Flat Rock Waterhole has long been one of Kangaroo Valley’s most treasured swimming spots. It’s a gorgeous stretch of deep green river surrounded by stunning bushland and backed by the picturesque escarpment. It’s also incredibly easy to reach, in fact you can drive right up to it! However, if you’re looking to add a little adventure to your day you can also visit the secret gorge pool beyond.
You’ll need to rock hop, traverse some wild rainforest and cross the creek a couple of times to reach it. If that sounds like your kind of adventure then your reward is to swim in the spectacular emerald gorge pool fed by endless pretty cascades and a small but powerful waterfall.
Here’s how to find it.
The walk to Lone Palm Pool
The stats
Distance: 2km return
Elevation gain: 50m
Difficulty: Moderate, due to lack of maintained path
Trailhead: Flat Rock Waterhole, Kangaroo Valley
Summary: As soon as you leave Flat Rock Waterhole the walk is all off track. You’ll need to make your way upstream which involves rock hopping, a little bush bashing and a couple of shallow creek crossings - if there has been a lot of recent rainfall you shouldn’t attempt this walk, so the crossings should always be shallow.
You do need to keep to the creek and riverbank as the area surrounding the waterway is private property and it’s important to respect the landowners and stick to the national park and crown land.
Reaching the pool is possible without ever venturing onto private property when using the route described below. As this trail is in a remote area without any phone signal, we recommend taking a PLB for safety, as well as having an offline map to help navigate.
Starting with a swim at Flat Rock Waterhole
From the parking area (full details below) you’ll walk a few metres to the ford beside Flat Rock Waterhole.
It’s an absolutely gorgeous wild swimming spot and as we arrived to find nobody there we decided to start the walk with a dip.
Accessing the water is easy as there’s only a small amount of walking over the rock shelf in shallow water before it becomes deep enough to swim off.
The rock shelf does have a fine layer of mud on it, which can be a touch slippery, but it’s ok when navigated with care.
Once you’re past the rock shelf the water is deep and the water is lovely and clear. It’s relatively cool when compared to some of the pools around Sydney and the lower Southern Highlands, but it’s perfect on a warm day and there’s plenty of space for a proper swim.
It’s glorious, though the Lone Palm Gorge Pool does pip it for me!
The rock hopping begins
From Flat Rock carefully cross the river at the point that looks easiest to you. Unless it’s been incredibly dry it’s unlikely that you can make it across with dry boots, you’re likely to face at least a few steps of ankle deep water.
This crossing can be very slippery and care should be taken. There’s a drier route where there are many rocks to use as stepping stones a little further back from the main crossing (you can see it from Flat Rock) which you can use if the slippery rocks put you off.
Once you have crossed the creek you will have around 30m or so in the bush before you emerge to the open rocky riverbank.
You continue rock hopping, heading upstream, which is easy and the rocks are not slippery when dry. You almost immediately pass another lovely swimming spot on a narrow section of the river inbetween low rock walls.
After approximately 130m you’ll come to a point where you need to climb up a little bit of cliff wall to avoid heading into the creek, which is now above ankle height at the shallowest point.
There is a scramble you can make up a steeper bit of rock wall at the water’s edge, but there’s an easy gully to climb a few metres back that has less chance of slipping (I think this is easier than the photo makes it look!).
There are good foot placements here, as well as a big sturdy tree root (make sure you pick the sturdy one not the hanging vine!) that you can use to pull yourself up.
You’ll then traverse a short section of cliff wall above the water, which is narrow in places, but it’s only 20m before you reach a wide rock platform between two pools.
Heading through the rainforest
Cross the rock platform, taking care not to walk beside the tall cliff wall on the right which has signs of rockfall. You’ll then see the remains of an old road heading uphill through the forest.
This is a disused road you can utilise for 240m to make quicker progress along the river. However, do not walk this way without first familiarising yourself with the dreaded Gympie gympie giant stinging tree.
There are a number of them along both sides of the road and though none were especially close to where you would walk, you must take extreme care.
Gympie Gympie - give a wide berth….
Gympies aside the road makes quick work of the next couple of hundred metres and the giant Cabbage palms and epiphytes are stunning.
The first 150m are uphill before you reach a fork and head left, downhill towards the river.
Reaching the pool
Once you’re down at the water’s edge you will have been walking for 570m and are just over 300m from the Lone Palm Pool.
You need to cross the creek at the ford the road brings you straight out to, care should be taken, but the water was below ankle deep and not slippery on our visit - a far cry from the slippery Flat Rock crossing!
After crossing the river you want to make your way through the bush along the riverbank. It’s quite dense so it’s a bit of a bush bash, but happily we saw no Gympies which was a relief (though of course keep an eagle eye).
It does require climbing over a few fallen trees and branches and it’s slowish going, but we’ve done a lot worse on other off track hikes, so we couldn’t complain too much!
After a few hundred metres you’ll emerge from the bush to the sound of cascades and the pool is only a few metres away.
We measured it to be a distance of 980m from the parking area at Flat Rock, but it’s probably a bit less as the bush bashing and rock hopping tend to make our watch overcalculate a little.
The Lone Palm Pool
The Lone Palm Pool is spectacular. We couldn’t believe it when we emerged from the forest to see the long emerald pool which flows between beautiful sculpted rock walls.
A solitary palm tree presides above the pool amongst a sea of dense gum trees.
Multiple cascades and a small but powerful waterfall complete the scene. If there had been a bit more recent rain and more water in the cascades it would have been even more spectacular, but even with low flow it was a true beauty.
Accessing the water is relatively easy as there are tiered rocks leading all the way into the pool without having to cross the top of the waterfall.
As you enter the water there are one or two rocks to negotiate before it’s deep enough to swim off.
Once inside the deeper part of the pool I didn’t encounter any submerged rocks or debris, so it was an idyllic place to swim. I couldn't believe we’d never seen or heard of this pool before, yet it’s such a fabulous spot.
We did continue upstream along the rock platforms and then through the boulders for another 250m. We came to another pool here, but it looked relatively shallow (though it’s hard to judge without getting in).
At this point we turned around as to continue we’d have to cross the creek again, though one day we’ll back to explore more.
When you’re ready to leave, retrace your steps back the same way. You’ll probably find it’s much quicker as you know where you’re going and what the terrain is like.
Keep them wild
Please remember to take all rubbish with you and keep these places wild and pristine - as with anywhere in the outdoors. It’s important to leave them exactly as you found them so they will remain beautiful for generations to come.
Litter tends to breed litter, so if you do spot any and are able to pick it up and dispose of it outside the national park, it will go a long way to keeping the area clean.
Getting to Flat Rock Waterhole
Flat Rock Waterhole is located in Upper Kangaroo Valley, the closest parking area is at these coordinates: -34.652045, 150.603180
There are no facilities at the trailhead or anywhere else along the way, please plan accordingly.
The last 2.9km of the road to the waterhole is gravel, though it’s in good condition and suitable for any car at time of writing. Conditions may change after heavy rain events.
There are two fords to cross, but during normal flow these are very shallow. There is a very, very minor amount of rocky terrain beside the fords, but nothing that a normal car couldn’t manage when taken slowly.
The road is mostly single track with limited passing places, so you do have to be mindful of oncoming traffic and be prepared to reverse if necessary.
The parking area is around 20 minutes from the centre of Kangaroo Valley.
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