Just one hour from Sydney in the Lower Blue Mountains lies a cave with the best preserved Aboriginal rock art we’ve seen close to the city. That alone would be worth a visit, but it is also combined with a beautiful (and incredibly quiet) walk through the forest to get there and the chance for a dip in one of the best wild swimming spots near Sydney.
We’ll tell you all about what to expect from the trail to Red Hands Cave as well as details on the gorgeous water hole.
Red Hands Cave Walking Track
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 7.7km return
Elevation: 265m
Type of Trail: One way
Starting Point: Jellybean Pool car park
Where to start the trail
The best place to start the trail is at the car park at the very bottom marked for Jellybean Pool (you will pass some others along the way, but they will involve more walking!). Unlike the majority of the Blue Mountains, you have to pay for parking and the car park is within an area where the gate will be locked at either of 6 or 7pm depending on time of year.
If you want to park for free or think you might cut the gate closure time a bit fine, you can park just outside the gate on a turnoff just after the bridge. It does mean you have to include an additional 600 metre walk (all of which is uphill on the return), but it will allow you to finish at any time and not have to pay to park.
If you have no issue with time or the fee then we’d recommend using the Jellybean Pool car park right at the bottom. After finishing the hike from the cave that last hill to the top just feels like a bit of a chore : )
Heading to Jellybean Pool
Regardless of where you start the walk it will head down to Jellybean Pool on the same track, it’s just one car park is higher than the other.
The well graded trail to the pool is downhill all the way on a mixture of stairs, smooth rock and dirt path. It’s nice and easy and you’ll be down in no time.
The pool is named for it’s shape but it’s also an interesting colour - sort of like tea in certain lights! It’s a truly gorgeous spot, surrounded by sandstone cliffs on both sides and backed by hundreds of trees.
The water is still as a millpond so it’s perfect for swimming or bring a lilo and go for a float (it gets very deep though in case you’re here with kids)! It’s one of the best swimming holes in the Blue Mountains, but the one downside is that everybody knows about it and it gets super crowded.
If you can visit on a weekday that will be better or go for early morning on a weekend. When you get this spot almost to yourself it’s really hard to beat.
Unless you’ve come early and you want to make the most of it, we’d recommend going for a swim after the walk to cool off, as you pass back the same way at the end of the trail.
We’ve got lots more details on Jellybean Pool and two other great wild swimming spots nearby in this post.
Onto the Red Hands Cave Track
There are no sign posts whatsoever from Jellybean Pool to the Red Hands Cave Track, and it really doesn’t look like a hiking trail, but if you follow the water with the pool on your left you can’t go wrong.
The recent storms and flooding have demolished anything that looked like a path, but look out for foot prints in the sand and clearings and you’ll begin to see the way.
It’s a bit of a scramble skirting around the water, sometimes the track becomes incredibly narrow and there are a lot of fallen trees and debris across the path which make it more difficult to navigate, but happily you can still get through.
Some of the scramble to the end of Jellybean Pool
The trees you have to hop over
Watch out for the big rocks with a fine layer of sand over them which can be slippery. There are no big drops but with the amount of debris you wouldn’t want to slip into a branch or something.
Once you’ve come to the end of the pool you cross over the water and you will immediately pick up a sign for the cave - currently due to track damage there is a make shift bridge made of lots of logs that someone has kindly put together to get you over the crossing without getting your boots wet.
The improvised crossing
Through the forest
You’ll climb up a small hill to enter the forest and then you have a long period of predominantly flat and easy walking ahead. Considering how busy Jellybean can get, it always amazes me when this track is so incredibly quiet. We’ve never seen more than two people on the trail, even on a weekend.
For the most part there are hardly any rocks or tree roots along the path, but there are a couple of sections where you will have to scramble over rocks or walk across a ledge to get round fallen trees.
Slight track damage aside, you can really relax and enjoy the tranquility of the forest. It’s completely quiet but for the chirping of the insects and birds.
When you really stop to look around, you notice just how many different plants and trees there are, my favourite being the part where you look down into the gully and suddenly see hundreds and hundreds of ferns.
There are a couple of small wooden bridges to cross and one which has been washed away but it’s still easy to pass provided there hasn’t been any recent flooding.
After a couple of kilometres of nice and flat trail you’ll begin the climb up to the cave. It’s not particularly steep but you are going uphill fairly consistently and the path becomes more uneven with tree roots and rocks.
You’ll know you are almost at the cave when you reach the well formed staircase which is just a few minutes from the cave.
Arriving at Red Hands Cave
Red Hands Cave is easily the most impressive rock art site we’ve seen close to Sydney and the prints are thought to be around 1,600 years old.
The ceremonial cave was used for the initiation of young warriors and the inside is covered in red, white and orange hand prints from both adults and children.
There are two different types - stencilled outlines and coloured hand prints. Both are made from ochre, a material that is important to Aboriginal people across Australia, so you can tell that these paintings were significant.
As it’s quite dark it can almost look spooky but nevertheless it’s a fascinating sight. The walk through the forest to get here makes it feel even more special as you’ve had to work a little to get there.
The cave is now well protected with metal grilling but there are two bigger holes that allow you to take photos without obstruction.
We’ve never shared this spot with anyone else and it’s a good place to sit in quiet contemplation.
The return walk
Despite the fact we’ve done this walk several times now, we didn’t realise until afterwards you can actually make part of it a loop.
We walked back the way we came, but next time to mix it up a bit, and what we’d recommend you to do, is to take the staircase on your right from the cave and follow the path until you come to the Link Track.
The Link Track will join you back up with the main trail but will have taken you past another Aboriginal site where you can see axe grinding grooves. From what we gather it doesn’t add on any distance and you get to see a little bit more.
On the main track the walk back is easy because it’s largely downhill or flat until you hit Jellybean Pool when you will need to climb back up to the car park.
Finishing up the walk just after sunset
The verdict
It’s pretty amazing you can see such well preserved rock art this close to Sydney. We’d highly recommend it and it is much more impressive (due to the amount of hand prints you can see) than the Red Hands Cave in Ku-ring-gai National Park where most have sadly worn away.
It’s also a wonderful part of the mountains to check out if you’ve only ever been to the more popular areas such as Katoomba and Blackheath. Glenbrook is much quieter and also lies almost an hour closer to Sydney which makes it great for a day trip. The Red Hands Cave Track is definitely one of our favourite bush walks close to Sydney.
Essential information about the Red Hands Cave walking track
Alternative route for Red Hands Cave
Although we recommend arriving at the cave via the walking track mentioned above, if you have limited time or don’t want to walk for so long you can access the cave via a 1km return track. The access road to get here - the Oaks Trail - is unsealed. You will pass into the parks fee zone.
Public transport to the Red Hands Cave walking track
The first couple of times we did this walk we got there by public transport.
You can do this by taking the train from Central Station in the city to Glenbrook, which takes around 1 hour 10 and is direct.
You then walk for approximately 1.5km to the trailhead, so add on an additional 3km total to the trail stats at the start of this post. Be warned though - the walk from the train station is steep. It may seem ok going downhill at the start, but it’s a hefty hike back up once you’ve done the walk!
Car parking fee if you go through the gates
As we mentioned above you can walk a bit further and park for free but the most convenient way to access Jellybean Pool and the Red Hands Cave walking track is from the Jellybean car park.
The fee here is $8 per vehicle or free with a parks pass.
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