Monto it's a must do when visiting the North Burnett.

The Park includes some great walks as well as Lake Cania.  We recently spent a week here with our Wide Bay Kids and loved it.

There are some great walks that leave from the Cania Gorge Picnic area along Park Road.

All the walks we've done were class 3 and required general fitness and agility. If you don't like climbing stairs these walks are probably not for you, having said that we found ourselves stopping a few times for a bit of rest before continuing.

The picnic grounds have lots of shade, direct access to a running creek, toilets and clean water.  We found heaps of people taking a dip in the creek after their walk, we opted for a swim at Lake Cania.

Dripping Rock and The Overhang are on the same track. Just keep going and when you are sure you must have passed it, you'll find it just around the corner!

Dripping Rock is a great walk with kids. Under 3's will find it pretty difficult. We saw a few kids being piggy backed out the day we went. 

There was not much 'dripping' when we visited. We saw a wet mossy rock surrounded by ferns. We are told just after rain water flows down the face of the rock.

Along the way we stopped off and played on some large boulders in a dry creek bed. The kids absolutely loved this little adventure. It was great to see them climbing and exploring in an environment they were very unfamiliar with.

The Overhang is an eroded sandstone cliff base with striking yellow and red features. It rests on a dry creek bed and has a real lush tropical feel about it.

This walk continues on from the Dripping Rock walk and consists of many stairs and lots of up and down.  Our 12, 10, 8, & 5 year old Wide Bay Kids manged the walk easily we on the other hand had to stop a few times for a bit of rest before continuing.  Younger kids will find this walk difficult.

The overhang borders a creek bed with more boulders to climb and explore. We stopped here and had our morning tea before heading back.

The Dragon Cave, Bloodwood Cave and the Gorge Lookout all start on the Dripping Rock and Overhang Track before branching off.

We found these tracks much steeper and more taxing than the Dripping Rock and Overhang Walks but it was totally worth it. 

The views were spectacular!.....and the walk down was much easier.

The Dragon Cave is located on a cliff face which makes for a pretty steep climb up!

 Inside you can see a black mural of a 'dragon' against the white sandstone wall.

.......and an amazing view.

This cave is much smaller than Dragon Cave and in all honesty if time is not on your side do Dragon Cave instead. 

The cave gets its name because the roots of a bloodwood tree can be seen on the left-hand side of the cave.

The view from up here is amazing. 

The hike up was pretty steep!  

We stopped half way for a breather, the kids on the other hand almost ran up!

Lake Cania is just up the road from the Cania Gorge Picnic area. It's a great place to cool off for a swim.

We did catch a few red claw though!

..........and got the chance to meet a fresh water turtle. The Lake has a boat ramp, toilets and lots of lovely shady areas.

We stayed at the Big4 Caravan Park at Cania Gorge. This park is well set up for families in a lush bush setting. The park caters for caravans and campers as well as having lots of cabins too.

They have a small water park for the little kids and a water slide for the big kids and adults as well as 3 swimming pools.  Somehow we left without getting a photo of the water slide! They also have the famous Big4 jumping pillows.

Each night during the school holidays they host outdoor movie nights.  They also have fish and chips and pizza nights as well as lots of other entertainment for families. Don't forget to bring your bikes our kids loved riding theirs around the park.

An absolute highlight for us was the nightly bird feeding.

At 5pm each day you can hand feed rainbow lorikeets, and cockatoos.

Our kids went every day we were there and could not get enough of this experience. 

Before going make sure you let the kids know if they don't want the birds to fly over to them not to grab any seeds.

We absolutely loved Cania Gorge and our WBK"s rate it 5/5. Exploring the park via the many walks we went on was super fun and then at the end of the day coming back to camp and diving into the pools or riding down the water slide was a real treat. It was like having the best of both worlds, a camping experience with lots of good family fun.  We will definitely go back.

Name: Cania Gorge National Park

Address: Park Road, Cania Gorge