Date: 1/10/2026
Trip leader: Adam H
Party: Ilana B, Sultan A, Murray J
Macquarie Pass is a fun bit of “canyon” which is more like a nice creekwalk with a few fun jumps and slides. To its credit, there are some abseils that drop into slots but these slots are shortlived. Still, it makes for a good day out and serves as a great introduction to canyoning for first-time-canyoner Sultan.
I picked up 2 of the party at Macarthur station on my inhumanely long 2 hour drive from the mountains down south. Initially this was to be 4 but with a couple of last minute drop outs the car had seats. This was of no matter to Murray who had joined the trip with the intent of cycling in from Albion Park, and even with a seat in my car on offer, he was committed to cycling in. Train delays meant we were at the carpark 40 minutes later than intended, and when we arrived we found Murray somehow enjoying a nap on the locked gate.
Apparently a 3:30AM wake up and 25km cycle involving an aggressive dog encounter is all you need to be able to be able to turn a relatively thin steel gate into a comfortable bed. With the carpark busy, it is unknown how many walked past this incredible sight. Almost certainly a first time experience for the bushwalkers.
In we went, suiting up at the Clover Hill Rd causeway and only completing the section from there downstream. It is nice upstream, though not particularly worth it to reverse up in the low flow that we had.
Down the first couple of abseils we went, before finding a nice pair of Armani sunglasses. They joined us for the next jump.
A fair bit of creek walking follows, and on one of these stretches we saw an echidna just going about its business on the very edge of the creek bed. My first time seeing an echidna in a “canyon”, and Ilana and Sultan’s first time seeing an echidna in the wild at all. This was pretty cool and took a bit of the suck out of the somewhat mundane bit of creek.
A couple more abseils and we reached the next bit of slot that Ilana rigged as one dry pitch, as opposed to the rebelay option following the flow.
A ~3m jump with higher takeoff options immediately follows the slot, and there’s more creek walking from there to Jump Rock.
Towards the end of the canyon, we spotted a canyoning snake in our path. (Diamond Python?? not a snake id pro)
We enjoyed repeats of the slide and jump rock at Jump Rock before heading back up to the car (& bike!). We headed up north a bit early, and GPS confirmed we were just off the usual exit track. Rather than doing the boring thing and finding it, we figured we would just head up the creek/gully we were actually in back up to intersect with the Clover Hill Rd fire trail. This was quite a nice walk and probably a nicer option (albeit longer and also probably noticeably slower). It also eliminated the 200m of walking along the road back to the carpark.
A good day out in a good canyon.
