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.
Continue reading “Bonnum Pic Route, Nattai National Park NSW”
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.
Continue reading “Tidbinbilla Mountain Circuit, Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve ACT”
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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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.
Continue reading “Lost City West Viewpoints, Gardens of Stone Conservation Area NSW”
Five excellent lookouts over the Grose Valley on this shortish and lesser known walk over Wongarra Hill in the Blue Mountains.
I’m still discovering new and accessible lookouts in the Blue Mountains, especially on the edge of the Grose Valley. The five (!) vantage points on this relatively easy walk are all excellent, offering unique views of some impressive cliff and valley scenery. I thought views of Mt Banks would be the highlight, but the views west were, not only because they were enhanced by excellent light by time we reached those spots, but because of up close views of three chunky protruding sections of cliffs.
Continue reading “Wongarra Hill & Mirrorball Arch Lookouts, Blue Mountains NSW”
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.
Continue reading “Jack Evans Track – Erskine Creek – Pisgah Rock Circuit, Blue Mountains NSW”
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.
Continue reading “Mt Gingera from Corin Dam, Namadgi National Park ACT”
An easygoing walk through spectacular rock pagodas & atmospheric canyons in the Lost City area of Gardens of Stone Conservation Area.
Over the years I’d seen photos of rock pagodas in Gardens of Stone National Park, but didn’t know much about how to access these areas. In 2022 NSW added Gardens of Stone State Conservation Area to the mix, and within this boundary is the amazing Lost City. This must be one of the most concentrated areas of pagodas, and a newly constructed track takes you on an easygoing 6km greatest-hits tour. Apart from the rock pagodas there is a very atmospheric canyon network to walk through.
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