Blue Mountains Overview

The gorgeous Blue Mountains region is Sydney’s favorite escape, a tourist wonderland just outside the city, yet very much away from it all. Although a variety of adventure activities, such as abseiling and canyon rafting, have become popular in recent years, the primary draw of the Blue Mountains remains its excellent hiking. The remarkable blue color of the hazy valleys and ridges is the result of sunlight filtering through the eucalyptus oil in the air. From lookout points along canyon edges, the earth falls away to endless blue foliage speckled with white bark and bordered by distant sandstone cliffs.

The Blue Mountains are an easy 90min. drive west of Sydney. The M4 Motorway runs to Penrith ($2.20 toll) and meets the Great Western Highway, which is the main route through the mountains. Many service centers and attractions lie off this road. The northern route, Bells Line of Road , meanders west from Windsor, northeast of Parramatta, providing a more scenic passage.

CityRail trains stop throughout the Blue Mountains at most of the towns along the Great Western Hwy., offering the least expensive option to those travelers who are willing to walk sizable distances from rail stations and bus stops to trailheads. Most of the in-town distances are easily walkable. For more direct access to the trails at a similarly inexpensive price, use the local Blue Mountains Buses (for bus info, see Katoomba). There are no public transportation options to Kanangra-Boyd or Wollemi National Park.

There are three above-average companies that run small bus tours into the Blue Mountains from Sydney. The advantage to using one of these companies is that the groups are usually smaller, which translates to a more personalized, less-touristy experience. Wonderbus offers a tour of the Blue Mountains that covers highlights including the mountains, a RiverCat ferry ride, wine tasting, and the Featherdales Wildlife Park. For a more leisurely pace, opt for the overnight stay in the mountains. (☎1300 556 357. Departs daily at 7:15am, returns 6pm. Blue Mountains tour $105, $129 with lunch. ISIC/NOMADS/VIP/YHA discounts.) The OzTrails tour takes you and 23 others to regional highlights and provides tea and lunch. (☎1300 853 842; www.oztrails.com.au. Departs 8am, returns 6pm. $68, $83 with lunch.) Wildframe Ecotours provides similar services and offers a trip into Grand Canyon, a rainforest-filled gorge in Blackheath. (☎02 9440 9915. $85, ages 14 and under $55, concessions $76.) Check with each company for their overnight offerings. Several companies run large-bus tours to the mountains from Sydney. AAT Kings, Jetty 6, on Circular Quay, offers a basic tour of the mountains, including the Three Sisters and Jenolan Caves. (☎02 9700 0133. Tours depart approx. 8:30am, return 6:45pm. From $148.)

Orientation

Three national parks divide the wild stretches of the region. Blue Mountains National Park , the largest and most accessible of the three, spans most of the Jamison Valley (south of the Great Western Hwy. between Glenbrook and Katoomba), the Megalong Valley (south of the Great Western Hwy., west of Katoomba), and the Grose Valley (north of the Great Western Hwy. and east of Blackheath). The Grose and Jamison Valleys appeal primarily to hikers, while horseback riders favor the Megalong Valley (for more information on horseback riding, see Blackheath). Kanangra-Boyd National Park , tucked between two sections of the Blue Mountains in the southwest reaches of the park, is reserved for skilled bushwalkers. The park is accessible by partially paved roads from Oberon and from Jenolan Caves. Wollemi National Park contains the state’s largest preserved wilderness area. It’s so unspoiled that a species of pine tree thought to be long extinct was found here in 1994. Access to Wollemi, which abuts the north side of Bells Line of Road, is available at Bilpin and at several points north of the central Blue Mountains.

The national parks of the Blue Mountains region are administered by different branches of the National Parks and Wildlife Services (NPWS). If you are planning to bushcamp or drive into these parks, contact the appropriate NPWS branch a few days in advance to ensure that no bushfire bans are in place and that the roads are drivable (this is important; roads are closed fairly often). For a great all-in-one resource on the Blue Mountain region, including up-to-the-minute weather reports and detailed advice on all outdoor activities, go to www.bluemts.com.au. It is also highly recommended that you leave a bushwalk plan filed with the appropriate NPWS office before you go.