Blue Mountains, not Blue Ridge, but a bit of John Denver

The Blue Mountains are a popular day trip from Sydney, but even in our two days there we felt like we only got a taste of what the area has to offer. It is a large region of little mountain towns, incredible mountain passes, breathtaking views, and natural wonders.

The most affordable accommodations happen to be in the Carrington Hotel in Katoomba, which was originally opened in 1882. It had some really nice old fashion charm, a great location, and a killer continental breakfast. Of course, we stayed in the budget, shared bathroom wing, not the fancy suites.

The Three Sisters are the poster child of the Blue Mountains. They are quite stunning set along a mountain ridge overlooking a huge forest covered valley. The table top mountains with shear cliffs give a Grand Canyon type feel.

We walked up to an overhang in the back of the three sisters. From there we continued our journey down the Giant Stairway, a series of steps along the side of the mountain that descend to the valley below.

The walk down to mountain and through the valley was surrounded by lush forests with ferns, moss covered rocks, streams, and some large trees.

Our hike back up from the valley was steep and wet, as we got caught in the rain with just one umbrella. For some reason the other one got left at home. Megan was drier, but equally as cold. We passed by a series of cascades alongside the path.

Thankfully the rain finally let up and we got another great view from the top. The picture shows plumes of steam that were rising from the forest below, which was a very cool site to see.

The next day, we had a beautiful drive on our way to the Jenolan Caves, which included some pretty steep, narrow roads. You actually drive up through this massive cave called the Grand Arch to get to the ticket office and parking lot.

The Jenolan Caves were first explored in the 1860s and has a large network of caves. They have several different tours that take you to different parts of the caves and we joined the most popular one that takes you to the largest caves. We crawled through a long system of caves with tons of interesting formations including the broken column and interesting bacon-like formations hanging overhead. Concerts are actually held in one cavern we visited that is several stories tall and has great acoustics. Famous performers include none other than John Denver.

This is another massive cave called The Devil’s Coach House. It is absolutely enormous and is lined with interesting limestone formations. There is also a hole in the roof that lets in beams of light that give it a special feel.

This is the view from Evan’s Lookout over some sheer cliff sides. It is kind of reminiscent of the Grand Canyon with its flat mountain top plateaus with sharp drop-offs into the valley below.

We hiked down the mountain to get this view of the huge Wenworth Falls. It was pretty windy so the water was being blown all over the place, including all over us in sections of the hike. The light was hitting the spray from the falls just right and we were treated to this huge rainbow within the falls.