Okay, the Blue Mountains are fabulous, but where to recommend depends a bit on what you like.
If you're city-slicker types who cringe at being in the bush, then stick with the famous places in the towns: the Three Sisters and scenic railway/skyway at Katoomba, Govett's Leap at Blackheath, Jenolan Caves (not really in a town, but it will seem like it if you're there at a busy time
), etc.
If you like the bush though, especially if you don't mind a bit of walking as well (anything up to a few hours), then there are lots more places to recommend. Some of my favourites:
- The Ruined Castle: a relatively short and easy walk from Narrow Neck at Katoomba to the afore-named rock formation in the Jamison Valley. Requires walking down and back up a set of steep stairs, but otherwise is mostly dead flat. Great views from the top of the rock formation, but try and avoid a really windy day. Return from Narrow Neck can be anything from about 1.5 hours to 3 hours, depending on how fast you walk. You can also walk all the way around there from the Three Sisters or scenic railway, but that would take quite a few hours longer.
- For an even better view, Castle Cliff on Narrow Neck just above the Ruined Castle gives perhaps the best view in the whole area. However, it's not signposted (or wasn't when I last went there many years ago) and so you may need a topo map to find the right track heading out there. The track also passed through some dense, scratchy heath, so wearing long pants would be recommended. Absolutely stunning views though.
- The Grand Canyon walk from Evan's Lookout near Blackheath. Takes a couple of hours odd, depending again on how fast you walk. Quite a steep climb out, but nothing too serious. I've seen old grannies puffing there way up there
. When the track heads back up, you can continue on the bottom track towards the Grose Valley a bit further for a close-up view of quite a nice waterfall.
- The cliff-top walk between Evans Lookout and Govett's Leap at Blackheath. Takes about 45-60 minutes each way and is mostly flat.
- Kanangra Walls: the ultimate in Blue Mountains rugged bushland viewing for the armchair bushwalker
. Another 20-30 minutes drive past Jenolan Caves for magnificant cliff-top views. Wheelchair access to the main lookout, but spend a couple of hours or so walking on Kanangra Plateau, which is close to dead flat. There's also a three day bushwalk starting here all the way back to Katoomba which is popular amongst more serious bushwalkers (the easier version is the Six Foot Track starting from Jenolan).
- Newnes: an old shale-oil mining area in the Wollemi NP on the north side of the Great Western Hwy through the mountains. Drive all the way across to Lithgow then on towards Mudgee for a short distance. A small road will then head off right towards Newnes in the Wolgan Valley, just past the Woolawarang (sp?) power station. Drive all the way to the end of that road. Takes about 3 hours total from Sydney. There's a kiosk open there on Saturdays (or used to be - haven't been there for a few years now). Newnes is in a river valley surrounded by high cliffs, with a large camping area where the township used to be. It's really rather scenic. There are tracks along the river where you can explore through the ruins of the old shale-oil mining operation. You can get a map from the national parks people. For a good half-day walk, back down the road a ways you can walk across the river and up to the old railway line (no rails there now, just a track) and follow that back to the Glow-worm Tunnel, which does indeed have some glow worms (not a lot, but some). Take a torch, and you may need a map of the area to see where to start walking from, although the railway line track goes all the way to Newnes, but that would be a long walk (maybe 10km). Crossing the river is at a weir, but you will get your feet wet (only ankle deep), so perhaps take a small towel to dry your feet before putting your socks and shoes back on. Likewise at Newnes itself to look around the ruins. If you have a 4WD and are keen though, you can usually also drive across the river. Another longer walk in the area is the Pipeline Track which heads in the other direction. If you like camping, this is a great place for it, although it can get a little busy on long weekends. Take all food and water, and bring a small bush saw and/or axe if you want firewood. You usually have to drive back down the road for a while to look for dead firewood now, as it's gotten scarce close to the site.
Finally, the Blue Mountains are also good if you want to try more adventurous activites like canyoning or rockclimbing. Outdoors companies in Katoomba can help you with those.
Attached is a file I wrote back in the mid-90s about the Blue Mountains for another travel forum. I haven't updated it since then, so a lot of things may be out of date, especially prices, and the phone number format has all changed (although the numbers might still be the same if you change them to the newer 02 area code format). A lot of the info just came from phone books and brochures, but I have been to a number of the bush areas in particular. I tried to upload it as a PDF file, but it came out too big to attach here.
Edit: just noticed you have young children, so the walks might be out unless you can leave them with someone for the day(s). Walking around the ruins at Newnes, and around Kanangra (provided you keep them away from the cliff edges!), might still be okay though.
Cheers,
GP
