Blue Mountains Day Trip
Getting to the Blue Mountains
I always thought Australia was a dry desert wasteland. But the coast of New South Wales and Victoria is covered in long mountain ranges, some of which even have large ski resorts. Just west of Sydney is the truly massive Blue Mountains range. This area of the bush is less like a traditional range of sharp peaks, and more like vast canyons and buttes with forests in between.
While the forest is endless with many remote camping areas and through hikes, the town of Katoomba is conveniently on a train line, an hour and a half from Sydney. Just make your way to Central Station and take the train to Lithgow via Parramatta and exit at Katoomba Station. The close proximity yet isolated location makes the Blue Mountains a perfect distance for a day trip or overnight adventure to get away from the city.
Pomegranate Cafe
We took an early train to Katoomba, so we didn’t have time to grab food. Luckily for us, Katoomba is full of adorable shops and restaurants, so the first order of business was breakfast at Pomegranate. This is a cute little cafe on the main road just down from the train station. The menu was surprisingly diverse, with lots of vegetarian and vegan options. We live in Korea, so it’s not often I get a real Western-style breakfast, so I went for the big breakfast. It absolutely hit the spot, everything was cooked to perfection and really filled us up for the day.
Street Art Walk
Katoomba is not a large city, so the bus service is a little slow. We decided to walk to the main attraction, because our favorite way to experience a new place is by foot. I’m glad we did, because we wouldn’t have come across the Street Art Walk. As you’d expect, this is a street with murals and paintings. Apparently, some of the artists who worked on the street are big names in the Australian graffiti community, and some local artists contributed as well. It’s not a large area, it only takes a few minutes to walk through. We really enjoyed our stop, it added a fresh explosion of color to an otherwise normal small-town vibe.
Cassiopeia Coffee Katoomba
One last stop on our way to the mountains, Cassiopeia Coffee. I was surprised to see that such a small town had a genuine specialty coffee shop. At this rate in Australia, I should expect to look down a sewer grate and find a hip, mouse-sized shop with single origin beans. This country really loves coffee. Cassiopeia is a really nice shop with lots of natural light and a bright, airy atmosphere. These baristas really knew what they were doing, and I was thoroughly impressed with the laid-back vibe.
I had to get a pourover, and Yemisi got chai latte with banana bread. As I suspected, the coffee was a solid A tier. I learned that they have multiple locations, mostly in other small towns along the same train line. It’s nice to see they are keeping their small town vibe with their other shops, and I definitely recommend checking out Cassiopeia for a great cup of coffee.
Echo Point Lookout
At this point, it was finally time for the main part of our Blue Mountains trip, Echo Point Lookout. Walking straight from the station it was only about 30 minutes to get to the main viewing platform. From here, you can get one of the best views in the entire country. The Blue Mountains are a range of huge sandstone plateaus cut up by deep river valleys. From the top of the plateaus you can see far into the vast canyons, where the atmosphere gives them a blue hue, hence the name. From the lookout, you can see the famous Three Sisters. This sandstone rock formation is one of Australia’s most iconic natural landmarks jutting out of the cliff side. Lots of people were lined up to see the Sisters, but luckily the viewing platform was massive so there was lots of space.
As we walked to the edge, I was speechless at the scale of the valley. Wind was rushing up from below, bringing a much needed cool breeze. I’ve seen a lot of mountains, but usually they take up your field of view, rather than allow you to look into the vast distance. We are lucky that it’s so easy to get to the viewing platform from Sydney, it really feels like this should be a hidden secret that takes several days to hike to. Of course, there are plenty of established hiking trails all across the national park, so if adventure is calling there’s a lot more to explore than just the lookout.
Three Sisters Walk
If you want to get a closer look at the Three Sisters, you can take an easy walk through the woods to get there. Just around the corner from the Echo Point Lookout is a well maintained dirt track that leads down to the Three Sisters. At the end, there are quite a few stairs, but it only takes 15 minutes to get there. Unfortunately, the final viewing area was closed for construction when we visited, but we could still get a great view from the staircase. You don’t need a lot of time for it, but it is a great option if you’re looking for a small nature walk without hiking for hours through the valley.
Katoomba Cascades
The last thing we wanted to see is the famous Katoomba Falls. We walked from the lookout point down into a park and on to the Prince Henry Cliff Walk. This is a pretty easy hiking trail that should have a good view of the falls. On our way down we came across Katoomba Cascades. There are several cascades like this around the valley, where the water slowly rolls over the sandstone on its way to the main waterfall. I had no clue they were there, but it was a super beautiful place to stop and enjoy.
As we were walking towards the lookout for the falls, we realized we would miss our train, so sadly we had to turn around. However, there is also a cable car that you can take over the valley in order to get the best view of the falls. If you’re willing to hike all the way down, there are even more cascades and beautiful views of Katoomba falls, but we just didn’t have time.
Final Thoughts
Visiting Katoomba was a pleasant surprise on our trip to Sydney. Usually, we have to rent a car and drive for hours to see things like this on a vacation. If you’re looking for a day trip to add some variety to your visit to Australia, the Blue Mountains are an amazing option.
