Tropical Woopen Creek Camping

This great dog friendly camp spot is located in Woopen Creek, which is only an hour away from Cairns and close to Babinda Boulders and the Josephine Falls. It’s the perfect get-away for the weekend as you don’t have to drive hours to get there. And even though it’s only a relatively short drive from Cairns, the surroundings are beautiful with lots of green, the amazing views of Mt Bartle Frere (Queensland’s highest mountain) and the peace and quiet of the area truly make it a worth while trip with your dog.

The camp site is located in Woopen Creek, which is about an hour drive from Cairns. When leaving Cairns, drive south into the direction of Babinda. Normally when we reach Babinda we make a quick stop at the Babinda Bakery. Their sausage rolls and pies are sooo good, we’d highly recommend to go and check them out! But also make sure to try their sweet goodies if you’re making it a stop at the Babinda Bakery, as those not only look amazing but are absolutely delicious.

Anyways, we got a bit side tracked here… Let’s get back to how you get to the camp site.

Once you reach Babinda, you continue to drive on the highway and at one point you’ll reach the Russel River Bridge. After the bridge, make a right onto Woopen Creek Road. A bit further down on the left side you’ll reach the camp site.

We booked the camp site via Hipcamp. A link to book this spot is included below. When you book the site the owner will provide you with the exact address so it shouldn’t be too hard to find it, as Google Maps will know where to go.

We were greeted by Larry the lovely owner of Woopen Creek Tropical Camping. He showed us around on his property and which camp site we were staying on. He was very informative about all the things that you can do around the area and gave us some great tips. More on this later!

There are 2 camp sites available on the property. The spot that we stayed on has direct creek access and a beautiful fire pit & cooking set up. The creek is great for swimming and the water is crystal clear. Our dog Biggie had a blast in the water. The creek has fish & turtles and Larry was so kind to provide us with a bag of fish food, so we could feed the fish. Biggie was a bit confused at first (especially as the bag of food was not meant for him), but ended up absolutely loving watching the fish swim around in the water.

The camp site we stayed on had a toilet which was only recently build by the owners. The toilet set up was very neat and was definitely a plus as it saved us having to bring our own.

The other camp site that is available on the property is definitely worth staying on as well. Even though you don’t have direct creek access (at least not as easy), it is also a very neat and green spot with a build in fire pit. However, if your dog loves to swim or you enjoy hanging out in the creek yourself, we’d highly recommend to book the campsite with direct creek access.

You can definitely see that the owners have put a lot of time and effort in the campsites. It is very well maintained and they even had some chairs set up on the camp site and hung festoon lights in the trees to make it nice and cosy in the evening. The spot itself is very spacious and provides enough space to set up your camping gear, relax and have your kids and/or dog run around on the grassy site without having to worry about disturbing anyone.

There is also a build-in fire pit with a great cooking set up. You barely have to bring any cooking supplies as there are 2 grills available to cook on the fire with. We made a delicious beef stew on the campfire and Biggie had the best time hanging out with us out in the open (and enjoying some beef stew for dinner as well)!

What can you do during your stay at Tropical Woopen Creek Camping?

The camp site is only short distance from Babinda Boulders and the Josephine Falls. Unfortunately, both of those places are not dog-friendly as they are located within National Parks. If you’re camping without your dog though we would highly recommend to check out Babinda Boulders and go for a swim or have a barbecue there. The Josephine falls are definitely worth a visit as well and also here you can go for a swim and have fun on the natural slide.

If you do have your dog by your side, a great activity to do in the area is the Babinda Kayaking. It may sound a bit daunting to do this with your dog, but the kayaking tour is actually very easy and relaxing. This of course if your dog loves water and to swim! We made a seperate blog post about Babinda Kayaking so make sure to read our blog post.

The Rotary Park is another great spot to go to with your dog during the day. You can bring a blanket and hang out on the grass close to the water all day. They have a couple of coal barbecues set up in the park, if you’d be looking to barbecue there. The river is great to cool off in during a hot day and the water is very clear. Biggie is a big swimmer and was in love with this place as he could easy run into to water and play and swim around. This is actually the spot where the Babinda Kayaking tour ends, and we initially discovered this sport when we did the kayaking tour ourselves.