My drive from Wollongong was smooth right up until I turned on the road that heads up into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It turns out I’m driving on Anzac Day, a pretty major holiday here in Australia, so the traffic was just ridiculous! I still made it to Faulconbridge, the hike I had planned to do along the way, just later than expected. Faulconbridge was about a nine mile round trip hike. It was pretty flat and uninteresting so I breezed through it quickly, but the payoff at the end was definitely worth it. I came out onto the cliff at Faulconbridge Point and got this incredible view of the Grose River below.

By the time I made it back to the car, the traffic had cleared and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way to Katoomba, where I’m staying the next few nights. Better strap in and get comfortable because this post is a long one. First thing in the morning I went up to the Three Sisters Lookout at Echo Point, which is just at the literal edge of town. Turns out Katoomba is perched on a huge cliff.

When people come to the Blue Mountains I think this is the first place they go. There was a big souvenir store, lots of tour busses, and it was really crowded. The Three Sisters is a sacred site to the local aboriginal tribe. The story goes, a sorcerer turned the three sisters to stone to protect them from unwanted male advances, but he died before he could turn them back. That’s a real bummer!

I ran from the crowds and drove a few miles to the neighboring town of Wentworth to do what looked to be an epic waterfallapalooza loop hike, but the whole middle section was apparently washed out. So instead I had to do either end as separate hikes. As a result, I missed out on about seven waterfalls. Good thing the others were spectacular enough to make up for it. The western part started by slowly making it’s way down to Den Fenella Falls, a solid four gusher, and several amazing lookouts. There were also some unnamed waterfalls along the way too.

After a while the trail goes down, and I mean straight down, way down, a million steps of doom down. Finally I reached the beautiful, eight gusher, Empress Falls.

The water just seems to go down forever. Even between the official waterfalls there are cascades flowing down and the trail follows alongside them all. It was pretty amazing. A little ways down from Empress was Sylvia Falls. I’ll give this one a seven on the gusher scale.

Straight down a bit further from there was what I think is a lower part of Sylvia Falls, it’s hard to tell when there are so many and they’re not all labeled on the map. Anyway, from there the trail was blocked. Sad face! Now I get to climb all the way back up. There were some wooden, some metal, and some stone steps of doom, but there was a lot of them, and I cursed every one.

Back towards the top, the cliff walk is relaxing and nice. I can’t think of the name of this bird, but I’ve seen some in other locations. They usually run away as soon as they see me, but this guy had no fear at all.

Back at the trailhead I took a short break and then started the eastern part of my loop hike. First, I descended to Upper Wentworth Falls. There was a lot of people at this one. I had to wait a bit to get this picture. Not many of them climbed down the following steps of doom into the abyss like me though. The only bad part about all of this is instead of doing the loop, climbing down once and up the other side, I have to climb down and back up twice on either side. My legs hated me!

Anyway, the cliffside part of the trail was super fun to do. The steps of doom part was just as straight down and up as the other side was though.

At the bottom and as far as I was allowed to go was the amazing Lower Wentworth Falls. There was so much of it I couldn’t get it all in the frame of the camera. So the two pics below are the upper Lower Wentworth Falls and the lower Lower Wentworth Falls.

Now the climb. They call the route down here the Grand Staircase. Grand indeed! It took a while, but at the top I made a stop at Fletcher’s Lookout before heading back to the car. The views at all of these lookouts are just tremendous!

The short walk back to the car took me past one final little waterfall, Queens Cascade, and some final steps of doom.

On the way back to the hostel I decided to make a quick stop at a viewpoint that was on the way, Sublime Point. The best part of the view from here, though, was seeing the Three Sisters from the other side and also catching a glimpse of Katoomba up on the cliff. I climbed more steps this day than I think I’ve ever climbed in one day. I slept soooo good.

The Blue Mountains turned out to really be a waterfallapalooza galore. Who knew Australia had so many amazing waterfalls. Well, I kinda did because I researched this trip, but WHO KNEW?!!! The next morning I started a bunch of hikes around some of the nearby villages. First up was the Transit of Venus hike near Woodford.

It was pouring rain when I woke up this morning. Looks like it’s gonna be a wet one. This big loop hike takes you to three really stunning waterfalls all named after women. First was Mabel, seen above, and second was Edith, seen below. I couldn’t get too close to Edith because the water was overflowing everywhere and the trail itself was basically a river.

The third waterfall on this hike was Hazel. The best part was being able to walk behind the falls, always a fun thing to do. It also gave me some shelter and a break from the pouring rain. I didn’t know it yet, but I was going to be walking behind waterfalls a lot today.

At the beginning of the hike I had to walk across a small creek, no big deal. On the way back that small creek had turned into a rushing river. Oops! Luckily there was a service road nearby, so I took that up and around and then had to walk through part of Woodford to get back to the car. There were a ton of parrots and cockatoos all over though. The parrots are still too quick for me, but I got a couple of pics of cockatoos.

Just a few miles away in Hazelbrook was the Horseshoe Falls Reserve, my next waterfall hike. Luckily the rain had subsided, but it was still flooded and wet. The puddles on the trail and all the ferns lining the trail and hitting me as I walked by made sure I didn’t dry out, not even a little bit.

I thought the first waterfall was going to be Horseshoe Falls, but I kept seeing all these other incredible unnamed waterfalls before I even got to the first official one. Bonus!

Finally I reached the real Horseshoe Falls. And I got to walk behind this one too. I was also the only person doing these hikes today. My car was the only one at the parking area and I had all of these to myself. I guess the rain chased everyone away.

Next up was Oaklands Falls with access behind it too. While standing behind this one taking pictures I felt a sharp poke down by my ankle. When I looked down I had two leeches lunching on me. Gross! Maybe I picked them up from one of the plants along the trail, I’m not sure.

The end of the hike was Burgess Falls. It would have been a bit too treacherous to get behind this one, but it was another beauty. And I plucked another leech off of my other leg while here. I hope this isn’t a trend. After that, it was up the hill and through the forest back to the trailhead. Hopefully, it goes without saying that with all this rain, all of these are getting a nine or ten on the gusher scale.

This next loop hike I intended to do turned out to also be closed due to trail damage, so I did both ends separately. The first part was supposed to take me past Fairy Falls and to St Michael’s Falls. Instead I went past Fairy Falls and to this unnamed waterfall in Dante’s Glen. Apparently, there used to be a bridge that got washed out, so no St Michael’s today.

On the other side of the loop I walked down a very steep access road until I got to Frederica Falls. I made it just in time too because it was about dusk. It was almost dark by the time I got back to the car. That makes a total of twelve waterfalls I saw today. That’s got to be a record. Oh, and along the way, I picked up another leech. That makes four, and the one I found on my leg when I got in the shower at the hostel makes five. Bleh!

The last two days of hiking endless steps of doom, getting rained on, walking in rivers and puddles, and picking leeches off my legs, has really worn me out. So, I decided to make my way around to all the viewpoints on this blissfully rain free day. I still did a fair amount of walking, but it was nice to give my legs a little break. First up was what is considered one of the best viewpoints in all of Australia, not just the Blue Mountains, Govetts Leap.

The view was absolutely jaw dropping! Some of the trails in this area are closed as well, but I was able to do a good portion of the cliffside walk in both directions. The best part, that I was not expecting, was the two waterfalls plunging over those cliffs. To the east was Bridal Veil Falls. As beautiful as this waterfall is, I’m always a bit disappointed when they name a waterfall Bridal Veil. There must be thousands of Bridal Veil Falls on this planet. We get it, it looks like a brides veil, come up with something original!

To the west, the furthest I could go was the Cripps Lookout. In the pic below and on the left, you can see it perched out on the cliff. That’s where I’m headed. On the way there I got some views of either side of the second waterfall, Horseshoe Falls. Yes, there are two Horseshoe Falls in the Blue Mountains. I think Australians might need some help with naming things.

The view from Cripps Lookout was even more spectacular than Govetts. From here you can see the valley and both waterfalls. Incredible!

I went to several different lookouts this day. Some of them were close together and so the views were similar. I won’t include them all here, just the best ones. This next one is Perry’s Lookdown. Why this one is called a lookdown instead of a lookout, I have no idea, but the view was beyond impressive.

I wrapped up my day at Evans Lookout. I’m determined to see these incredible mountains from every angle.

While I was at Evans Lookout some of those bright red parrots were nearby. I thought I would try to get some pics, but figured they would fly away before I could even turn the camera on like usual. I stepped towards them… very slowly… another step… one more… very quiet, but these guys had no fear and couldn’t care less. I got within about three feet of them and they were fine. They’re so beautiful!

I figured my legs had had enough of a break so I spent the last full day tackling a couple more waterfall hikes. These were relatively shorter hikes and weren’t quite as intense as the previous ones, but I still saw nine waterfalls this day. First up was the Terrace Falls Loop. It wasn’t raining, but everything was still really wet.

Victor Falls was hard to get pictures of because the sun was right in my face, but I gave it a four on the gusher scale. Terrace Falls, seen below, I gave a six.

Just a short distance down from Terrace Falls was Little Terrace Falls. I gave this one a seven. Then the trail led around until I got to Pyramid Falls. Pyramid only gets a four on the gusher scale, but it was still a pretty spot. Walking through the eucalyptus forest with the ground covered in ferns is really beautiful, and the waterfalls are all so atmospheric. I’m just loving all of these hikes so much!

Only a couple of miles away was the next waterfall loop, the South Lawson Waterfall Track. This one was even shorter, but still packed a punch. The first waterfall, Adelina Falls, was only a few hundred feet into it, seen above right. This one was a five gusher.

I thought this hike had four waterfalls on it, but Junction Falls was actually a two for one. Two separate creeks join up, but each one has a beautiful waterfall right before they do. Awesome! They were both four gushers. Below is a panorama of both falls from the junction. You can just make them out through the trees.

A little further on was Federal Falls, a solid five on the gusher scale. It was here at Federal that I finally decided to take a look at the spot on my ankle that had been itching a bit. I pulled up my pant leg and my sock was a bloody mess! I took off my shoe, pulled down my bloody sock and pulled another leech off myself. Grrrrr! This guy had been snacking at Cafe Matt for a while because he was FAT! I’m so over these leeches.

The last waterfall on the hike was Cataract Falls, another five gusher. It was starting to rain, though, so I made my way back up to the trailhead before it really got messy.

The rain never really materialized. Thankfully, it just sprinkled a bit. I decided I had time for one more short hike. Minnehaha Falls at one and half miles round trip should be perfect. The trail was super muddy, but very doable, and this eight gusher ended up winning the day. I had all of these hikes and waterfalls all to myself again today. It turned out to be a great day. Now time to go back to the hostel, do a full body leech check, and grab some dinner.

The next morning on the way out I was planning to do one big morning hike since my drive to the next stop is a short one, but surprise, it was pouring rain again. So I decided to forget the hike and just head out. I’ve had enough of this rain. The Blue Mountains have been a really rewarding stop. This place is just incredible!