With the weather cooling down and leaves in the surrounding towns change colour, Autumn is one of the best season to visit this amazing region. Located in between Ballandean and Tenterfield, hiking (shot or long) in the forest of rock giants with crisp country air is not to be missed. Of course, some wine and regional produce afterwards, would make it an even more perfect day!
This area has walking trails that would suit most people. If you don't fancy a walk, or finds it difficult, there is a large picnic area with great BBQ etc. facilities for you to have a nice and relaxed time. There are short walks and rock pools near the picnic area that you can enjoy.
If you are comfortable with heights, don't mind the uphill hike on a exposed rock surface and really like the challenge, the Pyramids hike is the one for you. This walk is about 3.6 km return, clearly signed.
The beginning of the walk is just a normal winding trail in the forest, accompanied by amazingly huge rock formations like in below photo. The forest clears and what reveals in front of you is a mountain that is formed by just one magnificent piece of rock (JUST ONE). It looks impossible to reach the top at first, but the rock surface actually has a quite a good grip, so once you get over the sensation of heights and with a good grippy shoe, the rest is totally achievable and the view at the top will be such a great reward!
If you would like to spend more time exploring the park, there are longer hiking options and several camping areas available. We hiked the Sphinx and Turtle Rock track, which was so beautiful! The track is about 7-8km in return and trail is overall not too difficult. You could reach Sphinx up close quite easily, however, to reach the top of Turtle Rock, can be a bit difficult as you would have to squeeze through a very narrow gap in between while climbing up to reach the top. The view at the top is brilliant though as you can see in the first picture in this post.
After exploring the National Park, you could stay at Tenterfield and spend the rest of the day enjoying the sunset while surrounded by brightly Autumn coloured trees in the park! What more can one ask for? It's a shame that I didn't actually take any photos of these, I was loving the sceneries too much. Oh well, you get the gist with this sunset photo taken elsewhere.
Have fun exploring!
