If you’re looking for a short loop track with a lot of variety, the Giant Stairway and Dardanelles Pass Trail is a great choice. You’ll walk through rainforest gullies alive with cascades, past weeping rocks and small waterfalls, through forest teeming with lyrebirds and come out to some of the mountains best views at the end.
It does have a lot of stairs, including the iconic Giant Staircase, where you’ll climb almost 1000 steps which are hewn into the side of the cliff. It’s a great workout, without being too difficult, and the path is really well maintained.
Here’s exactly what to expect on one of our favourite walks in the Blue Mountains.
Giant Stairway and Dardanelles Pass Loop
The stats
Distance: 5.6km total (additional 2km with side trails)
Elevation: 415m
Difficulty: Moderate
This trail can be done as a straight forward loop (Dardanelles Pass -> Giant Stairway -> Prince Henry Cliff top Trail) or a bigger walk with side trails to a waterfall and Echo Point. At a pace, you can do the whole trail in about two hours, but it will take around three hours if you add on the side trails and time to enjoy the views.
Where to start the trail
You can start the trail at two different points. Either the trail off the junction between Merriwa Street and Cliff Drive, or at Echo Point.
Personally we always start at Cliff Drive because it’s much easier (and free) to park there, than by the incredibly popular Echo Point Lookout. It’s also always nice to get to the spectacular view towards the end of the walk, rather than seeing it first up.
Starting the trail at Cliff Drive
You’ll head straight into the bush on a well maintained path, it can get waterlogged after heavy rain though. After 30m you’ll come to a junction and head left towards Leura Cascades.
It’s a narrow path through the bush with some lovely tree ferns on either side before you reach a second junction. You want to head right, following the sign for the Federal Pass. Just 20m later you’ll come to a side trail on the left (which takes less than a minute) to the Jamison Lookout, which offers a gorgeous view over the Jamison Valley.
From here the track gets a lot steeper, all of it downhill, a debt you will have to repay near the end of the walk!
Into the rainforest
The vegetation quickly changes as everything becomes more wet and lush. You’ll pass a little overhang with a bench inside it, which we always shoot past, but would probably be a lovely place to stop and soak up the serenity.
The whole forest is usually dripping with water and the temperature drops by a few degrees. It’s a beautiful part of the walk, with endless cascades and plenty of ferns.
The staircases are steep and usually pretty wet too, but they aren’t slippery and there are always handrails if you need.
Remember to keep looking behind you because the steep staircases surrounded by rainforest look even better when you’re below and looking up.
They also make for some lovely photos. The whole area has that fairy glen feel.
After 900m you come to a junction and keep right to stay on the Federal Pass. You’ll head down a particularly pretty staircase which is lined with dozens and dozens of ferns on either side.
A few hundred metres later you reach Lila Falls, which even after prolonged heavy rain is more like a weeping rock.
It’s still very pretty and has an almost mesmerising effect when you stop and watch the water dripping down the dark rock.
Roughly 75m beyond Lila Falls you come to Linda Falls, which is a gorgeous single drop waterfall that cascades into a small pool.
An optional detour - an extra waterfall and lyrebirds!
Around 150m beyond Linda Falls you’ll come to a small cascade. From here you can continue on the main track or take a short detour to see another waterfall. To take the detour take the unmarked trail to the left of the cascades and follow it for a minute, past the national park sign stating it’s an unmaintained trail.
You’ll almost immediately see another waterfall in-between a lot of boulders, it’s by some old manhole covers which is probably why it’s not really advertised! It used to be part of an old sewage system which sounds unpleasant but it’s not anymore!
If you love lyrebirds continue the obvious track down the small hill and over the creek. Even walking just a few hundred metres along this pretty track should give you a sighting! We saw five within minutes, and they were going through their full repertoire of sounds!
We turned around after a few hundred metres because the track begins heading downhill and we knew we already had a big climb coming up! Our whole detour was 1km return but you can see the falls in less than 100m each way.
Into Leura Forest
Back on the main trail and you’ll soon enter Leura Forest. There’s a large picnic area, with the main undercover shelter having been here since the early 1900’s!
It made me smile to think that even back then, when life was generally tougher and more physical, people would still descend all those staircases to have a picnic in the forest!
It’s all a bit worse for wear now but nonetheless the forest is lovely and it’s a good place to take a break in the quiet surroundings.
You’ll see the sign post for Dardanelles Pass to the far right of the main shelter.
The next kilometre is almost entirely flat and a really relaxing part of the walk. We could hear lyrebirds in the distance and the narrow path through the forest was a nice break from descending staircases!
After a couple of hundred metres you’ll cross over a landslide area, but it’s not tricky or precarious in any way.
After 1km, you’ll arrive at the Giant Stairway on your right. If you wanted to extend the walk you could carry on along the Federal Pass and exit using the Furber Steps (or the Scenic World train instead) but the route up the Giant Staircase is a good one.
Up the Giant Stairway
Here comes the climb! The sign says 900 steps (total elevation from the bottom to the junction with the Prince Henry Cliff Track is 220m) but some people say it’s more.
Either way it’s a lot of steps! It’s basically relentless with no flat track in-between.
There are, however, many little pullouts often with benches where you can take a break and enjoy the views.
The stairs are a mixture of metal staircases and steps cut into the rock. Keep looking behind you as you get higher because the stairs with the mountain backdrop are a fantastic sight.
It’s roughly 700m of steep track (you gain 156m elevation in that time) before you reach the gorgeous Honeymoon Bridge.
It’s one of those sections that some people run up in 15 minutes or others take it slow and steady in twice that time. I always get out of breath almost immediately, but then find the whole thing strangely satisfying!
Honeymoon Bridge
After probably seeing virtually no one on the track to this point, when you reach Honeymoon Bridge you’ll meet up with everyone who has walked over from Echo Point and it can be a rude awakening.
There was a bit of a crowd when we arrived, but we waited them out and got to enjoy the bridge on our own too, which is always special.
The views are terrific, especially near golden hour, and it’s also fun to be able to see one of the Three Sisters up close too.
Beyond the bridge you have 150m and a few final staircases to climb before you reach the junction with the Prince Henry Cliff Track.
Optional side track to Echo Point along the Three Sisters Walk
From the junction, it’s only a 400m detour each way to Echo Point. The path is paved and flat and takes no time at all.
Since they have opened the new lookout, there are so many different viewing platforms, and even though we’ve seen the view so many times, you really can’t go past it!
The new lookouts are fab and as there are so many lookout platforms it really helps space people out.
My favourite is the Queen Elizabeth Lookout, just below the main Echo Point Lookout, as you feel even closer to the view from there.
We visited four viewing platforms before returning to the junction and the total detour was 1.2km.
Completing the loop
When you get back to the junction there are two paths to the left, make sure you follow the Prince Henry Cliff Track, not the one marked for Cliff Drive. They both take you back to the right place, but the Cliff Drive one follows the road.
The Prince Henry Cliff Track back to where you left the car is just over 2km. The majority of the route is flat, although there are the odd few stairs to climb.
There are various turnings off to the left along the way, but you don’t turn off until you reach the original junction with Leura Cascades that you came to at the very beginning of the walk.
There are several viewpoints along the way which are worth a look, although non compare to the views you’ve seen already. Otherwise it’s a quiet and peaceful bush track which often has a lot of birdlife, we regularly see lyrebirds along this stretch, although they tend to be much more shy than the ones we mentioned on the side trail earlier.
All in all, this is a fantastic walk, with a real mix of quiet and spectacular rainforest, along with some glorious views making it a great all rounder.
Getting to the Giant Stairway and Dardanelles Pass Loop
The Giant Stairway and Dardanelles Pass Loop is located in Katoomba, roughly 1.5 hours from Sydney. As mentioned earlier, you can start the circuit at two different entry points. At Echo Point and at the junction between Merriwa Street and Cliff Drive, we recommend the latter.
You can also walk to either point from Katoomba town centre, which we have done before, but it does add on a few extra kilometres and some more hills!
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