Category: Moderate

Booroomba Rocks Peak from Honeysuckle Campground, Namadgi National Park ACT

Booroomba Rocks Peak in Namadgi National Park is a short extension of the already excellent Booroomba Rocks walk, with some of the finest views in the ACT.

After visiting Booroomba Rocks last year I really wanted to visit nearby Booroomba Rocks Peak. You could easily do both together, but we had arrived at the rocks so late that we couldn’t visit the peak. Now we’ve done both it has confirmed this mountain as one of my favourite places in the ACT. There’s excellent views in all directions from the summit plateau, which is itself an attractive patchwork of open rocky sections, heath vegetation and forest.

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Pierces Pass to Blue Gum Forest (+ Rigby Hill), Blue Mountains NSW

A classic Blue Mountains walk taking Pierces Pass down to Blue Gum Forest in the Grose Valley, with a side trip to Rigby Hill at the start.

This was my first time down Pierces Pass, and my first time in a long while into the Grose Valley. You can do a quick side trip to Rigby Hill at the start for already excellent views. Return to the start and descend on the Pierces Pass Walking Track through patches of attractive rainforest to the Grose River. Cross the river and walk downstream as far as Blue Gum Forest for perhaps the most attractive vegetation of the day—tall, straight trunked blue gums and various understory plants including tree ferns.

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Baldy Billy Peak & Wollondilly River, Guula Ngulla National Park NSW

Two walks in one in Guula Ngulla National Park, to Baldy Billy Peak for good views, and down to a secluded stretch of the Wollondilly River.

Two walks in one here, on my first visit to the recently established Guula Ngulla National Park. The name means Koala Country, and there is a population in the park, but also emus, which is the closest to Sydney I’ve seen them. There are good views over the Wollondilly River from the short ascent to Baldy Billy Peak. After returning to the main track, you descend steeply into a valley to emerge at a pleasant stretch of the Wollondilly River. 

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Mt Jellore Summit, Nattai National Park NSW

Expansive views are available from the summit of Mt Jellore (834m) in Nattai National Park, and you’ll enjoy mixed vegetation along the way.

There are expansive views available from the summit of Mt Jellore (834m) over Nattai National Park and beyond to the Greater Blue Mountains. Although the views are good I probably enjoyed some of the vegetation along the way more, especially Jellore Creek. Nevertheless, the summit is quite prominent, so you feel like you are on a real (though small) mountain, which is not common in these parts.

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Lost City West Viewpoints, Gardens of Stone Conservation Area NSW

Countless spectacular rock pagodas at Lost City West in Gardens of Stone, a little known alternative to the popular Lost City Walking Track.

This walk takes in countless spectacular and ancient looking rock pagodas for little effort, and you probably won’t see a single person all day. For sure the varied and tracked circuit between Lost City North and South is a must-do. But on that walk you’ll be joined by many others, which can detract somewhat from that sense of having discovered, well, a lost city. This alternative to Lost City West doesn’t take you down into the valley, and requires some (easy) off-track walking, but the pay-off is having the place all to yourself.

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T3 Track to Colo River & Tootie Creek, Wollemi National Park NSW

This walk follows a ridge down 500m (vertical) to the Colo River near Tootie Creek. There are great views from a couple of viewpoints, and it is very nice down by the river. I also enjoyed the grass trees, cycads, and wildflowers, including lots of wattles in August. Tootie Creek is also worth a look. 

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Mt Gingera from Corin Dam, Namadgi National Park ACT

Mt Gingera (1857m) in Namadgi National Park is the ACT’s second highest peak, and can be climbed from somewhere near the bottom (~950m) in a longish day. It holds snow in winter, so with that promise Sophia and I headed down to Canberra for our first proper winter walk in Australia. Wide open views from the summit are worth the climb, although I’m sure snow enhanced the experience rather.

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Booroomba Rocks Track, Namadgi National Park ACT

A short climb to Booroomba Rocks in Namadgi National Park provides excellent views of surrounding mountains, cliffs, and a rocky plateau at 1350m of elevation.

The relatively short climb to Booroomba Rocks delivers excellent views from a rocky plateau at roughly 1350m of elevation. The walk up through sometimes boulder strewn woodland is also pleasant. We encountered eucalypts we’d not seen before, and in early winter a number of impressive mushrooms.

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Lions Head Track, Blue Mountains National Park NSW

A shortish and lesser known walk to Lions Head on the Kings Tableland, in the Blue Mountains, with great valley views for much of the way.

This walk on the western edge of the Kings Tableland south of Wentworth Falls Village follows an unmarked track to Lions Head, with good views of the Jamieson and Kedumba Valleys for much of the way. Views from Lions head include some pretty impressive cliffs seen through the trees. We walked in late autumn and saw heaps of very interesting mushrooms, so I recommend this timing.

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Mount Howitt, Mount Magdala & Crosscut Saw, Victorian Alps

Fabulous mountain views from Mount Howitt (1742m), Mount Magdala & Crosscut Saw in the Victorian Alps, with a night at Vallejo Gantner Hut.

The Victorian Alps have some of the mainland’s best mountain scenery, and the collection of peaks around Mount Howitt (1742m) are one of the area’s highlights. There are rugged peaks and cliffs, views for miles, and beautiful, atmospheric snow gum woodlands. We visited Mount Howitt, Mount Howitt West Peak, Mount Magdala (1725m) and Crosscut Saw (1708m), staying one night in comfortable Vallejo Gantner Hut for our first Australian overnighter.

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