A Dry Canyon

The Northern Blue Mountains, and in particular the western side, has a multitude of dry canyons which make good outings all times of  the year. Some of the dry canyons have pools of water and you may get your feet wet. Some, like the one we visited on this day are usually completely dry.

After a nice bushwalk (see the previous blog post), Rik, Wendy and myself headed to one of these dry canyons on the Sunday afternoon. It had started raining and the canyon was a good refuge from the rain.

It was a pleasant walk to the canyon and delightful to wander through it. Many of the dry canyons are not that spectacular – more like a straight joint controlled crack rather than a true canyon, but the one we were in had a good section of high quality canyon. There were two constricted sections separated by a nice ferny dell. The lower constriction was very dark in places and made photography quite challenging – particularly with the low winter sun.

The eeriness made the canyon very atmospheric. The canyon was quite serpentine – twisting left and right. With no swims or abseils, we reached the end of the canyon all too quick. We walked a little further to obtain good views of the nearby valley. Then we walked back and had lunch in an overhang – out of the rain. Afterwards, we retraced our path through the canyon and back to the car. A nice way to finish off the weekend.