Tuesday, Oct 24, 2017 at 14:44
The Blue Mountains region has so much more to offer if you are active and adventurous and love to immerse yourself in nature. The best walks are down into the
Blue Gum forest and Grose Valley from either Blackheath, or you can actually walk in from the other side of the valley.
Sure there are lookouts but you don't really get to experience the real Blue Mountains until you get down into the valley and get away from the tourists that flock to the lookouts as that's as far as their cars/buses can go.
Here's a few tips for getting the most from a visit without actually doing any of the "major" long walks... that will at least give you a good experience of the real Blue Mountains.
There is a fabulous little hike to the cliffs directly opposite Blackheath off the Bells Line of Road that many people don't know about, its called the
Walls Lookout Walking Trail. What you are looking at from here is a
vantage point most tourists never see. All free and only a short, fairly easy hike of 1.2km to the edge of the cliffs. No guard rails though so be careful.
On the other side of the valley in Blackheath, there is the
Cliff Top walk from Govett's Leap
Lookout (a very busy
lookout on a weekend) to
Evans lookout, or the
Bridal Veil Falls walk (although most people doing this were really struggling on the steep uphill return but it is really worth it when you get to the falls. Alternatively from Govett's Leap you can walk down into the valley. Very challenging with lots of steps but spectacular if you can manage it.
The
Grand Canyon Track starts from
Evans lookout and is the pick of the walks if you only have time to do 1 major walk - about 5 hours and doable for most people without breaking their spirit like Govetts Leap.
The other must-do is
Pulpit Rock but again not too many people know about this. Probably the highlight of the trip for my kids and really very easy! Great bang for effort!
Other good spots are the Glow Worm Tunnels at
Newnes, and in
Wentworth Falls - the National Pass walking trail is the one to do but avoid busy periods. Just spoils it.
AnswerID:
614558