Scenic route from Grafton to Armidale in Toyota Rav and a tent

G'day,
Its one beautiful area of Australia.
Spent many months exploring the area on foot & by 4wd over the years.
Oxley Wild rivers NP has lots of camp areas with some great Waterfalls.

Lots of must see National parks that are very different to each other & unique.
To name just a few.

Gibraltar Range, Washpool, Styx river, Cathedral rock, Dorrigo, Chaelundi, Nymboida.

I reckon there are some much better areas of rainforest than people go all the way up to Queensland to see!
Enjoy. You will want to go back. Just look at the Google map of the area & you will see LOTS of green forest areas on the map.

Cheers
Stu

An easy & scenic drive would be to take the road southwest out of Grafton towards Nymboida. Follow that road up the dividing range to Ebor (beautiful waterfalls there) where the road joins the Waterfall Way. Drive the Waterfall Way to Armidale. Plenty of places to camp, lots of waterfalls & lovely scenery. Bitumen roads all the way. Do it easily in a day or take your time.
If you want a more challenging drive along a gravel road head out along the Gwydir Highway & on the outskirts of town turn left onto the Old Glen Innes road. This is a very scenic dirt road, narrow in part, some options for camping & would be no problem in a RAV. This would be a much slower journey that takes you to the New England Hwy at Glen Innes or make your way along back roads to Armidale. Pick up info on both options from the Info Centre at Grafton or online. Enjoy the journey.

Drive the Old Grafton - Glenn Innes Rd, you won't be disappointed. Mann River campground near the Glenn Innes end of the road is a nice little camp ground.

Check the following places out with Google or NSW NP web site.

"The Junction" of Nymboida and Little Nymboida Rivers (Nymberoi NP?); Chaelundi NP numerous places; Platypus Flat; Ebor Falls; stacks of places around the Dorrigo escparpment;New England NP - Point Look out with Alpine Heath vegetation @ 1550m and nearby Antarctic Beach Forests (Like in Lord of the Rings, the equal to what you see on the Overland Track in Tassie) numerous walks and waterfalls in temperate rainforests; Forest Drive down alongside Styx River; then getting into drier regions Wollomombi Falls (2nd highest falls in Australia I think); Dangars Falls 20km south of Armidale. Cathedral Rock is OK, but I think nearby New England NP is better.

Gibraltar Range-Washpool has a good 3-4 day loop walk, but that's on the Grafton-Glen Innes Rd, where as all the above mentioned places are on or just off the 200km Grafton- Armidale Rd and more suited to car camping. If the weather turns ordinary, base yourself at Ebor Pub or some of the cabins near/in New England NP. I'm hoping to spend 2 days at Washpool, or a day at New England NP this weekend.

I've travelled much of mainland Australia and I think that region is the most beautiful part of NSW. I've accessed all those places in conventional sedans. Just remember temperatures may drop to as low as -3 once you get to Ebor and west though even in early October.

As others have said, plenty of opportunities but the Old Glen Innes road and the campground mentioned on that road is a real adventure. Have a look in the Places section on this site (look in the blue bar across the top of the page).

Cheers,

Val