Hanging Rock Blue Mountains — Baltzer Lookout and the Grose Valley
Hanging Rock Blue Mountains — Baltzer Lookout and the Grose Valley
Hanging Rock is a sandstone formation cantilevered above the Grose Valley in the Blue Mountains National Park, accessed via a fire trail from the car park near Blackheath. The walk from the car park to the lookout and back is around 10 kilometres and takes approximately two and a half hours at a steady pace.
The formation
The rock is exactly what the name suggests — a large block of sandstone that appears to hang off the side of a cliff, angled outward at 60 to 80 degrees from the cliff face. The protrusion is greatest at the top, where the rock tapers as it descends. A three-foot jump is required to reach it from the track.
Two books on the Blue Mountains identify a landslide in the late 1930s as the event that created the formation. The landslide was preceded by a long period of weathering and erosion of joints in the sandstone plateau and the underlying claystone. When the claystone can no longer support the weight of the sandstone above, collapse follows. What remains at Hanging Rock is a section of plateau that partially separated rather than falling completely.
Baltzer Lookout
The lookout sits adjacent to Hanging Rock and delivers the full scale of the Grose Valley — a steep, forested drop of at least 120 metres to the valley floor, with the cliff face and valley walls stretching in both directions. The combination of the lookout and the rock itself warrants at least 20 to 30 minutes.
At the far end of Hanging Rock a smaller section has broken away, leaving a gap between the two pieces. Some visitors cross it. The drop from either point to the valley below is significant and the rock is unfenced. It is a place for people comfortable with exposure and heights.
On a Blue Mountains private tour
Hanging Rock is one of the more dramatic stops in the Blue Mountains and one that does not appear on most standard tour itineraries. It features in the Hanging Rock day plan on the Blue Mountains private tour — the full escarpment experience for guests who want to go properly into the landscape.
*page 153 of The Blue Mountains, Exploring landscapes shaped by the underlying rocks, uplift and erosion, Peter Hatherly & Ian Brown; page 708 Blue Mountains Geographical Encyclopaedia, Brian Fox, Michael Keats OAM and John Fox, Released: February 2018, Updated: July 2023
Bald Hill is the area of low bush on the area located on the opposite cliff, with Mount Banks in the distance
Looking between Hanging rock on the left and the rock supporting Baltzer lookout on the right
if only my mother could see me now!
Up close - on the top of Hanging Rock is a rock that has broken away from the rock before it
Further down from Hanging Rock is yet another rock that visitors may be drawn to