Empire Pass and Lucy's Glen
Empire Pass and Lucy's Glen
If you’re looking for a scenic, less-crowded hike in the Blue Mountains, the Empire Pass trail at Lawson, is a must-do! Offering lush rainforest, cascading waterfalls, and a peaceful escape into nature. Whether you’re hiking solo or bringing the kids along, this track has plenty to offer and is easily customizable to suit you or your group.
Quick Details
Length: 5.2km (but could be shortened or lengthened by trail choice)
Elevation: 100m
Grade: Easy (with one moderate detour)
Best Season: Year-round (but best after some decent rainfall)
Suitable for kids: Yes
Starting the Trail
We started at San Jose Avenue in Lawson and headed down the hill toward the car park at the end of St Bernards Drive. We planned on hiking the trail as a circuit by turning onto a couple of connecting fire trails. There are quite a few tracks that cross over each other through North Lawson Park, and while most track junctions are signed, it's still a good idea to check a map before heading off.
Fairy Falls
Our first stop was Fairy Falls. While it may not be large, it’s quite a picturesque sight as water cascades over the dark orange rock shelf. With some careful stepping on the slippery stone you can walk under the falls to look out from behind the falling water.
Originally, it was named Cecilia Falls, with the lower section called Sebastian Falls. To see the lower section you'll need to continue along the path after crossing the creek and the track climbs up a short incline giving you a lookout over the lower section.
Perhaps the name was changed because it looks like something out of a fairy tale, complete with resident dragons (thankfully not the fire-breathing kind). During our visit, a Water Dragon snuck up on us to see what we were doing. He kept a close eye on us, but seemed more interested in foraging for food on the rocks by the creek.
If you continue past the falls, the track winds through the bush to rejoin Empire Pass, or link up to the Echo Bluff trail. From previous visits we can tell you that it’s a nice area to visit, especially after some rain when the colours of the forest really show. We didn’t go out there on this visit, instead retracing our steps to continue down to Dante’s Glen.
Dante’s Glen
From Fairy Falls it’s only about 300m of maintained track and stone steps down to Dante’s Glen. Some of the staircases are steep but nothing too difficult. We passed a small group as we headed down, they were the only other people we saw throughout the entire circuit.
(The photo above is taken looking down at Dante's Glen)
There are some sandstone blocks around the Glen waiting to be set as stepping stones for track upgrades. For now though, we took advantage of having somewhere to sit while taking in the sight of Dante’s Glen.
A sort of naturally formed alcove surrounds the falls. The pool of water at its base isn’t enough to go swimming in, even when there’s more water, but it does make for a pretty sight. The dark stone walls are dripping with moss and ferns and a low overhang on the left offers a nice view point to take it all in.
St Michaels Falls
Only 200m or so from Dante’s Glen, there’s another short detour to St Michaels Falls. It looks similar to Dante’s Glen, but is certainly worth the short detour and is probably our favourite waterfall on this circuit.
As there aren’t often a lot of people on the Empire Pass trail you’ll likely have the falls to yourself on your visit. The solitude makes for a nice atmosphere, with the only sounds being the water spilling onto the rocks at the base of the falls and the birds singing in the trees around you.
Heading back to the track we continued on the Empire Pass trail beside the creek. There are a few spots where you can walk down to the creek and take in the view of the forest and the small rock pools.
Around 450m from St Michaels Falls you’ll reach a junction in the track. If you were looking for a short kid friendly walk, you can turn to the right and head back up to either Fairy Falls (giving you about a 2km circuit) or head out to Echo Bluff for a slightly longer trail. We continued straight, to stay on Empire Pass, and the trail soon crossed the creek.
It’s a beautiful section of the track and often reminded us of the Grand Canyon Circuit at Blackheath, which is always busy—even on a weekday. Here we were on a Saturday afternoon with this beautiful track all to ourselves! There are some large rocks to sit on and it would make for a nice spot to sit and have lunch.
Lucy's Glen
Around 1.5km from St Michaels Falls, we veered off the maintained path to an old foot track that takes you down to the creek. It’s overgrown, but if you look closely you’ll see remnants of old stone steps from when this section was a part of the Empire Pass trail. This is the only part of this hike that we wouldn’t class as “easy”. A moderate level of fitness is required, so we wouldn’t recommend it for children.
As you reach the creek you’ll see a second creek flows in from the opposite bank, and this is where we rock hopped across the water. From here we were scrambling over moss covered boulders for a hundred metres or so. It’s easiest from the right bank (on your left as you're walking in).
The waterfall of Lucy’s Glen is as beautiful as the others on this trail. It twists down the rocks from above, so the only way to really see all of it is to stand right at the base. Unfortunately, there’s a large tree that’s fallen obscuring the best view of the falls. At the time of our visit there was a lot of debris at the base, and it will likely take a fair amount of water to wash it all away.
We were a bit disappointed at how it looked on this visit, but hopefully after a wet winter or two the debris will be washed away and she’ll be back to looking her best! We headed back to the trail, and found it much easier to climb down the rocks than what it was to climb up. If you’re new to rock scrambling it’s important to remember to take your time, use three, or four points of contact if you need, and look ahead for the easiest and most accessible route even if that means changing directions.
Frederica Falls
After getting back to the track we began the ascent to the top of the circuit. A small baby snake met us on the track and was quite curious about us walking past - Slithering back to its spot in the sun rather than hide away when it saw us. We hurried past, just in case it was also curious about what our ankles might taste like, and continued up the hill.
The rainforest slowly faded away and the track became more open in drier bushland as we reached Frederica Falls. The only waterfall on this hike that might offer a chance for a swim, albeit a shallow one. Much like Fairy Falls, you can experience going behind the falling water, only this time you'd have to wade through the water to do so. Although if the water level was much higher you probably couldn’t.
We didn’t go swimming, even though we definitely had the weather for it, the water didn’t look too inviting. When we were standing above the falls a few minutes later the water looked much clearer from above. So we probably could have jumped in for a quick dip.
After walking up to the top of Frederica Falls the track crosses the North Lawson Fire Trail. If you head to the right you can reach Echo Bluff and San Jose Avenue, it’s a wide and clear trail the whole way and is absolutely the way we should have gone. Instead though, we thought we’d continue straight on the trail towards Hughes Avenue. This part of the trail is mostly a foot track through the bush. It’s overgrown, we got covered in scratches, and one of us nearly fell over in fright after almost standing on a large Brown snake (pretty sure the snake was equally unhappy about us being on the trail). From Hughes Avenue we headed to the car along a short grassy track behind a residential street.
Getting There
Empire Pass is only a few minutes drive on the North side of the Great Western Highway, in Lawson. Around an hour and a half drive from Sydney or 20 minutes from Katoomba.
There are a few places you can park, the easiest being the car park at the end of St Bernards Avenue Lawson.
Tips and Tricks
Visit after a decent amount of rain to really see the falls at anything more than a trickle.
Dantes Glen and St Michaels falls are both good places to see Glow Worms in the summer.
For the best photos, go on a cloudy day.