[SUBW-A] Trip Report - Red Rocks Walk - June Long Weekend

[David Noble]

Trip Report - Red Rocks Walk - June Long Weekend

Photos of this walk can be found at:

http://www.david-noble.net/bushwalking/JuneLWE05/RedRocksMenu.html

Party - Tom Brennan, John Murray, Stacey Ly, Allan, John McGrath (from 
ANU Mountaineering Club), Dave Noble

On the Friday night we met up at Newnes to camp for the night. Next 
morning, after breakfast we headed up Little Capertee Creek towards the 
Red Rocks. There was a reasonable track up the small sidecreek that 
provides a shortcut to the tops - and later we found the track went up 
a gully onto the main Wolgan/Capertee divide - so we followed it up - 
and then walked across open tops to our campsite - a small enclosed 
area nestled between pagodas that is known as "The Room". We arrived 
there before noon - and as it had started to rain we had a good look 
around for suitable camp caves - but decided that the Room was the best 
choice as it offered a small sheltered area under an overhang and was 
close to fantastic views.

After lunch we explored the pagodas to the north - going past several 
camp caves - one of which is vast is size until we arrived at an 
impressive overhang. Here the cameras we pulled out and lots of photos 
were taken.

Back at the Room - we camped for the night - and enjoyed some great 
wines.....

Next morning - we all got up early and wandered onto the tops for dawn 
photos. The weather had cleared up and it was the start of a fantastic 
day. The valleys were full of mist - it was a nice time for 
photography. We spent some time in the morning exploring some of the 
nearby pagodas again. Later we packed up and headed south towards Mt 
Dawson. This section of the walk was one of the best bits - we 
traversed the tops all the way - we had great views of the Capertee 
Valley - as well as the nearby ridges and pagodas. We enjoyed some nice 
scrambling over pagodas, climbing down tunnels and through miniature 
canyons. And as the day's walk was fairly short we had plenty of time 
to soak it all in.

Later in the afternoon we arrived at our next campsite - a short 
distance north of Mt Dawson.  This campsite is another classic - almost 
as good as the Room - with nearby pagodas offering fantastic viewing 
platforms. Stacey and Allan found a nice ledge in the sun to enjoy 
their wine and cheese pre dinner snacks. That evening the last of the 
wine and port was drunk.

On Monday we awoke early with the promise of another nice dawn. Some of 
us climbed onto a high pagoda nearby for photos. Then, after breakfast, 
we climbed Mt Dawson (for more photo opportunities) then walked along a 
scrubby ridge and then through a complex pagoda area before descending 
back to the Wolgan Valley via a nice dry canyon.

This was a really fantastic walk - with great views and great company.

Dave Noble

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David Noble
dnoble at ozemail.com.au
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~dnoble
http://www.david-noble.net