Cape Le Grand National Park

Cape Le Grand National Park
	A view across the bay from Lucky Bay
Location:	Western Australia , Australia
Specialty:	Coastal landscapes, sandy bays
Next city:	Esperance
Surface:	316 km²
Founding:	1966
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The 316 km² Cape Le Grand National Park in Western Australia is 35 miles from the city of Esperance .

The park is named after Le Grand, a ship officer on the L'Esperance , a ship with which the French admiral Joseph Bruny d'Entrecasteaux crossed the Recherche archipelago in 1792 . Matthew Flinders came to the area in 1802 and named the bay Lucky Bay, where he took shelter from a storm. Rossiter Bay was named by Edward John Eyre in 1841 after he reached Captain Rossiter of the ship Mississippi after crossing the Nullabor Desert. The name of Mississippi Hill also goes back to Eyre.

The waters and islands in front of the park are part of the Recherche Archipelago , a nature reserve. The Cape Arid National Park , which connects to the Cape Le Grand National Park, lies to the east. Both parks are combined to form the Recherche Archipelago Nature Reserve .

The inland of the park is dominated by sand fields and individual water holes. The sweet grasses typical of this area grow on the sands . The evergreen Banksia bushes also grow and bloom there. The park, where tourists fish, hike or go off-roading, can be reached with normal road vehicles as far as Lucky Bay, where the white sandy beach also has a picnic and camping site. Numerous beaches, such as Rossiter Bay, Hellfire Bay, Le Grand Beach, Orlean Bay, Israelite Bay are visited by tourists. The ruins of an old telegraph and weather station are in Israelite Bay .

In the national park rise mountains made of granite and gneiss like the 345 meter high Mount Le Grand, the 180 meter high Mississippi Hill and the 262 meter high Frenchman Peak, a conical mountain.

A look into Lucky Bay
Mount Le Grand from Frenchmans Peak
View of the Frenchmans Peak

Web links

Official site of the park (English)