This three day bushwalk in the Wollemi is a mixed advcnture… half of it an easy trip down to the Colo River and Canoe Creek junction via a well-worn track, and the middle day a tough ascent of a lesser-known pass to explore the scrubby Savage Ridge in what’s been described as the “Bad Bit” of the Colo.
Day 1: Canoe Creek Track (Pass 13)
The Canoe Creek Track, also referred to as Pass 13 in the comprehensive “Colo River Passes and Routes” by Brian Corlis, is one of the easiest and most popular routes down to the Colo River (after Bob Turner’s Track and the T3 Trail). It starts by following the Grassy Hill Trail, an old logging track – although it’s hard to imagine vehicles once driving along the now rough and walking track.
The first two kilometres is almost flat (the total descent is about 40m), with the only challenges being a few fallen trees and some washed out sections of track.
The fun starts when the Canoe Creek Track branches off the Grassy Hill Trail, and soon starts to descend very steeply.
While there is nothing technically challenging about the Canoe Creek Pass, the route drops about 300m over 1.2km.
About half-way along the descent, the track reaches Canoe Creek and follows this steep gully down. There’s one tricky scramble, where several conveniently-located vines assist with the two-metre drop.
Just before the bottom, a vantage point offers the first view of the Colo River and the stunning “horseshoe bend”, where a wide sandy beach is dwarved by towering sandstone cliffs (which is the end of Savage Ridge).
Although it feels like you can almost touch the Colo from here, a couple more scrambles and slots are required to reach the river.
Both sides of the Colo River offer suitable camping spots; the opposite side of the shallow river with it’s sandy beach is about as good as it gets for idyllic campsites – but can get horribly busy on weekends.
We have places to be and things to do, so after a short break we continue downstream along the Colo River. Initially we follow the left (south) side of the Colo River, where there is rough, cairned trail. Athough the cairns are fairly infrequent, it’s a fairly obvious route. You could also walk in the river, but (for now) we hold high hopes of arriving at camp with dry shoes.
It’s mostly easy walking, with occasional piles of debris a reminder that the tranquil Colo River can become a raging torrent when in flood. Known for its quick, steep rises after heavy rain, the Colo can reach heights of over 15m in some places, and over 5m between Canoe Creek and Bob Turner’s Track. We’ve been keeping an eye on the river levels after a week of rain, and after peaking at about 1.3m it’s been steadily dropping to just over 1m.
A wide, sandy bank finally lures us down to the river, and eventually (after protracted negotiations)…
…wet feet prevail over returning to the scrub above the Colo.
Wet shoes aside, it’s more pleasant wading along the sandy river… except it’s guaranteed that at some point you’ll step in some quicksand and end up going from being knee-deep in the water to chest-deep. (I later learn that the Colo River suffers from “sand slugs” in its upper catchments – not sand-dwelling leeches, but “large deposits of sediment moving slowly downstream” as a result of land clearing.)
A long ledge followed by a boulder field is the last obstacle in iur 1.2km stretch of the Colo Rivcer between Canoe Creek and our camp site. It’s a bit slow going, but we’re doing much better than the party of seven bushwalkers who set out from Newnes to walk to Upper Colo in 1934:
They were four days late at Upper Colo, and had been without food for half that time. Eleven days was taken to cover 22 miles of the journey. One girl had her head split open by a falling rock, another suffered a poisoned hand, and the rest showed signs of wear and tear.
Wilderness of the Colo
Fortunately for Bernard, who is leading out motley crew of five, no injuries are suistained on our journey down the Colo.
We reach our campsite opposite Pass 17b by early afternoon, a wide, flat sandy ledge above the Colo River. The only people we see all day are three pack-rafters who chat briefly to us as they paddle past us down the river, on their way to Bob Turner’s Track. We’re an hour from Sydney (plus a few hours of walking), but it feels like we’re a world away.
In these days when every river creek and range in the southern Blue Mountains is overrun by bushwalkers the almost complete lack of attention to the Colo district is proof of its roughness.
Wilderness of the Colo
Day 2: Pass 17b and Savage Ridge
Yesterday was the preamble (no pun intended); today is the big day when we ascend the opposite side of the Colo. While most of the Colo up to our campsite is waist-deep, getting across the river to Pass 17b involves either a short swim – or a careful tip-toe across submerged boulders to avoid full immersion.
One of three passes to Savage Ridge – which starts above Canoe Creek – Pass 17b consists of a “very steep and loose gully, with lots of dangerous scree” (Brian Corlis). Major Clews, who surveyed the Colo in the 1920s and 1930s, described this section as “The Bad Bit Across the River.” Photos don’t really convey the steepness of this pass up into the Bad Bit – partly because by the halfway point my camera was safely packed away and I was using both hands to try and cling onto abny rocks I could find that was not loose.
We’re relieved to reach the top of Savage Ridge, one of the major peaks of this part of Wollemi National Park which was named by Major Clews when he installed a trig point here in in the 1930s. On the opposite side of the Colo River is Alidade Hill (most likely also named by Major Clews after a surveying and navigation instrument used to sight distant objects). It’s a rough and remote place – bushwalker David Noble analysed the Mt Savage logbook in 1995, and found that – at least based on the logbook entries – the peak was visited by only 14 parties or 34 individual bushwalkers over 22 years!
Although we’re not going all the way to Mount Savage, we follow Savage Ridge for a while, which variees from thick scrub (although not as bad as some reports suggest) to some very open sections.
With most of the day to explore this area, we visit some of the valleys and ridges adjoining Savage Ridge.
One amphitheatre-like overhang features a small waterfall that drops from a moss-covered slot in the roof; nearby are some unusual stalagmite and stalactite formations.
Other rock formations display impressive tafoni, and amidst some sections of thick scrub are some unusual coral fungus (Ramaria).
As we make our way back down Savage Ridge, there are some more views of the rugged Colo cliffs. Our descent of Pass 17b is a bit quicker than the climb up but equally tiring, with great care needed to avoid disloding loose rocks onto the people below.
Back up the Colo River
Our third and final day is a short one, as we reverse our route back up the river, initially staying above the river on the rough track.
Unlike our walk in, the sun is out and the walk along the Colo River is even more pleasant, as we alternate between the shallower sections of the river and the bank.
Soon the Colo River / Canoe Creek bend is in site; while there was no-one here when we passed through a couple of days ago, now it’s a hive of activity with a dozen tents scattered over the large sandy beach.
Re-filling our water bottles for the last time at the bottom of Canoe Creek, we start the steep climb up the valley along Canoe Creek, which by mid-morning is still well shaded.
There’s a last view over the Colo just before we reach the Grassy Hill Trail, for the last couple of kilometres back to the car.
It’s only a 2-3 hours from the carpark down to the stunning Colo River and Canoe Creek junction… another hour or two of walking either upstream or downstream (it’s about an hour to Pass 17b) and you’ll find more secluded camping spots. Allow about an hour up to the top of Pass 17b and 45min dowm – from Savage Ridge there are no trails or routes and you can expect some very scrubby sections, with lawyer vines in the gullies.
Getting to Canoe Creek Pass and Pass 17b
The start of the Grassy Hill Firetrail is on Putty Road about 16km (12min) north of the Ampol petrol centre; you can continue 8.2km along the firetrail by car which requires a high-clearance 4WD (allow 30min). The road condition will vary, but it is not well maintained and has a few steep, rocky and rutted sections.
More information
- Waterways Guide – River Levels [Colo River – Canoe Creek to Bob Turners)
- Water Quality of the Colo River
- Sydney Morning Herald – Wilderness of the Colo (17 Dec 1938)
- David Noble – An Analysis Of The Mt Savage Logbook
- Brian Corlis – Colo River Passes and Routes[PDF]
- Noel R Gough – “The Major”: Lt. Col. Hugh Powell Gough Clews [PDF]
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