The Dales

The Dales are a series of seven steep valleys cutting through the terraced western cliffs of Christmas Island, a wetland of world importance inside the national park. A boardwalk trail leads through rainforest to Hugh's Dale, where a stream spills over terraces of tufa stone into a pool, and huge robber crabs feed among the buttress roots of the old trees. In the wet season the waterfall runs strongest. Anderson Dale can be followed down to the shore by a longer track. The Dales are a half day from the Settlement by four-wheel drive and are usually quiet.