Wenthworth Falls

Wentworth Falls: The Blue Mountains Waterfall I Keep Going Back To If you asked me to pick one Blue Mountains spot I'd happily visit over and over, Wentworth Falls would be on that short list. It's just under two hours west of Sydney, which makes it an easy day trip, but it never quite feels like "just" a day trip once you're standing in front of the falls. The walk in doesn't give much away at first. You're surrounded by all the scenery the Blue Mountains are known for — sandstone cliffs, eucalypt forest, valley after valley folding into the distance — and it's beautiful, but it's the kind of beautiful you can start to expect after a few visits to the area. Then you get closer to the falls and that expectation gets thrown out. Wentworth Falls actually drops in three tiers down into the Jamison Valley, dropping close to 190 metres in total, and the scale of it doesn't really land until you're right there. Standing near the base, the water hits you before you see all of it — the wind picks up the spray and sends it across the whole valley, so within a minute or two your clothes are damp and your shoes have given up being dry. The noise is the other thing nobody mentions enough. It's not a gentle trickle-and-splash sound, it's a proper roar, loud enough that you stop trying to talk over it. And somehow nobody around me ever seemed in a hurry to leave, soaked shoes and all. My favourite part of the whole walk is the stretch along the clifftop track, somewhere between the Overcliff and Undercliff sections. On one side you've got sandstone cliff face rising straight up, and on the other the Jamison Valley just keeps going, further than you can really see the end of. Every bend changes the view completely, which I think is part of why photos never quite do it justice — you can capture one angle, but not the feeling of being that close to the edge and watching the falls disappear into the valley below. I've done this walk a couple of different ways now. The first time, I came up from the train station and followed the Charles Darwin Walk in, which takes a bit longer but is a nice way to ease into the scenery. This time I drove straight to the Wentworth Falls picnic area — there are plenty of picnic tables there if you want to eat before or after, which I did. From the picnic area it's a fairly short walk out to the main lookout, and from there down toward the falls and back, the whole round trip took a little over an hour. Worth knowing before you go: the track down toward the falls is narrow in places and the descent is steep, with a fair number of stairs, so I wouldn't recommend it for anyone with knee trouble or older relatives who aren't up for uneven ground — the three main lookouts along the top are still worth the trip on their own if that's the case. My phone clocked around 270 calories just on the walk back up from the falls to the lookout, so don't be surprised if your legs feel it the next day. Bring more water than you think you need, and pack a jacket even if it's warm when you set off — mountain weather up there changes fast, and the spray off the falls will cool you down regardless. On the drive back, the trees along the road had started turning, and I ended up pulling over a couple of times just to take photos of the autumn colour. It felt like a fitting way to end the day — completely satisfied, slightly damp, and already thinking about when I'd come back.