The Transit of Venus wins the award for the most evocative trail name in the Greater Sydney Area - as soon as we heard it, we knew we had to do it!
This lesser known trail in the Blue Mountains visits three picturesque waterfalls, which you’re unlikely to share with anyone else. It’s one of those peaceful walks where you can really connect with nature. Whilst none of the falls are on the scale of Wentworth or Katoomba, they are very pretty, and a lovely place to dip your toes in the cool water on a hot day.
The walk is generally quite easy, although there are a couple of short climbs and uneven terrain. You’ll want to visit after heavy rainfall for the falls to be at their best.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Transit of Venus Trail.
The Transit of Venus Trail
The stats
Distance: 3.8km
Elevation: 137m
Difficulty: Easy - moderate
Where to start the trail
Although there are a few different ways of walking this trail, we chose to start at the car park on Woodbury Street in Woodford.
The car park isn’t big by any means, but even on a sunny weekend, there were no other cars there, so you shouldn’t have a problem.
Through the bush to Mabel Falls
From the car park, you’ll head onto fire trail before coming to a gate 200m later. The path then becomes a narrow bush track and after a few minutes you’ll begin descending on well made staircases.
It’s not especially pretty at first but after 550m you reach the turn off for Mabel Falls and it gets much lovelier from there.
All of a sudden you’re surrounded by lots of ferns and tall trees providing welcome shade and the feeling of being nicely secluded in the forest.
The path flattens and after 150m you reach Mabel Falls. The waterfall cascades over a fern covered overhang and into a green pool at the base.
There is a bit of flood debris in front of the pool, but it’s not difficult to climb over if you want to have a paddle. Whilst it’s not a grand waterfall, Mabel Falls had a very lovely feel to it.
Onto Edith Falls
The path to Edith Falls is not signposted but it’s fairly easy to follow. Rather than returning to the junction, retrace your steps very briefly and then take the path on the left.
It’s a beautiful section of track with tall tree ferns and shafts of golden light shining through the forest.
You’ll soon see a path to your right, don’t take this. Carry on straight and cross over the creek.
After a couple of hundred metres you’ll come to a crossroads and from there Edith Falls is signposted.
Eventually you’ll see the top of the falls and then take the path down to the right to get to the base. This is the only part of the walk that is a bit slippery (after rain) and a bit rough.
Luckily it’s only 100m to the falls from here and there are plenty of trees to hold on to as you descend if it is slick. To reach a good view of the falls when you are down at the pool you can either walk through the water, or climb over a couple of boulders on the left.
You could climb right up the boulder as there are foot holds (shown in the picture above), but it was very slippery, so I preferred climbing up to the left of it, by the ferns.
You then get a wonderful view of Edith Falls - our favourite on this walk. The way the water flows over the terraced rocks at the bottom is gorgeous and the whole scene is very serene. It feels like a real hidden gem.
Onto Hazel Falls
After leaving Edith Falls you retrace your steps to the junction with the main track and continue on straight. It’s just 700m from the junction to Hazel Falls and you’ll be heading gradually uphill. The path continues to go through the bush and it’s both pretty and easy to follow.
You’ll arrive at the overhang behind Hazel Falls, which you can walk all the way behind and watch the curtain of water flow over the cave to the small pool below.
You can also walk down to the bottom of the falls. It looks really slippery, but it was actually fine, and it was lovely to sit on the rocks and just watch the waterfall for a while.
It’s quite a tall waterfall and the surrounding cave makes the area feel quite dark and mysterious, which turned out to be very fitting.
We had our suspicions that it might be hiding a secret glow worm colony so we returned at night to find out. Happily our efforts were rewarded with lots of little twinkling blue lights! It’s one of the smallest colonies we’ve found in the mountains so far but it’s always a very special sight!
We put a lot more detail into the post linked above, including where to start the trail if you do want to visit at night, (there is a more direct route to Hazel Falls than taking the Transit of Venus Track).
Completing the circuit
To complete the circuit you head along the path which goes uphill from Hazel Falls, it’s not signposted. The bush track will take you uphill for a couple of hundred metres before you reach a fire trail. Take a left and then continue on straight, ignoring all the turn offs until you come to a gate 150m later.
You’ll then begin heading downhill on a wide stony path. It’s only a few hundred metres more before you’ll come to a junction and you’re back at the signpost just before Edith Falls. From here you retrace your steps all the way back to the car park.
As you don’t have to go via Mabel Falls this time, it’s just 1km. Roughly the last 500m is uphill, but it’s not overly steep and there are some short flat sections in-between.
All in all, this is a quiet, peaceful trail with lots of lovely spots to sit and relax at along the way. The primary interest is the waterfalls though, so you do want to save this one for after some good rainfall.
Other waterfall walks nearby
We’ve been spending a lot of time in this part of the mountains lately, as we slowly make our way around all the waterfalls in the Blue Mountains.
There are four excellent waterfall walks, all very close to the Transit of Venus Track which we’d highly recommend checking out too. The South Lawson Waterfall Circuit has five stunning waterfalls, the North Lawson and Empire Pass Circuit has four, the Terrace Falls Circuit has three waterfalls plus lots of cascades and the Horseshoe Falls Circuit, has five falls, including one of our favourites in the mountains!
Getting to the Transit of Venus Walk
The Transit of Venus Track is located in Woodford, 1 hour 15 minutes from Sydney, and 20 minutes from Katoomba. The car park we used for the track is near the end of Woodbury Street.
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