Glenbrook Beach offers a pretty spot to while away a day dipping in and out of the water. However, venture just a few hundred metres beyond the beach and you’ll come to one of the best wild swimming spots in the Blue Mountains.
It’s bigger than an olympic pool, yet hemmed in by cascades, boulders and rock walls, which give it a secluded feel. The deep green pool is simply stunning and it’s places like this that had us fall in love with the Aussie bush in the first place.
To top things off we didn’t see a soul at the pool, beach, or anywhere along the trail, despite visiting on a hot Sunday in summer.
Here’s everything you need to know about Glenbrook Beach and the Giant Pool.
The walk to Glenbrook Beach
The stats
Distance: 2.1km return
Elevation gain: 125m
Difficulty: Moderate
Summary: The walk to Glenbrook Beach is flat for around 1/3 of the way before it heads downhill, and then you’ll have a short, but steepish climb back up after your swim.
The majority of the track is in good condition and easy going, with just a couple of small rock scrambles as you get closer to the creek. The scrambles are on grippy (when dry) rock and not technical in any way, just a bit rougher than the rest of the track.
Reaching the additional pools beyond the beach involves a bit of rock hoping and overgrown track, but it’s not difficult.
Starting the trail: into the bush
From the parking area (details below) the trail heads past the gate and curves left. After 30m you’ll head left onto Station Street fire trail. The wide path is flat and leisurely.
You’ll come to a fork 170m after beginning the fire trail and you need to head straight on.
The flat track continues for another 200m at which point you reach another junction and need to keep left.
From this point (400m into the walk) the trail begins descending and reaches another fork 100m later, keep left and then follow the narrow path straight, heading into thicker bush.
The path will curve right and shortly after you’ll see a pink ribbon tied to a tree to reassure you that you’re on the right track.
Descending to the creek
From this point the descent gets a little rocky, but it’s still a well formed path for the next 110m. Then you'll reach the first rock gully. It’s easy to walk down and it’s not steep.
After 40m there’s a second gully, which again is easy.
The path continues and reaches a third gully 80m later. There are actually two gullies and both will get you down, but we thought the one on the right looked easiest and used this one.
It’s a touch steeper than the first two, but the rocks act as steps and it’s again easy enough to get down.
The track will then immediately curve left from the base of the gully and there’s a short section along a narrow path beside a rock wall.
It is exposed, but it’s really only a few steps long and not narrow enough to be vertigo inducing (for most people).
The views of the forest are gorgeous here and there’s a pretty little overhang at the end of the narrow section. After passing alongside the overhang there’s a good dirt track for the next 170m.
This will bring you to the final scramble down to the beach (1km from the parking area). This scramble is a little more challenging than the rock gullies, but still fine.
There’s a short drop which is made slightly more awkward due to the sloped rock wall in front of you, however, I just sat down on the rock and lowered myself down to make it easier. There’s no exposure at all.
On the way back up I found it easier to do the same again, but backwards, hoisting my bum onto the rock using the opposite wall as a foot placement - just watch for bumping your head as the rock wall is slanted.
At the bottom of this scramble, you’re just 50m from the creek.
Glenbrook Beach
The beach is pretty big and it’s a nice spot with a fairly large pool. There are small rock walls and lots of gorgeous gum trees surrounding the pool, as well as a cascade at one end.
Around half of the pool is shallow, so it’s a good spot for kids, or if you just feel like lazing around in the water. The far left of the pool was much deeper and you could have a proper swim.
The water was largely free of rocks, so it was a relaxing place to take a dip.
The fact that half the pool is so shallow means that you can see the sandy bottom, so it’s not as picturesque as deeper pools.
I would say it’s a pretty spot and great to have the beach, but it was my least favourite pool we visited that day.
To Giant Pool
If you don’t mind a little off track walking than I would highly recommend continuing on. If you head upstream, to the right of the beach (heading west) you’ll come to several more pools in quick succession, the first being 100m from the beach.
It’s a mix of rock hopping and walking along the rock walls and it is a little overgrown in parts. Still it’s not too challenging and oh so worth it.
Though the couple of pools you’ll pass before Giant Pool are lovely, it’s the big one that you don’t want to miss!
It’s roughly 250m from the beach (though our watch usually over measures on this kind of terrain, so it may be slightly less).
You can’t miss it because it is simply huge. Access to the pool is via a massive rock that juts out into the water. You can step straight off the rock onto a little rock shelf inside the water, but there is some debris here.
It’s easier to go to the left of the debris onto the large rock beneath, but do watch as this one is a bit slimy and slippery. The water is relatively shallow at this point, but then becomes very deep very quickly.
Swimming here is an absolute delight, the water is clean and clear and on the rare moment we got some sunshine, it shimmered with a beautiful green hue.
The rock walls feel taller here and the wild remote vibe is very special. Giant dragonflies skim the surface of the water and the sound of the cascades and birdlife is so soothing.
Around 2/3 of the pool was largely unobstructed, but you do get some large rocks and logs as you progress up towards the boulders at the far end. When I realised this, I stuck to the first half of the pool which is still more than enough space to swim proper lengths if you fancy it!
There’s not much in the way of places to sit around this area, aside from the large rocks, but if you’re here to swim, it’s sensational.
You could continue on to further pools upstream, but this is as far as we personally ventured.
The pools downstream of Glenbrook Beach
There are more stunning pools downstream of Glenbrook Beach, with the first small pool being the easiest to reach of any of the extra spots we’ve mentioned in this article.
It’s just 50m from the beach on a good track. It’s very small, but really picturesque, with crystal clear emerald water. We visited when it was extremely overcast and it still looked great, so I can only imagine it on a sunny day.
You could continue for another 100m (approximately) beyond this one and reach a much larger pool, which was also gorgeous. It’s a good path at first and then becomes a bit rougher and pretty narrow.
Some of the trail felt like it could slip and erode away, so be careful around this area.
This would make for another amazing swimming spot, but it’s one we ended up saving for another day after finding it hard to tear ourselves away from the giant pool.
You could also continue further along the creek and you would find many more pools and eventually arrive at Blue Pool, which is probably when you’ll start bumping into many more people!
When you’re ready to leave the area, assuming you don’t want to form an offtrack circuit, you simply retrace your steps back up the same path to the parking area.
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 the trailhead for Glenbrook Beach
To follow our route you need to park at the end of Cox Street in Glenbrook in the Lower Blue Mountains. It’s not in the national park, so there isn’t a charge to park here. It’s not a car park as such, but room for quite a few cars to pull fully off the road. Please park respectfully as this is a residential area.
Glenbrook is roughly 41km and a 40 minute drive from Katoomba and 60km and 50 minutes from Sydney CBD.
There are no facilities at the parking area or anywhere along the trail, please plan accordingly.
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