The Petrified Forest and Blowholes are easily accessible from the car park at the end of Blowholes Road, Cape Bridgewater.
Cape Bridgewater (Blowholes)
The blowholes are rock tunnels that have been etched out of the volcanic rock by the waves. During rough seas, they spout spray high into the air. Old Aboriginal middens can also be seen along the cliff tops.
Cape Bridgewater (Petrified Forest)
The area is called the petrified forest from an early theory that advancing sand engulfed an ancient forest of coastal trees that once covered the sea cliff, petrifying them for all time.
Actually, the formation is a collection of hollow tubes of limestone called "solution pipes", eroded by millions of years of rainfall. The process starts when water gathers in a shallow pan of sand and seeps downwards dissolving the limestone. The mineral-saturated water then cements the sand, forming hard, trunk-shaped pipes. Most pipes around Cape Bridgewater are one to three metres high, although some are as high as 20 metres.
On the way to the car park you pass 29 windmills which can be interesting for the kids. The windmills have 82m diameter blades. Both, the Petrified Forest and Blowholes are easily reached from the car park within a few minutes.
There are views of the steep cliffs and waves crashing below, although you need to be careful since the cliffs are unstable. From the kids' perspective, the blowholes would be more interesting provided the weather is fairly rough and big spouts are jetting into the air.
