Bowens Creek offers some great canyoning opportunities. There are good section of canyon in both the north and south branches of the creek, and the canyon continues for a fair way downstream from the junction of these two branches. On this trip, we visited the canyon in the upper section of the south branch.
Many parties visit this canyon by abseiling down a small southern tributary, but that entrance misses at least half the canyon in the upper section. It is much better to start very high up. On this trip, there was Bob, Nipper and myself. We drove a short way out along the Mt Wilson Road and parked at where a power line access fire road turns off.
We left the fire road after only about 100m then followed a ridge to the south. It was scrubby, despite the recent bushfires, and we all got blackened by the remaining vegetation. We followed an easy ridge and ramp down into the upper section of the creek. The canyon began a short way downstream.
This is a lovely section of tight serpentine canyon. Swims can be avoided by bridging if necessary.
During the day, we had subdued lighting. It was overcast and misty in spots. Nice conditions for canyon photography.
Lower down the canyon starts to drop through boulders.
A little further downstream, the canyon section ends and the creek winds through a pocket of rainforest. Then there is waterfall that can be abseiled, but is easy to scramble down through gaps in the boulders. This takes you into a nice section of constriction that continues to past the Range Creek junction.
Just below this point, there are couple of down climbs. In the past, there was a log that was often used to slide down, but floods have repositioned that log downstream, and a right hand ledge can be followed that leads to a short scramble down. Then there is another scramble down near a jammed log.
At one point, we saw an Eastern Masters Snake ( = Mustard-bellied Snake). These snakes only grow to about 40 cm long.
In the photo below – you can see the snake on the foreground rock.
Below the Range Creek (Hobnail Canyon) junction, there is a really lovely section of canyon.
We continued a short way, then found a convenient pass out on the left near a small side gully. This took us to the powerlines fire road. A short way along we stopped for lunch, then had an easy walk back to the car.
This was a very pleasant day out.