The Three Sisters and the Blue Mountains
Jan. 1st, 2024 05:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAustralia Travelog #20
Katoomba, NSW - Thu, 28 Dec 2023, 11:30am
This morning we slept in a bit. That was our prerogative after a long day yesterday; we did three hikes and a lot of driving. And part of the purpose of all that driving was to get here last night so we'd only need to drive a few more miles to any of the many trails we wanted to hike. BTW by "slept in" I mean we didn't wake until our 7am alarms... then snoozed them a few times. đŸ˜¨ Maybe we're finally over our jet-lag now. It'll be nice to be done with that waking-up-at-4am crap.
Anyway, our first* hike of the day was to visit the Three Sisters at Echo Point in Katoomba.
The Three Sisters (photo above) is one of the iconic sights of the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Australia. You can see it from Echo Point, which is right at the edge of town in Katoomba. And in this case edge is kind of literal. Take a few steps too far and you fall off the edge of the plateau.
From Echo Point there's an easy, paved walk along the cliff rim. As you approach the closer viewing platform there's good and bad news. Good news: you see lots of the valley opening up before you. Bad news: from this angle the two little Sisters are hiding behind their bigger Sister.
Also kind of bad news? Even on a weekday this area is thronged with people. Though, granted, it is kind of a holiday week between Christmas and New Year's. Plus, it's literal summer vacation time for school kids. (Signs in town say the next school year starts Feb 1.)
From the viewing platform next to the Three Sisters there's a steep staircase going down. It goes all the way down to the valley, over 300m below; but a lot of people descend it just 70m or so to the base of the spire. Even though these stairs are strenuous they're still crowded. You can see in the photo above the line of people hoofing it down.
Near the base of the spire of the biggest Sister is a spot called the Wedding Bridge. It's actually a bridge (man-made), as you can see in the photo above. And it's not thronged with people... because it's closed and gated off! I think some dumbasses managed to fall and die, and authorities closed it for our safety. It's disappointing when the dumbest people ruin it for the other 999/1,000 of us.
I hoofed it back up the stairs after enjoying the views near the Wedding Bridge. Hawk and I discussed whether we'd want to go all the way down this trail... and decided that if we do hike to the valley floor we'll do it in a different area, near one of the waterfalls. So I went back up to the top from here, and we strolled back to our car at Echo Point.
Now, you may have noticed up near the top I put a star next to it when I said this was our first hike of the day. Actually it's kind of our second. First we went to a viewpoint for Wentworth Falls, several miles away. But we couldn't see the falls from the viewpoint, and we decided that before we went looking for them we'd come over here to Echo Point, where there's a visitors information center. Now we have all the info— and we visited the Three Sisters since they're right here— so we'll head back to hike Wentworth Falls after lunch.
Katoomba, NSW - Thu, 28 Dec 2023, 11:30am
This morning we slept in a bit. That was our prerogative after a long day yesterday; we did three hikes and a lot of driving. And part of the purpose of all that driving was to get here last night so we'd only need to drive a few more miles to any of the many trails we wanted to hike. BTW by "slept in" I mean we didn't wake until our 7am alarms... then snoozed them a few times. đŸ˜¨ Maybe we're finally over our jet-lag now. It'll be nice to be done with that waking-up-at-4am crap.
Anyway, our first* hike of the day was to visit the Three Sisters at Echo Point in Katoomba.
The Three Sisters (photo above) is one of the iconic sights of the Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales, Australia. You can see it from Echo Point, which is right at the edge of town in Katoomba. And in this case edge is kind of literal. Take a few steps too far and you fall off the edge of the plateau.
From Echo Point there's an easy, paved walk along the cliff rim. As you approach the closer viewing platform there's good and bad news. Good news: you see lots of the valley opening up before you. Bad news: from this angle the two little Sisters are hiding behind their bigger Sister.
Also kind of bad news? Even on a weekday this area is thronged with people. Though, granted, it is kind of a holiday week between Christmas and New Year's. Plus, it's literal summer vacation time for school kids. (Signs in town say the next school year starts Feb 1.)
From the viewing platform next to the Three Sisters there's a steep staircase going down. It goes all the way down to the valley, over 300m below; but a lot of people descend it just 70m or so to the base of the spire. Even though these stairs are strenuous they're still crowded. You can see in the photo above the line of people hoofing it down.
Near the base of the spire of the biggest Sister is a spot called the Wedding Bridge. It's actually a bridge (man-made), as you can see in the photo above. And it's not thronged with people... because it's closed and gated off! I think some dumbasses managed to fall and die, and authorities closed it for our safety. It's disappointing when the dumbest people ruin it for the other 999/1,000 of us.
I hoofed it back up the stairs after enjoying the views near the Wedding Bridge. Hawk and I discussed whether we'd want to go all the way down this trail... and decided that if we do hike to the valley floor we'll do it in a different area, near one of the waterfalls. So I went back up to the top from here, and we strolled back to our car at Echo Point.
Now, you may have noticed up near the top I put a star next to it when I said this was our first hike of the day. Actually it's kind of our second. First we went to a viewpoint for Wentworth Falls, several miles away. But we couldn't see the falls from the viewpoint, and we decided that before we went looking for them we'd come over here to Echo Point, where there's a visitors information center. Now we have all the info— and we visited the Three Sisters since they're right here— so we'll head back to hike Wentworth Falls after lunch.
