Blue Mountains National Park

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Blue Mountains National Park
IUCN Category II (National Park)

Nearest town/city:	Katoomba
Coordinates:	33°58′04″S, 150°18′15″E
Area:	2,482 km²
Managing authorities:	New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service
Official site:	Blue Mountains National Park

A panorama overlooking Blue Mountains National Park

The Blue Mountains National Park is a national park in New South Wales (Australia), 81 km west of Sydney, located in the Blue Mountains region of the Great Dividing Range. The park covers over 2,482 km², but the boundary of the park is quite irregular as it is broken up by roads, urban areas and inholdings. Despite the name 'mountains', the park is actually an uplifted plateau, dissected by a number of larger rivers. The highest point in the park is Mount Werong (1215 m), while the low point is on the Nepean River (20 m) as it leaves the park. The mountains received their name due to the blue tinge that they have in summer, a result of oil haze from the plentiful eucalyptus trees.

walking tracks The genesis of the national park was a proposal by early conservationist Myles Dunphy for a Greater Blue Mountains National Park. This included large areas of what are today the Blue Mountains National Park, Wollemi National Park, Kanangra-Boyd National Park, Nattai National Park along with other smaller National Parks. However, it was not until 1959 that the Blue Mountains National Park was declared. In 2000 it gained greater protection when it was included as part of the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area.

1 Geography
2 Geology
3 Tourist information
4 Gallery
5 See Also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Geography

The Blue Mountains National Park lies on the eastern side of the Great Dividing Range. The plateau slopes gently down from west to east from a height of around 1100m near Mt Victoria to less than 200m around Glenbrook. There are four major rivers that have most of their catchment inside the park: the Wollangambe River in the north, the Grose River in the centre, and the Coxs and Wollondilly Rivers in the south. The latter two flow into Warragamba Dam, which is located just outside the park and is the major source of drinking water for Sydney. All of the major rivers flow from west to east. The Blue Mountains are part of the Great Dividing Range.

[edit] Geology

The view from Pulpit Rock

Structurally, the Blue Mountains are part of the greater Sydney Basin. The Sydney Basin consists of layers of sedimentary rocks laid down over the past 300 million years. The Blue Mountains were formed during this time by earth movements which uplifted the western part of the basin. More recently, volcanic flows covered large areas of the mountains in basalt. These have largely worn away, leaving only occasional outcrops on the high peaks.

[edit] Tourist information

The Blue Mountains National Park is one of the most popular parks in Australia. The majority of tourists to the Blue Mountains see the National Park from one of the many lookouts between Wentworth Falls and Blackheath, and many of these never actually set foot in the park.

Despite this, there are many activities for the visitor. Short walks to impressive lookouts above cliff and waterfalls abound. Overnight and longer walks allow access to some of the more remote areas of the park. Other popular activities include canyoning and mountain biking.

[edit] Gallery

Neates Glen outside Blackheath	Looking down towards Pulpit Rock, a rather frightening view.	The end of the Neates Glen walking track.	The Causeway near the Glenbrook entrance is a popular rest stop for hikers venturing further into the park.
Perrys Lookdown, Grose Valley	Rainforest along the Grand Canyon walk, Blue Mountains National Park.