Crayfish Creek Canyon – 14 February 2019

Bob and myself headed up the mountains for a day of canyoning. We had decided to revisit Crayfish Creek. I could remember many years ago visiting this creek on a trip with Bob. Bob could recall it too – he said it was in 1977, just after we had been on a trip to the Ovens Creek area for Easter. But neither of us could remember anything much about the creek and its canyon except that it was not that extensive, nor were there any abseils.

So we set off along the firetrail to Burramoko Head from the barrier. We walked out to leave the fire road at about 300 metres south of Burramoko Hill. We followed an open ridge down to the creek. It was easy walking with no cliffs.

Once at the creek, it looked like slow and scrubby walking upstream, and much better downstream. We followed a rough track downstream and soon arrived at the first constriction. This is where the creek winds around a S bend. It first enters the canyon with a deep joint controlled slot.

This was a very pleasant section. It was easy going – wading, with no compulsory swims. And it turned out to be the best canyon section of the day. The constriction here was probably about 200 m long.

The creek lived up to its name – there were plenty of crayfish.

Then more creek walking. Quite pleasant going still. Soon we reached a side tributary on the left. Ww ventured up it a short way as looking at air photos suggested it may have a canyon section. Not really.

Back at Crayfish Creek, we continued downstream. Soon, we were is in another constriction – a very short and low quality one.

This continued until the creek was close to a major eastern tributary. Just before reaching the tributary there as a major log jam. These were the first logs we had had to climber over on the trip. It seems all the logs from higher up have been washed down to here. Then there were some nice river flats and the tributary. We knew this side creek provided a pass a little way upstream, but we were reluctant to leave Crayfish Creek. We thought it very likely that there was a pass downstream that base jumpers would use to return to Hanging Rock.

So we continued down – not in the creek, but along ledges on the right. At one place we found a camp cave. Further along, near the Grose Cliffs, we spotted some bolts – indicating rock climbs.

We continued along, but a pass did not seem likely because the cliffs were getting bigger and more overhanging, so we back tracked. We climbed up to a higher ledge that seemed to have some scuffle marks made by people. Around an exposed corner was a short fixed rope. A few metres higher it was easy going above the cliffs. We scrambled up and from the top it was a short walk to Hanging Rock.

We had lunch in the shade at the Baltzer Lookout on Burramoko Head. Then we walked back along the fire road to Bob’s car. A very pleasant day out.

More photos are online here.