Katoomba Falls Reserve is Back - And Better Than Ever

In August, Blue Mountains City Council reopened Katoomba Falls Reserve after a long-overdue renovation, cementing its place as the official start (or finish) of the Grand Cliff Top Walk, the 19km trek along historic clifftop tracks linking Katoomba, Leura and Wentworth Falls.

This is a wonderful place to photograph with its epic lookouts, and lots of subjects to capture on a short walk. It is one of my favourite places to introduce tour guests and photographers to the Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

Beginning beside the Katoomba Falls Kiosk, the reserve walk is a short one, but it packs in some of the best views in the Blue Mountains. Along the way you’ll pass Reids Plateau, Katoomba Falls Lookout, Orphan Rock Lookout, Watchtower Lookout, the Duke and Duchess of York Lookout, Katoomba Cascades and Cliff View Lookout, each one framing the Jamison Valley from a slightly different angle.

The upgrade has brought fresh signage, new water fountains and repaired stairs throughout the reserve, a generational piece of work that makes this stretch of track easier and more comfortable to enjoy, without losing any of its wild character.

From the lookouts, the Jamison Valley opens up in full: the Three Sisters, Mount Solitary, Katoomba Falls and Orphan Rock all sit within view, and this is genuinely one of the best places in the Mountains to watch the Scenic Skyway glide across the valley below.

But it’s not just the big views worth slowing down for. The reserve’s pockets of temperate rainforest are thick with tree ferns and fern gullies, and the damp, mossy understorey is prime territory for fungi if you’re walking after rain. Listen for lyrebirds mimicking the forest around them, and if you pause by the Cascades, keep an eye on the clear pools, they’re home to the freshwater crayfish that live in these mountain creeks. Waterfalls punctuate the whole route, from the tumbling Katoomba Cascades to Katoomba Falls itself, dropping away into the valley.

Katoomba Falls Reserve sits within easy reach of Scenic World, the Furber Stairs and the clifftop walk on to Echo Point and beyond, making it a natural starting point for a full day exploring the Mountains. From here you can string together lookouts, waterfalls, forest walks and the rides at Scenic World into one satisfying loop.

📍 Free parking is available nearby at the oval — find it on Google Maps.

🚌 The reserve is also served by both the 686 bus route and the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus, making it an easy spot to reach without a car.

The reserve is also worth a visit after the sun goes down. As part of the Katoomba Night Lit Walk, sections of the track are lit up after dark, giving the forest and lookouts a completely different atmosphere to explore.

With views across to the Three Sisters, Katoomba Falls, Mount Solitary and Orphan Rock, this is a wonderful walk to bring a camera. Pockets of rainforest line the track with tree ferns and fungi, waterfalls tumble beside the path, and birdlife is a regular feature — sulphur-crested cockatoos, yellow-tailed black cockatoos and the superb lyrebird are all commonly seen. Blue Mountains crayfish nest in the creek banks and occasionally wander up to the walkway, possums sometimes drop down from the trees and dash across the path, and we’ve even spotted greater gliders and powerful owls here.

Pack a wide-angle lens for the landscape views, a mid-range zoom (24-70mm is ideal) for the walkways, waterfalls and framing the Scenic Skyway against the Three Sisters, and a telephoto (70-200mm or 100-400mm) for birdlife and those atmospheric compositions on misty valley days. It’s also a favourite spot for macro photography, with wildflowers and fungi lining the track for much of the year.

We run photography tours and workshops across the Blue Mountains, and this walk is one we return to often with our guests to capture its stunning World Heritage landscapes and waterfalls. Come and join us on one of our Grand Clifftop Photo Adventures, or a Magical Mountains Photography Tour.

This walk takes place on Gundungurra Country. We acknowledge the Gundungurra people as the Traditional Custodians of this land, and pays respect to Elders past and present. The reserve sits within the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area, listed for its outstanding eucalypt diversity and its rugged, ancient sandstone landscapes, values that this small pocket of forest and cliff-edge track still reflects today.

🏞️ Katoomba Falls Night-lit Walk — Blue Mountains City Council

🎢 Scenic World

🌏 Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute

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