Sydney: Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney are on the UNESCO heritage list. It is so named because of the blue haze produced by the Eucalyptus trees. For some reason, John and I both expected it to be overrated. On Easter morning, we took the first train from Sydney Central. Our carriage was completely full. We did the rim walk, Prince Henry Cliff Walk, from Katoomba Station to Leura Station. The place was beautiful - it was like the Grand Canyon, but covered in forest, interspersed with waterfalls. There were some trail closures, so we didn't walk as much as we had expected. Nevertheless, we were very pleased with our visit.

We got up early to take a train (1st below) to Central Station, to then catch the 6:24 AM train to Katoomba Station (2nd below).




From Katoomba Station, it was an easy 3km downhill walk on Katoomba Street with historic buildings, the most interesting of which was the The Former Embassy Theatre (2nd below), to the start of our hike at Katoomba Cascades (3rd below)






We then followed the Prince Henry Cliff Walk to the Katoomba Falls Lookout. Wow! 230 meters (800 feet) tall.


If you're not walking the Prince Henry Trail, you can view The Falls from the "Scenic Skyway Aerial Cable Car".




Amazing views of the Blue Mountains. They really are blue!






The Visitor Center and its parking lot are adjacent to the famous Three Sisters rock formation. The lookout was busy!






The Prince Henry Walk continues over to Bridal Veil Falls with even more lookouts.






And let's not forget the Leura Cascades Fern Bower Circuit.