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Vale of Avoca lookout

Lower Grose Valley area in Blue Mountains National Park

Overview

Vale of Avoca lookout offers glorious views across the deep gorges and wilderness of the Lower Grose Valley, in World Heritage-listed Blue Mountains National Park, near Richmond.

Type
Lookouts
Where
Lower Grose Valley area in Blue Mountains National Park
Accessibility
Hard
Grade
Easy
Price
Free
What to
bring
Hat, sunscreen, drinking water, sturdy shoes
Please note
  • This lookout is unfenced, please take extreme care.
  • Stay back from cliff edges at all times and ensure children are supervised.
  • You can drive, mountain bike, trail run or walk to the carpark, then walk the 140m to the lookout.

Perched 250m above the wild Grose River, Vale of Avoca lookout is only 15mins drive from Richmond or Kurrajong but feels worlds away. Soak in the wild landscapes of the Lower Grose Valley on the 140m walk from the carpark to the lookout.

From the unfenced sandstone rock platforms admire the natural amphitheatre of forest-clad mountains plunging into deep, v-shaped gorges. The round hump of Mount Hay, near Katoomba, can be seen in the distance.

Bring a picnic, meditate, indulge your inner artist, or spot the local wildlife, wedge-tailed eagles are common here. You might glimpse the rare glossy black cockatoo, or even a koala.

The lookout is also home to many uncommon plants, including the native cranberry and critically endangered scrub turpentine. One of the world’s rarest species of heath, sparse heath, grows below the lookout and by the Grose River. Look for its cream, tubular bell-shaped flowers from April to June.

To make a day of it, enjoy a bushwalk to the Grose River, via nearby Waterboard fire trail. Allow 3 hours for the 5km return walk. In spring and summer, you can cool off in the pristine river, or try your luck fishing for Australian bass.

When you’re ready to leave, explore more of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area along Botanists Way.

For directions, safety and practical information, see visitor info

 

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Hand holding a phone with NSW National Parks app on screen. Photo: Branden Bodman/DPIE

 

Saving Our Species conservation program

Australia is home to more than 500,000 animal and plant species, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. Saving our Species is a statewide conservation program that addresses the growing number of Australian animals and Australian native plants facing extinction.

Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a tree. Photo: Courtesy of Taronga Zoo/OEH

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Blue Gum Forest, Blue Mountains National Park. Photo: Steve Alton