Sams Creek Loop – a trail less travelled

It’s been a while since my last bushwalk in Berowra Valley National Park, and there are still a few areas I’m yet to explore: Sams Creek is one of them. While a short section of the Sams Creek Loop bushwalk overlaps with the Great North Walk, most of the trails we’re taking are less travelled. We’re starting the walk at the end of Ti Tree Crescent in Berowra, where a locked gate marks the start of the firetrail.

This is the start of the Berkeley Fire Trail, which continues all the way to Berkeley Close in Berowra Heights. It’s easy and fairly pleasant walking, even though I’m not a big fan of firetrails.

After 1.4km is the junction with Sams Creek Trail, said to be named after an Aboriginal person of that name who lived in a nearby cave. There’s no sign of the creek yet, but the track starts almost immediately to descend into a valley.

The trail doesn’t meet Sams Creek until the bottom of the valley, near the junction of Sams Creek and another unnamed creek.

This is also where we meet the Great North Walk, which continues to the north-east towards Berowra Creek, and then onto Crosslands. After a bit of navigational confusion (as all the signage is oriented to people doing the Great North Walk), we pick up the trail heading steeply up the hill.

We’re now on the Great North Walk, which heads steeply up the side of the valley. It’s the first time we’ve seen other bushwalkers, which is not surprising as we’re now on the popular section of the Great North Walk between Crosslands and Berowra Waters. This is the steepest part of the walk, with the track climbing steadily back up to met the Berkeley Fire Trail again.

It’s only 500m but feels much longer, before we hit the Berkeley Fire Trail. The Great North Walk follows the Berkeley Fire Trail to the left, towards Berowra Waters. We turn right, to close our loop walk. It’s easy walking again along the wide firetrail. We make a couple of side-trips (one involving some off-track scrambling) to visit two small Aboriginal engraving sites – the Joalah Firetrail engraving and Berkeley Trail Eel.

Once we pass the junction with the Crowley Trail (which is one of the official Great North Walk access tracks, connecting the GNW to Berowra station), we don’t see anyone for the rest of the bushwalk.

0.0km Start of Berkeley Fire Trail at Ti Tree Crescent
1.4km Turn left onto Sams Creek Trail
2.2km Junction with Great North Walk
2.7km Turn right onto Berkeley Fire Trail
3.6km Junction with Joalah Firetrail
4.2km Junction with Crowley Trail
5.7km Junction with Sams Creek Trail
7.1km Berkeley Fire Trail gate

More information on Sams Creek Loop

• Hawkesbury People & Places – Sams Creek