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canyonwalkerAustralia Travelog #36
Katoomba, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 10am
Today's our last day in Australia. Well, our last full day. And though my ankle still hurts from overdoing it on Thursday— and, frankly, overdoing it again on Friday when I was already hurting— I am determined to maximize what I am able to see and do today. There is no back, only forward.
The cool thing about there being many small towns bordering Blue Mountains National Park and Jamison Valley is that there are many entrances. We drove up to a spot in town marked "Katoomba Kiosk", parked in one of the few spots the side of the road— which was easy "early" in the morning at 9am— and walked down a short, paved trail down to the canyon rim.
The photo above is from Reid's Plateau, a small climb up after the dip below the rim. From here there are nearly 360° views, including out across the broad canyon. There's an aerial tram crossing this nook of the canyon. That's operated by an adventure company here in town. They also have an inclined train that goes down/up the canyon. It was originally built for mining work decades ago and was repurposed for tourism. We looked at buying tickets for the inclined train as a way to get out of the canyon rather than hiking back up the ~1,000' ascent from the bottom but reservations are required and the time windows available didn't fit out needs.
Here's another view out across the canyon from Reid's Plateau. In this photo (above) I've zoomed in on Orphan Rock, that spire rising up in the center of the frame.
Hawk found a blog in the research we were doing on hikes in the area where someone wrote about climbing Orphan Rock recently. There used to be a maintained trail there. ...A tough one, with ladder-like rails in the rock. It was closed years ago after damage that the park service chose not to repair. We could see the remnants of the hand rails on the rocks.
Turning to the other side of the viewpoint we found views of Katoomba Falls. Hiking it has been one my top priorities the past several days. Alas we didn't do it early, and now I'm not well enough to get all the way to the bottom and back up. And the train (mentioned above) don't serve our needs well enough for coming back up. So we'll satisfy outselves with going just part way down. I see on the may what looks like a beautiful viewpoint near the bottom of the top tier of the falls.
Ah, but there's another problem: the sun. The falls are in deep shade right now. They'd look better in the light! Sounds nitpicky, right? But here's the thing. With a photographer's mindset I think about where the light will be at different times of day. I can look at this scene, consult a compass, plot where the sun will be as it travels across the sky throughout the day, remember to flip all that upside down as we're "Down Under" in the southern hemisphere 😂, and conclude that this scene will look way better after, say, 3pm.
So: We'll bail out of this hike for now, hike another falls— which are currently facing into the sun— this morning, and come back here after lunch and other stuff.
Oh, but while we're here we'll visit another falls that's currently in the sun and won't be at 3pm.
This is Witches Leap, a drop of about 80' high on the canyon wall. Getting down to this vantage point was a drop of at least 100' on the trail... and an equal, but slower, climb out. 😣 And yes, we'll have to come right back down this way (and up it again) when we return for Katoomba falls this afternoon. Oh, the pains I go to to have fun.
Katoomba, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 10am
Today's our last day in Australia. Well, our last full day. And though my ankle still hurts from overdoing it on Thursday— and, frankly, overdoing it again on Friday when I was already hurting— I am determined to maximize what I am able to see and do today. There is no back, only forward.
The cool thing about there being many small towns bordering Blue Mountains National Park and Jamison Valley is that there are many entrances. We drove up to a spot in town marked "Katoomba Kiosk", parked in one of the few spots the side of the road— which was easy "early" in the morning at 9am— and walked down a short, paved trail down to the canyon rim.
The photo above is from Reid's Plateau, a small climb up after the dip below the rim. From here there are nearly 360° views, including out across the broad canyon. There's an aerial tram crossing this nook of the canyon. That's operated by an adventure company here in town. They also have an inclined train that goes down/up the canyon. It was originally built for mining work decades ago and was repurposed for tourism. We looked at buying tickets for the inclined train as a way to get out of the canyon rather than hiking back up the ~1,000' ascent from the bottom but reservations are required and the time windows available didn't fit out needs.
Here's another view out across the canyon from Reid's Plateau. In this photo (above) I've zoomed in on Orphan Rock, that spire rising up in the center of the frame.
Hawk found a blog in the research we were doing on hikes in the area where someone wrote about climbing Orphan Rock recently. There used to be a maintained trail there. ...A tough one, with ladder-like rails in the rock. It was closed years ago after damage that the park service chose not to repair. We could see the remnants of the hand rails on the rocks.
Turning to the other side of the viewpoint we found views of Katoomba Falls. Hiking it has been one my top priorities the past several days. Alas we didn't do it early, and now I'm not well enough to get all the way to the bottom and back up. And the train (mentioned above) don't serve our needs well enough for coming back up. So we'll satisfy outselves with going just part way down. I see on the may what looks like a beautiful viewpoint near the bottom of the top tier of the falls.
Ah, but there's another problem: the sun. The falls are in deep shade right now. They'd look better in the light! Sounds nitpicky, right? But here's the thing. With a photographer's mindset I think about where the light will be at different times of day. I can look at this scene, consult a compass, plot where the sun will be as it travels across the sky throughout the day, remember to flip all that upside down as we're "Down Under" in the southern hemisphere 😂, and conclude that this scene will look way better after, say, 3pm.
So: We'll bail out of this hike for now, hike another falls— which are currently facing into the sun— this morning, and come back here after lunch and other stuff.
Oh, but while we're here we'll visit another falls that's currently in the sun and won't be at 3pm.
This is Witches Leap, a drop of about 80' high on the canyon wall. Getting down to this vantage point was a drop of at least 100' on the trail... and an equal, but slower, climb out. 😣 And yes, we'll have to come right back down this way (and up it again) when we return for Katoomba falls this afternoon. Oh, the pains I go to to have fun.
