Magdala Falls and the Victory Track
Magdala Falls and the Victory Track
Sandstone walls curve around a pool of still, green water. Moss covers the rocks, ferns cling to the crevices and fallen leaves float across the surface. Further down the track you’ll find swimming holes of crystal clear water and the perfect place to laze away a sunny afternoon. This is Magdala Falls and the Victory Track.
Quick Details
Total Length: 6.6km
Elevation: around 200m
Grade: Moderate (But easy if you stick to the main walking trails)
Best season: After recent rain for the waterfalls, summer for creek swimming
Suitable for kids: Yes
Starting the Trail
“Wanna go hiking this weekend?” — “You read my mind!”
It’s been a while since Jess and I had been on a hike together and we were both itching to get out onto a trail. With the warm weather now fully here we wanted to pick somewhere that we could also go swimming and settled on the tracks around Magdala Falls. The pool at the falls may not be great, but we knew from previous trips the creek further down was incredible.
We’ve explored a few different trails around here, and figured we’d use this as a chance to hike a different track we hadn’t been on before — which honestly, was a bit of a mistake because it’s not a trail we’d recommend. It started with a fire trail — nice and easy to follow — just had to step over the red belly black snake sunning itself in the middle of the road first…
The trail wanders up and down hills. There isn’t much to say about it really… It’s just a fire trail through the bush. It looks pretty much the same as every other fire trail through the bush.
Eventually, the fire trail ends, the trick here is to just keep walking straight ahead over the rock slab. The trail that continues is just to the left of that. The smarter trick would be not to take this track at all — especially if you’re uncomfortable with off track hiking. There is a faint foot track there, but it disappears in a few places.
As the track heads further down the hill, the dry Aussie bushland starts to change. Grass trees crowd the sides of the track, and further down, the vegetation gradually gives way to the thicker greenery of the Blue Mountains temperate rainforest.
Even though it’s quite steep in places, and sometimes hard to spot, we actually really enjoyed hiking down this track. Although that could just be because we’ve both been stuck inside at our jobs all week.
It's funny how the further down into the rainforest we go, the hotter it seems to get. You'd think being out of the sun would make things cooler, but with the humidity and barely a breeze, it's quite the opposite. We take a moment to rest in the shade of a sandstone overhang. It takes us a minute to realise that we can hear the sounds of running water down the hill, which means we must almost be at our first stop of the day.
Magdala Falls
We stumble out onto the main track right in front of the lookout over Magdala Falls. You get a pretty good view over the falls and the pool at the bottom. Although we will say, like many Blue Mountains waterfalls, Magdala Falls is at its best after recent rain. Otherwise, it's usually little more than a trickle of water spilling over the rock ledge.
A little further down the track there’s a bit of an unmarked side trail — we’re guessing it’s not official. And it’s probably worth mentioning that you really can’t do this if the water in the creek is up, because you need to rock hop mossy boulders to reach the base of the falls.
We took our time over the boulders, partly because it would be just like us to slip on a rock and injure ourselves — partly because, honestly, this part is prettier than the waterfall most days. With such a dense leafy canopy above, when the sun comes out it does that amazing dappling effect that just makes everything look a little bit magical.
We’re not sure if the water in the pool at Magdala Falls is ever clear — if it is, we’ve never seen it. We’ve only ever seen it as this murky grey green colour. Jess had been hopeful that it would be clear this time — since it wasn’t, we decided to hold off on the plan to go swimming until we were further down the track at Glenbrook Creek.
Even though we’ve never seen it clear, it does look better when there’s more water coming through the falls. Further downstream is Martins Falls, which looks a lot like Magdala Falls. We also stopped there briefly on this hike, but didn’t bother with taking any photos.
Victory Track
By the time we got down to Glenbrook Creek the temperature felt like it was soaring thanks to the humidity of the forest. There’s a lot of great places along this creek for swimming, or even just to sit by the water for a while. We stopped at the first one we could find to cool off.
We ended up spending most of our time on this hike down by Glenbrook Creek. It actually made for a great way to spend the afternoon — just hiking between swimming holes and taking our time along the trail.
The largest swimming hole here is The Lagoon, where Sassafras Creek runs in. By the time we reached it though, we were all swum out, and there were people there already, so we didn’t stop. But it’s still a great place to go when the weather is hot.
From The Lagoon we started heading uphill — the track we’d chosen was a loop, so if we’d navigated ourselves correctly, we would end up coming out pretty much right at the car.
This track is definitely the better track to take down here than the one we came in on. It’s much easier to follow, and it’s prettier.
The rest of the way back to the car was fairly uneventful — aside from coming across a legless lizard, which for a moment we thought was a snake. The Reptile Bloke though told us that it’s called a scaly foot — which, honestly, seems a bit ironic given it’s a legless lizard….
Getting There
We started at the end of Yondell Avenue in Springwood. You could start from there, although we’d recommend taking the track on the right as you come into the car park, rather than the fire trail.
There are other options though for tracks to take from the main roads, so be sure to take a look at a map of the trails in the area before setting out.
Tips and Tricks
The best place for swimming down here is along Glenbrook Creek rather than by the waterfalls.
It does get hot and humid in the forest, so be sure to take breaks and drink plenty of water.