Mugii Murum-ban / Capertee River
14–17 September 2023
After getting a taste of the Gardens of Stone National Park last December with my family I wanted to come back to the area and explore the mesas and pagodas.
My plan was to camp at The Diggings in Turon National Park and then walk up to Genowlan Trig Point in Mugii Murum-ban State Conservation Area and poke around a few other places like The Lost City, Temples of Doom, and Dargans Arch.
Unfortunately, my car kept overheating on the way up and despite stopping in Oberon to have a mechanic look at it (he replaced the radiator cap) I didn’t get to Capertee till after 6:00pm. I chickened out going down the steep hill into The Diggings and tried reversing up the hill (in the dark) then realised that was too dangerous so performed a 9-point turn on the narrow track using a tree as my safety net incase I started rolling off the side of the hill, and then drove to the other campsite in Turon, Woolshed Flat, but the track on the other side of the river crossing was in shocking condition so I had to reverse across the river … and gave up on camping the night and went to the Royal Hotel Capertee for a schnitzel, beer, and bed.
The next morning I drove down Glen Davis Road to my backup campsite, Coorongooba, in Wollemi National Park. What a beautiful campground!
I spent most of that day wandering down along Capertee River admiring the beautiful canyon walls and going off-track making my way around the large sandstone boulders.
Sunset at Coorongooba Camping Area is pretty spectacular on a clear day.
The next day I headed up to Genowlan Trig as the area re-opened after a week of pest control. I assumed everyone had to walk up from the bottom and was surprised you could drive up to the top … if you had a 4WD (which I did not) so I was the lone loser who walked up while everyone else drove.
Yep you can even drive all the way to the trig if you have the vehicle and skills, it does get pretty hairy.
For an area that is so accessible, there was no evidence of trash or graffiti which was nice, unlike Hassans Walls near Lithgow which I also visited, although some of the ironstone on the pagodas may have been broken by humans but it wasn’t obvious.
There’s also an old diamond mine which I didn’t get to, and a canyon which was too muddy for me to attempt, and I was out of water at that point and had to return to the the junction to retrieve my cached water. Next time!
When I got back home I was shocked to learn that the Valley of the Dinosaurs — which I had seen on a map — was much closer to where I walked than I had thought. I don’t know how to access it, it’s a bit of a secret, but I’m kicking myself it was right there within a couple of hundred metres.
I had met two guys who were trying to access “the valley” and showed me their GPS (they gave up) but it didn’t dawn on me they were trying to access this (not my photo):
Apart from my car troubles, the difficulties in Turon National Park, and some noisy neighbours on my last night I really enjoyed this trip and can’t wait to go back with my family in our other car (which can get up the mountain) and explore more of that area.
I stepped up my camp cooking game this time too, making bread in a spun steel camp oven and nachos in the Firebox pan on the pizza stone.
