Just two hours west of central Sydney by train, Australia’s Blue Mountains are a vast expanse of rugged rock, dense forest, and towering waterfalls.
Echo Point
I visited the Blue Mountains during an eight-day trip to Australia with my dad in April/May 2026. With three of those days dedicated to Tasmania, we were on a tight schedule for the remainder of our stay in the country.
The Blue Mountains’ natural beauty and proximity to Sydney, where we were based, made it an ideal destination for a day trip. A Unesco World Heritage Site, the Greater Blue Mountains Area mostly comprises untamed wilderness, while its outer edges are dotted with more accessible points of interest.
On the morning of 30 April, we took a train from central Sydney to the town of Katoomba – the gateway to the Blue Mountains. After a quick breakfast, we joined a hop-on/hop-off bus tour that we’d pre-booked on GetYourGuide.
With the bus making 23 stops along its anti-clockwise loop, it’s impossible to hop off at every one on a single day tour. Luckily, many of the stops are within walking distance of each other – a fact we took full advantage of.
Our first stop (Stop 6 on the bus route) was at Echo Point, a multi-level observation platform overlooking the striking Three Sisters geological formation and the sprawling Jamison Valley beyond.
The Three Sisters in the foreground, with the Jamison Valley stretching out to the horizon.
From there, we continued on foot, heading west along the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. This forested path not only offers sweeping views of the valley but also allows close encounters with local birdlife. In this particular section, near Echo Point, we saw a pied currawong and several sulphur-crested cockatoos among the eucalyptus trees.
A pied currawong, distinguishable from a corvid by the flash of white on its tail.
The majestic sulphur-crested cockatoo, which, despite looking exotic from my European perspective, is very common in this part of the world.
The vista from Cliff View Lookout, around 1.2 kilometres from Echo Point, with Mount Solitary in the background.
Katoomba Falls
Approximately 1.4 kilometres west of Echo Point, just off the walking path, the Katoomba Cascades (Stop 8) gently spill into Kedumba Creek. The cascades form the upper tier of the significantly larger Katoomba Falls (Stop 9), which, only a few hundred metres downstream, plummet 150 metres into the Jamison Valley below. At Vaniman’s Lookout, we watched a flock of cockatoos circling in front of the thundering falls – a spectacle reminiscent of a scene from a wildlife documentary.
Katoomba Cascades trickling into a forest pool.
Kedumba Creek, flanked by tree ferns and gum trees.
The Katoomba Falls (left), as viewed from Vaniman’s Lookout, plummet into the Jamison Valley around 1.3 kilometres from the Three Sisters (top right). The Scenic World Skyway is visible suspended above the cliff face in the centre.
The Devil’s Hole
From Vaniman’s Lookout, we followed Cliff Drive past Scenic World (Stop 10) and through the leafy suburbs of South Katoomba. A quiet residential road, Cliff Drive offers easy access to some of the Blue Mountains’ best walking and hiking trails. After arriving at the bus stop on this very street, we found we had around 40 minutes to kill until the next bus arrived. I decided to make the most of that time by descending to the ominously named Devil’s Hole (Stop 12).
Leaving my dad at the bus stop, I abandoned the relative comfort of the roadside and scrambled down the steep scree slope towards my destination. This path – if it can even be described as such – isn’t as well maintained as the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. Given the dense vegetation, it wasn’t always clear which way to turn. All I knew was I had to keep going down, down, down…
At the top of the trail, the azure expanse overhead was punctuated only by the slender boughs of eucalypts. As I descended, the towering sandstone walls closed in, compressing the sky down to a modest sliver of blue-white while shrouding the forest floor in shadow. In that oppressive gloom, I navigated an obstacle course of craggy boulders, probing branches, grasping roots, and slick rock to reach the depths of the canyon.
Pausing as my eyes adjusted to the dim light, I noticed how the air had taken on a damp chill that belied the balminess of this autumn afternoon in New South Wales. I’d left a sun-drenched Cliff Drive not 15 minutes before, but here, at the Devil’s Hole, I was cold and – with no phone service and not a soul in sight – utterly alone.
Looking up from the shadowy canyon floor of the Devil’s Hole.
The iconic ‘Devil’s Hole’ view, with the chockstone wedged between the cliffs overhead and a small section of the Megalong Valley visible through the chasm opening.
My mind began to wander: What if I trip on a root or slip on a rock? What if venomous snakes and spiders are lurking in the undergrowth? Not to mention, it’s a steep climb back to the road, and I have a tour bus to catch! And with that final thought, I took a few snaps and began clambering back up the way I’d come.
Although less treacherous, the return climb was considerably more strenuous than the initial descent. Moving as fast as I could, I was forced to stop once or twice to catch my breath. Somehow – perhaps driven by an innate instinct for survival or simply a fear of missing buses – I found my way back to Cliff Drive with 10 minutes to spare.
Leura
Now back on the bus, I was grateful for the momentary respite. This time, we rode the six stops to Leura Cascades. Reaching the site from Stop 18 involves a short walk down into a fern-filled gully, where the cascades trickle into the Leura Falls Creek.
Leura Cascades.
Next, we headed east towards Lyrebird Dell (Stop 21). Passing through the bush en route, we spotted three species of local birdlife in the space of 10 minutes – the crimson rosella, the red wattlebird, and the grey butcherbird – though, sadly, no lyrebirds.
A crimson rosella perched in a hairpin banksia, a kind of shrub whose flower spikes look like corn on the cob.
A red wattlebird in a gum tree.
This grey butcherbird, perched in an introduced pine tree, looks far cuddlier than its name might suggest.
We then followed Olympian Parade, a picturesque residential street overlooking the Blue Mountains, until we reached the Pool of Siloam Track. This took us down into a sandstone canyon, at the bottom of which lies the pool itself, with its clear, shallow waters and tranquil, secluded setting.
A view over the Blue Mountains from Olympian Parade, between Leura Cascades and the Pool of Siloam.
The clear, tranquil waters of the Pool of Siloam.
Gordon Creek, near the Pool of Siloam.
Mere minutes north of the Pool of Siloam is Lyrebird Dell (Stop 21), home to the Lyrebird Dell Waterfall and a cave of the same name. From inside the cave, its silhouette looked remarkably like the outline of Australia (minus the Cape York Peninsula) – a fitting coincidence for a site with over 12,000 years of recorded Aboriginal history.
The textured walls of Lyrebird Dell Cave.
The cave’s Australia-like silhouette.
Lyrebird Dell Waterfall.
After spending 10 or so minutes at Lyrebird Dell, we walked the short distance to Leura Village, where we ate lunch and took a train back to Sydney. In roughly five and a half hours, we’d taken in sprawling valleys and dramatic rock formations, roaring waterfalls and trickling cascades, lush vegetation and colourful birdlife – all this, just 60 kilometres from a major conurbation.
(If you book the same bus tour as us using this GetYourGuide link, we’ll earn a small commission – at no additional cost to you.)
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