This was a pleasant outing with a large group of friends on quite a hot day. In the party were Su Li, Brent, Martin, Steffy, James, David W, Col, Sam, Stacey, Murray and myself.
We parked on the Bell Road at the Mount Wilson turnoff after leaving a car at the lower carpark at Pierces Pass, and then set off along the track to the canyon.
We soo entered the creek and were pleased to be able to cool off. We scrambled down a few short drops and around some pools.
We soon arrived at the first abseil. This is a short drop into a deep pool and is followed by an awkward shorter drop.
This is followed by a nice section of canyon and a second short swim.
Then there is another abseil where the creek drops between boulders.
Next is the final waterfall – a large drop where the creek drops into the Grose Valley. We had two 60 m ropes so could do this as one long drop. With shorter ropes it is possible to abseil part way down (about 40 m ) onto a large boulder and then abseil off that to the ground level.
This last drop took a while with our large party, so some of us had lunch at the bottom and some had lunch at the top. This worked out well.
After this we walked under the cliffs, past some rock climbs to join the Pierces Pass track. From there it was a short walk back to the car.
This was a nice day out with friends. Thanks to Su Li for doing the organising. More photos are online here on my website.
HI Dave.
Having visited there, I’m surprised how clear the water is: crystal transparent to the bottom of every pool. A feature non-existent in other canyons in the region (e.g. Claustral) where the bottom is murky & e.g. you cannot jump confidently when needed.
Yileen means “Dream” in local aboriginal language. Why do you think the canyon received such name? Do you have any records of aboriginals visiting this canyon? I can imagine it be possible without ropes all the way to the second last abseil (which is pretty much the whole canyon with just couple dozen m of boulder scrambling round the corner to the terminus drop), so people from bushwalking clubs in 1960s might not be the first to see this wonder of nature. I guess the same may apply to other canyons. Are there any records confirming aboriginal exporations? I think they must have been there in search of water on some days or out of human curiosity.