Down Lions Head Pass and up the steep Goat Track

This somewhat arduous Blue Mountains bushwalk down Lions Head Pass and up the Goat Track is best done with a car-shuffle, to avoid a dreary road-bash. If you want an easier walk with some superb views you can head out Lions Head, returning the same way, or you could do Goat Pass as a loop walk by combining it with Kedumba Valley Road.

The bushwalk starts with the unsignposted and indistinct track from Kings Tableland Road up to the Lions Ridge – and soon rewards with some great views.

There are almost-constant views as the Lions Head track follows the undulating ridge.

To the north is Kings Tableland and Kedumba Pass (our return route); looking across the Kedumba Valley to the west is Mount Solitary.

As the track snakes toward Lions Heads there are plenty of views down into the Kedumba Valley, and the large clearing which is the Kedumba River Crossing campground, where we’ll be having lunch in a few hours..

Lions Head is soon visible directly ahead; the track drops down into a saddle past the Lions Head Pass trail, and then back up to the end of the ridge. (The track is a bit more overgrown after the saddle and there are a couple of spots where it’s easy to lose it; most bushwalker seem to descend Lions Head Pass rather than continuing to Lions Head.)

There are more sweeping views from Lions Head over the Kedumba Valley and the Lake Burragorang catchment area.

Lions Head Pass

It’s a short-ish backtrack down to the saddle below Lions Head, where a stone cairn marks the start of the track down Lions Head Pass.

Originally an indigenous route through the Kedumba Walls cliff line, Lions Head Pass was later used by European pioneers to access the Kedumba Valley.

While the track descends almost 150m vertically over about 400m through the cliff-line, there’s no scrambling or exposure.

We have a brief stop to look at shelter with Aboriginal rock art, which has several figures in red ochre, one of them resembling a bird or emu.

A few rock cairns initially mark the Lions Pass route through a sea of ferns, but the track soon vanishes…

…and we push our our way through the light undergrowth in a generally south-easterly direction.

Eventually and a little surprisingly, after about 400m we find ourselves on an old road, which is still in great condition. The Kedumba Valley was farmed until 1992, but after a 30 year period I would have expected the road to be quite overgrown.

It’s very pleasant walking as the firetrail descends into the Kedumba Valley, with views through the trees of the surrounding cliffs.

Kedumba Valley

The firetrail emerges onto the Kedumba Valley Road; it’s a sudden and not entirely welcome transition from wilderness to “civilisation” as we follow the road towards the Kedumba River Crossing campground. The name Kedumba is thought to come from the Aboriginal word “gaduu”, which is the local fern (”ba” means place of, so Kedumba means “place of the fern”). The modern town of Katoomba probably came from the word Kedumba.

Next to the road is the grave of William James Maxwell, the son of an assigned convict, who with his wife Mary Ann (nee Thompson) established his family here in the latter half of the 19th century. He survived his wife by seven years, and was buried here in 1914.

The large campground and clearing has signage on the Aboriginal and European history of the Kedumba Valley. To the west is Mount Solitary, known to the Aboriginal people as korowal which means “strong one”, probably based on the fact that it’s the only mountain in the Jamison Valley. The signage here suggests the alternative Gundungarra indigenous name “‘muumu”, which stems from the word “mu” meaning large (although I can’t find any reference to mu or muumu in Gundungarra language dictionaries),

Looking back at the long Lions Head ridge to the east, the southern (right) end does sort of resemble a lion’s head, even to my cynical eye!

Despite being a three day long weekend, the vast size of the Kedumba River Crossing Campground means that the many tents are situated far from each other. It’s the first time today we’ve seen anyone, as we find a vacant picnic table for a quick lunch.

A little further along Kedumba Valley Road is the historic Kedumba Slab Hut, which has been significantly restored and repaired over the last decade by NPWS. The slab hut was built by William John Maxwell (son of William James Maxwell, whose grave we visited earlier) with his wife Olive in 1925. The hut was occupied by three generations of the Maxwell family who lived in the Kedumba Valley until 1992, until the Sydney Water Board acquired the property (it was then transferred to the Sydney Catchment Authority in 1999 and finally to the National Parks and Wildlife in 2002.

The hut has been restored to the point you can go inside; it was reported in 2017 that Kedumba Hut would be available for free overnight accommodation for bushwalking groups, but that never eventuated. From the hut we continue up Kedumba Valley Road, which was built in 1929 by the Blue Mountains Shire Council as a bridle path to the top of Kings Tableland. The original 1929 road was was re-routed three times as a result of landslides, to its current alignment.

The Goat Track

Kedumba Valley Road is the most common way of accessing the Kedumba River Crossing Campground – but it’s not the most interesting route. We soon veer up the Goat Track, which was used from at least the 1860s until 1929 as the quickest way up to Wentworth Falls. Originally an Aboriginal part, this route was first known as the Bushrangers’ Track and later as the Goat Track.

The Goat Track starts to ascend fairly steeply – and continues to get steeper. After the first near-vertical scramble up some rocks, a metal chain assists with the second small cliff-line. I’ve read that “packhorses could negotiate it with care” and that pigs raised in the Kedumba Valley were herded up the Goat Track – which seems an impressive achievement, as I struggle to haul myself up the chain!

As the Goat Track (rapidly!) gains elevation, there are views over the Kedumba Valley to the distant peaks of Mount Cloudmaker and Mount Colong in the Kanangra-Boyd National Park, and of the distinctive Lions Head.

The trail gradually gets less steep, and eventually seems to follow the alignment of an old road or bridle track.

About two-thirds of the up the Goat Track it crosses Kedumba Valley Road, offering an alternate (but much longer route); we continue with our more direct ascent out of the valley. After the initial scramble up from the road, the Goat Track climbs steadily but at a fairly sensible incline. The track is fairly indistinct, but there’s virtually no undergrowth so it’s easy walking up the ridge.

There are more views taking in the multiple cliff-lines on the eastern and southern sides of the Kedumba Valley, and we can see most of our route down from Lions Head to the Kedumba River.

In reverse to the lower section of the Goat Track, which started steeply before getting a little more gentle, the trail gets increasingly steep with several short, vertical scrambles. Just before the top is a final vantage point with one of the best views down and across the Kedumba Valley.

The Goat Track finishes on Kedumba Valley Road; from the road there is no signage or indication of any track, and most people would walk straight past what was the only route into the Kedumba Valley from Wentworth Falls for many decades.

The last two kilometres is an easy but not particularly exciting walk up Kedumba Valley Road to the locked gate where we’ve left a car; a short detour to the historic Cleary Memorial Lookout offers a last view over the valley.

Despite being a long weekend, we’ve only encountered people at the Kedumba River Crossing Campground – and a couple of bushwalkers who came down the Goat Track with overnight packs. It’s been a very enjoyable bushwalk combining some great view as well as European and indigenous history.

More information

• Bushwalking NSW – The History and Future of Kedumba Hut
• Blue Mountains Nature – The Maxwells of Kedumba
• David Noble – Lions Head – Kedumba Walk
• Ian Jack – ‘Of the hut I builded’: The Maxwells’ slab structures in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales [PDF]