This cheeky camping adventure at the Baltzer Lookout doesn’t involve a lot of faffing around and gets you straight out into the crack of Mother Nature’s bosom, exploring the amazing formations at Hanging Rock.

Highlights

  • Camping right on the edge of a cliff (or not if you don’t fancy it)
  • Amazing views of Hanging Rock and the valley below
  • Hiking in classic Blue Mountains scenery

Baltzer Lookout

We set out to the Baltzer Lookout in the late afternoon in order to see the sunset and set up camp in the last light of the day.

Getting to Baltzer Lookout and Hanging Rock is really easy. Once you reach Blackheath continue through the main part of town and you will come to Ridgewell Rd which is a right hand turn off the main road. Follow this road up until you reach a gate and a little car park. From there you walk a fairly easy and flat fire trail all the way out to the lookout.

The walk out to the lookout took us about 1.5 hours, I’m guessing around 5-6km, and that was with our heavier packs, tent, sleeping gear etc. There is a small clearing and fire pit right on the lookout so you can camp literally right on the cliff edge. This spot is not very private so this is why we set out a little later on to avoid too many people walking through. Looking around though there are definitely more private areas you could find to set up camp.

Once nightfall came it looked as if we weren’t going to have much luck with the weather as the cloud cover was quite strong so we resorted to going to bed early and hoping for the best. Later that night the wind had picked up to the point where it was that loud it was hard to sleep and there was definitely a slight worry of blowing off the cliff in our tent.

After checking outside I realized the cloud cover had almost completely vanished because of this so I took the time to get some shots of the stars above our campsite.

 

Baltzer Lookout & Hanging Rock // Blackheath (NSW) Daniel Mulder, lookout, escarpment, horizon, sunrise, valley, trees

Hanging Rock

That morning we ended up having an amazing sunrise; the best one I have seen in quite a while. So after soaking that in over Baltzer Lookout we moved down to get some shots of the Hanging Rock area. Jumping the gap over to the point of Hanging Rock definitely gets the heart racing and although it was easy you really have to be careful because one slip could cause some serious problems!

After this we headed back to the campsite, had some breakfast and set off to the car. We were back in Blackheath by 10.30 am.

Essential Gear

  • Torches (head torch & normal)
  • Camera
  • Camping Gear
  • Warm clothes

Activities

  • Hiking
  • Sight-seeing
  • Camping
  • Photography

Distance Covered

11 km

How to Get There

Follow Ridgewell Rd in Blackheath to the end where you will find a gate and most likely other cars in a small car park. Set off along the fire trail until you reach the end. Approximately 5.5km one way.