Just outside Sydney, in Berowra Valley National Park, you’ll find a small, but perfectly formed natural arch. It’s not signposted, but it’s an easy spot to reach. This short 15 minute trail is perfect for when you want to get out into the bush without exerting too much energy, though you could lengthen the trail a little if desired.
Here’s how to find Berowra’s natural arch.
The walk to Natural Arch
The stats
Distance: 2km return (not including Refuge Rocks)
Elevation gain: 75m
Difficulty: Easy
In this guide we’re sharing the quickest, most direct route to the arch. You can make a longer loop walk and/or include a side trail to Refuge Rocks, which we’ll go into in more detail in the notes below.
Starting the trail
From the parking area (details below) the walk heads right at the end of the turning circle and up the grassy path beside the houses.
You’ll come to a gate across the fire trail after 25m and pass around the side of it. Roughly 40m later (65m into the trail) you’ll reach a junction and head left.
You’ll walk along a pleasant section of fire trail, with bush on either side of the track which offers some shade. You’ll reach another junction at the 230m mark and again turn left.
After a couple of hundred metres the path will head gently downhill and at the 480m mark you will come to another junction. Going left here would take you to Refuge Rocks. Going straight on would take you to Berowra arch, which is 500m away.
We did make this side trail, but to be honest - unless we never found ‘the’ rocks - it wasn’t anything to write home about!
The Refuge Rocks side trail
If you do want to make a detour, you’ll head left downhill on the fire trail until you reach a pylon 320m later. From here there are paths to the left and right.
The left route was around 200m long and took you to a rock platform before looping back through the bush. To complete the loop, walk across and then down the rocks and follow the little bush track around in a circuit to meet the fire trail again (up from the pylon).
There was a nice view overlooking a sea of trees from the rock platform, but it’s otherwise unremarkable.
We decided this couldn’t be Refuge Rocks and circled back again. This time we took the path leading right from the pylon, into the bush. The narrow path here looked more promising, but unless we missed it, it seemed to simply circle around the edge of a rocky outcrop.
We climbed the outcrop, but didn’t get any views and it didn’t loop directly back to the fire trail. To avoid going back on ourselves, we crossed the top of the rocky outcrop and went through the bush for a minute or so to reach the fire trail (it was a bush bash, but only for a few steps).
There’s nothing wrong with this little bit of track, but again it was unremarkable, so in essence, it’s not a must do. However, it’s always possible we never actually found the elusive Refuge Rocks, so please let us know in the comments if we missed something here : )
Finding Natural Arch
From “Refuge Rocks”, head back up the trail until you reach the firetrail you were originally on and turn left. You are now 500m from the arch. The trail continues downhill before soon flattening. You’ll then arrive at a large rock platform.
Head to the far end of the platform and bear right along a narrow trail that heads into the bush. At the earliest opportunity, take a left and you’ll arrive on another large rock platform. It’s at this point that finding the way can be tricky as there’s no obvious worn trail along the rock platform.
We recommend putting the co-ordinates for Berowra Arch into your GPS: -33.7090684, 151.0640427 to help guide you in the right direction. The route to the arch is generally straight, so you don’t need to worry too much about turns from here.
From the rock platform, head south-east (we followed a gap between the bushes).
This will take you off the platform and into the bush, where you should be able to pick up a beaten down path once again.
From here, the trail leads you to a series of much smaller rock platforms, which you have to walk up and over before you get to one with a large drop.
Arriving at Natural Arch
The trail will arrive at the top of the arch, but from this angle you won’t actually be able to tell it’s an arch. It just looks like there’s a gap between two rock walls.
Look for the rock chute to the left - a narrow path between the walls, with some logs perched across the top.
Walk through the chute and then bear right. The path is now worn and easy to follow as it curves around the base of the cliff. It will lead you directly to the arch, which is just 100m from the end of the trail (where you arrived above the arch).
Natural Arch
As you come around the cliffside, you’ll notice a little leaf litter strewn track heading up to what looks like a small overhang. This is actually the arch, but it’s not distinguishable as such from this angle.
Walk up the path and then turn around and you’ll see the arch. It’s very tight, so photography here is not easy unless you have a wide angle lens. We ended up using the 0.5 setting on my Iphone.
It’s a pretty spot and the fact you could be forgiven for walking right past it means that it has an almost hidden feel. You can also walk up a longer slit in the rock walls from this point - just watch out for webs!
When you’re ready to leave the arch you can either retrace your steps, or take the slightly longer loop track.
The circuit adds on 400m and from what we could tell from the map is along fire trail, though we personally used the direct route back.
Getting to the Refuge Rocks and Natural Arch trailhead
The trail to Natural Arch begins on Trevors Lane in Cherrybrook. It’s a quiet residential street, so please park respectfully. The trail is 32km and a 35 minute drive from Sydney CBD. You could also catch the train to Cherrybrook station and then take the 626 bus for 20 minutes to Purchase Road (which is a short walk from the trailhead).
There are no facilities at the trailhead or along the trail.
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