Skip to content

Details

It's autumn, so let's take a day in the Blue Mountains to immerse in Mt Wilson's famous exotic cold climate gardens and stunning avenues of plane trees, elms, beeches, liquid ambers and japanese cherry trees bursting into their annual splendour of intense reds, oranges and golds, all amongst heritage stone buildings, bronze sculptures, fountains and ponds, and intimate laneways lined in mossy stone work.

We'll spend the morning wandering the private gardens around Mt Wilson village, teach you some landscape photography, have lunch at a magical spot, and maybe take a quick easy walk down to the beautiful rainforest waterfall or the epic valley lookouts. And then on the way back to Sydney we will stop off to wander the equally magical Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens. This is an elegant no-effort Sunday escape from the city, very easy walking, and an overdose of visual pleasures!

HERE is a nice quick video guide to Mt Wilson to whet your appetite.

And HERE is a nice taste of Mt Tomah Botanical Gardens.

This event is part of our Blue Mountains adventure weekend. These events are designed to flow easily from one to the next, so feel free to join us for some or all of them:

.

THE PLAN
The organisers will be staying at Cathedral Reserve camping area at Mt Wilson on Saturday night, so let's meet up there on Sunday morning at 9.30am.

If you stayed with us on Saturday night, feel free to join the organiser on an early morning drive around the village at 7am on Sunday to do some landscape photography while the mist lingers in the beautiful avenues - all you need is either your phone or a DSLR camera, and we can enjoy creating some beautiful evocative art. Then let’s head back to camp at 8am to have breakfast and pack up.

If you are driving straight from Sydney on Saturday morning, the formal start for the day of touring the gardens is at 9.30am. Meet us at Cathedral Reserve, on Mt Irving Rd at the far end of the Mount Wilson village area. You will find us set up on the lawn close to the edge of Mt Irving Rd - look for the organisers metal grey Hyundai SUV car with roof racks.

At 9.30am, we will head off as a group on a walking tour of the private gardens and avenues around Mt Wilson village. There will be lots of things to fill our day with:

  • We'll work out a best route to cover the publicly accessible gardens in the shortest distance - 6 to 7km total.
  • Most of the big gardens charge a very modest entry fee of $10 - $20, payable on card. Depending on our walking pace (relaxed) we will try to do at least three gardens, and maybe up to five - you can decide which ones you want to see or not.
  • While we tour the village as a group, you will have time as we visit each garden to do your own thing: explore at will around its spaces, take photos, and sit alone in peace in tranquil spots. Take a moment to look through this guide HERE so that you will have an idea of the place before the day.
  • There will be toilet stops along the way.
  • There are no shops in Mt Wilson, so bring a packed lunch, snacks and drinks to last you the day - we will retire to a beautiful quiet avenue with amazing trees and picnic tables for lunch. Or, the wonderful new Kashmir Gardens has a terrace cafe and a pizza bar and we can lunch there if the group prefers.
  • After lunch, if we have time and energy, there is a short 1km walk at the Waterfall Reserve, where we can do an easy 45 minute loop walk through the lush rainforest and see a beautiful impressive waterfall. Or we can stop at De Faurs lookout for dramatic views of the valley below.

Then it is part 2 of the day's exploration. At mid-afternoon we'll say goodbye to Mt Wilson, and drive 23km (25 minutes) along Bells Line of Road to Mt Tomah Botanic Gardens.

  • Entry is free.
  • The garden complex is substantial with sections for different climatic environments (rock garden, gondwana rainforest, etc).
  • We will walk a loop on the paths around most of it over about 1 hour, but feel free to explore for as little or as long as you please.
  • The gardens are open until 5pm, but you can head home from here to Sydney at any time that you wish.
  • The drive back to town along Bells Line of Road through Bilpin (famous for its apple produce and cider shops) and Kurrajong is very pretty.

.

IS THIS ACTIVITY OK FOR ME?
This event is fine for beginner walkers with basic fitness.

The walk around the Mt Wilson private gardens and public avenues is quite flat, and at worst you will go down and up some small sets of steps into different sections of the gardens.

The walk down to the rainforest waterfall is on a dirt track, but is gently sloping and quite short.

The total distance to walk around Mt Wilson over the day will be 6 to 7km - it will be relaxed, with many stops to enjoy things, and substantial lunch break and coffee breaks. Our cars will be nearby just a few minutes across the village, so you can take a break from the group or wind up your walking for the day at any point.

.

TRANSPORT

By car:
Mt Wilson is on the north side of the Blue Mountains, 125km (2.5 hours), accessed directly from Sydney via Richmond and Kurrajong to Bells Line of Road and Mt Wilson Rd.

Or from the other end of Bells Line of Road if you are coming from Mt Victoria (21km), if you did the Saturday morning and evening walks with us.

You can post in the Comments section on this page if you want to offer a car pool and share fuel and highway toll costs with others.

NO access by train:
You can get a train as far as Mt Victoria (see www.transportnsw.info ), but there is NO public transport from Mt Victoria to Mt Wilson.

You can post in the Comments section on this page if you want to seek a car pool with others, but do NOT rsvp to the event until you have ensured that you have a ride all the way to Mt Wilson and back to Sydney or to a public transport location.

.

GRATUITY
Please contribute $10 cash on the day to help cover the substantial costs of organising and running the group's events.

If you are also doing any of the other Saturday or Sunday events with us on this weekend, then just one $10 contribution per day is fine :-)

The gardens that we visit may charge $10-20 entry, which you pay direct to them. You don't have to follow the group exactly, it is up to you which gardens you want to enter and pay for. Whether you walk with the group or visit other gardens, we will come together again at about 1pm for lunch at a nice spot in the village, and then do the drive to see Mt Tomah Gardens in the afternoon.
.

BRING

  • your food, snacks, and drinks to last you all of Sunday
  • dress light for walking, but also bring a good warm jacket, pants, and beanie for your head (mountain weather is highly changeable during the day, and the temperature can be quite low in the early morning and late afternoon)
  • sturdy walking shoes
  • insect repellent if we walk in the forest
  • sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen - May is a cooler month, but the sunlight can be glary
  • the private gardens usually collect the entry fee by card, but have some cash handy

.

DISCLAIMER:
By your RSVP to this event you agree to the conditions of membership and participation which you can read in the WHAT WE'RE ABOUT section HERE.

Events in Mount Wilson, AU
Adventure
Canoeing
Camping
Wilderness Hiking
Bushwalking

Members are also interested in