Location: Fortress Canyon – Blue Mountains
Date: 9th March 2024
Great day to go canyoning. Easy walk to the creek, 2 jumps, one of which is around 2m high and a 6m abseil at the end. It was Giulia’s first canyon at Fortress and Murali’s first time canyoning!
Met at the carpark at 9am and started the trip by 9:30am. 600m in there was a fork in the fire trail and we took the track to the right. At the 2km mark (from the car park), there is a faint turn off to the right, which we initially missed. We also missed a second turn off to get down directly to the creek. Instead we stuck to the main path which took us in a loop and we had to do a short scramble to get to the creek. It took around 1hr to get to the creek. I think it would have taken us 45mins if we didn’t miss those two turn off.
Once in our wetsuits, we followed the canyon and got to the first jump around 15mins into the canyon. There were sections where we had to swim and Murali has a shoe malfunction, where the sole of his hiking boot came off. Lesson learned to not wear hiking shoes while canyoning.
The second jump was around 1hr 40mins into the canyon and it was a fun 2m jump, followed by more swimming. 2hrs 20mins into the canyon and we reached the abseil point. Its 6m high and I think some people do it as a jump. However the area to the left is very shallow and you can stand on it. We weren’t sure how deep the other areas were and abseiled down instead. It only took 20mins to gear up, setup the rope, abseil down and repack the rope, so not much of the detour. From there it was another swim section before we got to Fortress falls. It was around 1:35pm when we got there and had spent 3hrs in the canyon. I read that the area can be crowded as it has been made popular on Instagram. However we were fortunate to have the whole place to ourselves. (It’s a very steep descend down to the falls if hiking in, so I’m surprised that it would be popular). We took a break to enjoy the view, have lunch and get out of our wetsuits.
The walk back took 2hrs with the first 36mins being a steep ascent to get to the top.
In total, the trip took 7hrs with the following breakdown:
- 4hrs from car park to falls (1hr to get to the creek)
- 1hr at the falls
- 2hrs to walk out (first 36mins is a steep ascend)
Google Map of Route
Includes markers for turn off, jumps and abseil
Map, Altitude, Temperature
The graphs above show the altitude and temperature change. It was a hot day with the temperate starting at 25 degrees Celsius at the car park and reaching to 29 degrees before cooling down considerably when we got into the canyon. There were also swim sections where the temperature dropped further. It then increases as we climbed out of the canyon and walked back to the car park. With the Altitude graph, the abseil was done between 3:36 and 4:03 which is reflected in the sudden altitude decrease.
We also did this canyon before and you can find the post for it at Fortress Canyon