The Grand Canyon Track
I've wanted to walk the Grand Canyon track in the Blue Mountains for a few years now but have shied away from it as I was certain would be quite busy with travellers. With a free afternoon, I decided I'd finally do it. I brought along my nephew for the trip as I knew it would be a great first bushwalk for any child.
It was a warm summer's day. The sun was out and there were blue skies. A perfect summer's day. The walk starts at Evans Lookout. As I look over the valley, it's easy to pick out the various parts of the Grose Valley. I see Mt Banks and can see the cliff trail that I walked along not so long ago.
After soaking in the view, it's time to start the walk. The start of the walk drops down into the canyon steeply via stairs. Every 20 meters or so you can feel the temperature drop. It's quite refreshing and surprising how much the temperature drops. On the way down we pass some beautiful little creeks bursting with rainforest plants.
We reach the bottom of the canyon and are greeted by some masoned stepping stones over Greaves Creek. We cross the creek a few times. It's all very pretty. I mistakenly skip Beauchamp Falls.
The trail rises a bit from the creek and at times cuts into the rockface. We see a father and his two sons gear up to do some canyoning down greeves creek. They initially need to abseil down a dark black ominous hole. The trail goes behind a waterfall which the young fella enjoys. Then to my surprise goes through a rock tunnel.
On the other side of the tunnel, we exit the rainforest temporarily. We see a handful of tame Australian Water Dragons along this part of the trail.
The rest of the track goes through normal Blue Mountains bush. Exiting the canyon is hard in the heat but we do it. A short walk back down to the car park and the walk is done. I would easily rank this as the most beautiful bush walk in the blue mountains. An absolute must do. Don't put it off as it did for so many years. Just set expectations of a lot of other walkers and the odd canyoner.
