A hiking blog with pretty pictures.
The walk to Bonnum Pic in Nattai National Park is a real classic, with attractive rocky terrain and valley and cliff views in all directions.
The high quality walk to Bonnum Pic in Nattai National Park is relatively unknown, and I hadn’t heard of it until just a week before I did it. The valley and cliff views are excellent, and once you get to the cliff line the walking experience is very enjoyable, walking over rocky outcrops and eventually navigating a rocky ridge.
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An adventurous walk along the Nattai River in Nattai National Park to the exposed summit of Russells Needle.
The walk to Russells Needle was one of the more challenging walks I’ve done in Australia. The views and sense of achievement from reaching the summit are worth the effort, however I found the Nattai River and Rocky Waterholes Creek to be the highlight of the walk. There are also excellent views at Needle lookout on the route down to the river, which you could visit for a much shorter day out. Definitely recommended for experienced walkers.
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Excellent views from five peaks over 1400m, including Tidbinbilla Mountain (1615m), from this circuit walk in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
I’d heard about this circuit in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve from locals when walking up Mt Gingera, the ACT’s second highest peak. You visit five peaks over 1400m, topping out at 1615m on Tidbinbilla Mountain itself. There are generally excellent views in all directions from the peaks and open sections of what is essentially one long ridge.
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Mount Solitary via Kedumba Valley is a good work out with varied scenery as you descend into the valley then climb to The Col for views.
My first time to climb Mount Solitary from Kings Tableland to the east. Although not quite as good as going via the Golden Stairs and Ruined Castle, variety is welcome, and it was a good workout. You cross Kedumba Creek at a nice spot, and with a good change in elevation there’s lots of variety of forest and vegetation generally.
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The walk from Long Point to the Shoalhaven River in Morton National Park offers excellent views and atmospheric riverside walking. You can add to your adventure by climbing Kingpin Mountain and Long Point Intermediate.
There are excellent views from near the start of this walk to McCallums Flat and the Shoalhaven River from Long Point, but also very atmospheric walking along the river and over the river flats. You can add to your adventure by walking off-track over Kingpin Mountain (555m) and Long Point Intermediate (562m), and get bonus views while you’re there. All on all a lesser known but high quality walk that I can highly recommend.
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Visit atmospheric Dimmocks Creek and a series of old lookouts over Bundanoon Creek on unmaintained tracks with optional bush bashing.
The ‘lost lookouts’ at Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands are a series of old lookouts that used to be accessed on maintained tracks. My route took me firstly down to the atmospheric Dimmocks Creek, then later on an indistinct but marked track for a while to the first two lookouts with nice views of cliffs and Bundanoon Creek.
After that the route is no longer marked and the track almost entirely disappeared, so I spent 2-3 hours (return) bush bashing to visit two more official lookouts and one informal vantage point. I also enjoyed the mushrooms in autumn.
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Korean mountain & valley scenery at its very best on this challenging circuit along Dinosaur Ridge and down Cheonbuldong Valley, in Seoraksan National Park.
Our first time in Seoraksan National Park was one of our enduring hiking highlights. This time we did what is supposedly the best and hardest walk in the park—Dinosaur Ridge 공룡능선—so named for the jagged peaks along its spine (looking like a Stegosaurus I guess). It was bound to be a classic walk with stupendous scenery lifted right out of a Daoist painting, especially in Autumn / Fall, whatever the conditions…
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Erskine Creek in the Lower Blue Mountains near Glenbrook is very picturesque, and accessible from the plateau on the pleasant and easygoing Jack Evans Track. There are cliffs lining the creek, rock platforms, boulders big and small, sandy beaches, various big swimming holes, and in spring, lots of wildflowers. And you might have it all to yourself. There are also excellent views of Erskine Creek from the Jack Evans Track, and from Pisgah Rock, which is were I climbed out to.
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Uniquely spectacular scenery on the Bungonia Gorge Red Track, passing scenic pools, a giant boulder field & towering cliffs on either side of this enormous slot canyon.
I first visited Bungonia National Park a few years ago, walking two of the easy tracks on the plateau and visiting various impressive viewpoints. From one of them you get a clear view of Bungonia Gorge, but on that day I didn’t have time to visit. I’m kind of happy I waited to do the Bungonia Gorge Red Track together with my wife Sophia, because it ended up being one our more challenging walks. The scenery is uniquely spectacular, with scenic pools, towering cliffs, and giant boulders in the slot canyon, as well as grass trees, maidenhair ferns and a pleasant stretch of river. Continue reading “Bungonia Gorge Red Track, Bungonia National Park NSW”
A very picturesque and sometimes secluded circuit walk along Kangaroo Creek in Sydney’s Royal National Park. There are many swimming pools if you like a dip.
I didn’t expect to find a secluded walk in the Royal National Park, one of Australia’s busiest. But Kangaroo Creek, at least for part of its length, offers just that. A couple of rope swings were evidence that people do visit sometimes, but the navigation on this very picturesque walk is a bit tricky, which will keep away all but the knowledgeable or committed.
Further along the creek you get to larger swimming pools visited by people coming from the other direction, so your seclusion is over by then. But it is still very attractive for the whole length, and the return route I took, though less picturesque, was full of interesting plant and bird life.
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