If there’s ever a spot I wanted to visit based on the name alone, it’s Water Nymphs Dell. It sounds like something from a fairytale and happily it lives up to its name. By day it’s a highly secluded waterfall set in a huge overhang in a rainforest gully. It’s hard to put my finger on why it feels so special in an area full of beautiful waterfalls, but it just has that feeling.
But that’s only half the story. By night you enter the mystical world of the glow worms. And there are thousands of them! Hard to believe this is all just a couple of minutes from the centre of Wentworth Falls, one of the most visited places in all the Blue Mountains.
Here’s everything you need to know about this very special spot.
Water Nymphs Dell by day
The trail stats
Distance: 1.6km return
Elevation: 120m
Difficulty: Moderate
You won’t find any signposts for Water Nymphs Dell (there are orange circles in random places, but nothing specifically stating “Water Nymphs Dell) which makes it feel like you’ve been let into a secret right from the off.
You descend the innocuous looking staircase on the narrow bush track before you briefly pop out of the bush and onto a fire trail. The walking track then continues on the other side of the fire trail, and it’s impossible to miss.
You continue descending, but more steeply now and as the vegetation begins to go from dry to lush, the state of the path deteriorates.
Gone are the manicured staircases and instead there is a dirt path, with rocks and the odd log to climb over. In patches it is quite slippery, the first time we went down during the day I just used the trees to hold in a couple of places where I thought I might take a tumble.
For our night time adventure I came armed with poles!
In-between the rougher patches, there are also stairs, which are uneven but not hard to descend. I’d say the wetter, less manicured path is around half the trail, so roughly 400m.
I am not a fan of slippery tracks and have a tendency to fall over, and I could manage this one ok so don’t be put off.
The halfway mark
At around the halfway mark you pass a small waterfall, (more of a trickle) and the scenery gets more rainforest-y from here, with lots of ferns.
It isn’t long before you descend another staircase and are walking beside a large overhang.
There’s even a picnic bench here, which I found rather wonderful in such a secluded spot. You can see the main waterfall from there and it was so much bigger than I was expecting!
As with all waterfalls in the Blue Mountains, you do want to visit after some decent rain, or at least not during a dry spell.
Part way along the overhang you’ll see a muddy looking path off to the left, you can take this trail to get to the pool at the base of the falls - it’s paddle depth only, but lovely! There is a second route down which I think looked a bit easier though, from behind the falls.
Continuing around the overhang you’ll curve round and walk on a narrow path with a bit of foliage that is trying to reclaim the track. I would grab a stick and de-web this bit! Speaking from experience……
The view of the waterfall from this cliff edge was one of my favourites, it felt like a lost world and so much more dramatic than I could have imagined.
From here it’s very easy to walk behind the waterfall, it’s a narrow path and a bit muddy but not too slippery, much easier than it looks!
When you’ve walked right the way behind the falls to the other side, you’ll find the second path down to the pool, it’s still muddy and rough, but it’s much shorter. Around three big strides and you’re down.
The view of the falls, the towering cliff walls and all the ferns and greenery from this end of the ledge were absolutely fantastic. It has real wow factor.
When you’re ready to leave, heading back up the trail is much easier. It doesn’t feel slippery at all when climbing up. The only hard part is it’s quite steep for such a short walk. All the elevation gain is on the way back so it’s a bit of a puff. It’s so worth it though, it really is a wonderful place. And so cool and shady on a hot day.
Water Nymphs Dell by night
Now for the truly magical part. Descending in to Water Nymphs Dell by night. As the trail is rough in parts I would recommend taking it slowly, especially because even with a torch it can be hard to see all the bits which stick out. I missed a tree branch on one of the fallen logs and got well and truly jabbed in the leg! I was much more careful after that!
The slippery sections of track aside, this was one of my favourite night time walks ever, and easily one of the best walks in the Blue Mountains.
The glow worms begin around 300m into the walk, if you’re coming down at dusk you likely won’t see many until you head back up again and it’s properly dark. We saw a handful on the way down and what a surprise it was coming back up again around 1.5 hours later!
The first few are just scattered amongst the trees but when you get to that small waterfall I mentioned (the one that’s more of a trickle), there are hundreds upon hundreds. They are all quite densely packed together, creating such a wonderful scene of twinkling blue lights on the cliffside.
In fact, if you don’t fancy the full descent to the main waterfall in the dark, this colony alone is only a little over 300m into the trail and well worth visiting in its own right. It’s spectacular.
Continuing on and you’ll soon come to a set of steps. Descend to the bottom and then turn back with your torch switched off. It looks like a stairway to heaven with glow worms all the way up the cliffside. It’s so magical and the kind of spot that’s hard to leave!
But continue on and you’ll find hundreds more. As you walk along the path between the steps and the overhang look for the large tree that has them all around it’s trunk! They are like little fairy lights strung around a Christmas tree, this was probably my favourite sighting of all as I hadn’t even seen anything like it before! It really was like a fairy tale.
There are some good patches along the overhang near the picnic bench too, both on the ceiling and back wall. Look directly ahead and there are even more! We expected the most numbers to be behind the falls itself, but whilst there are some there, they aren’t nearly as numerous as the cliff wall before the falls.
So even after seeing seven other glow worm colonies in the Blue Mountains you really can’t predict!
There are also glow worms along the overhang by the picnic bench that are at eye level and as you can get so close to them, you can see the little silk strings that hang down - and this is with the naked eye - we never shine light on glow worms. It was incredible to see!
The other fabulous thing about observing the glow worms at Water Nymphs Dell in particular, is the picnic bench! You can sit down in comfort and let your eyes adjust fully so you can really take in this amphitheatre of glow worms. As with all glow worms sightings, without turning off all light and giving your eyes time to adjust, you are only seeing a fraction of the picture.
As we first walked through this section I didn’t think there were that many. Once I returned from the waterfall and sat on the bench I spent 45 minutes watching more and more appear and it was so special. Bring down a flask of hot chocolate and make the most of this incredible natural phenomenon.
When you walk back frequently stop and turn out your lights and you’ll be amazed at how many you can see, whether along the cliffs or twinkling in the bushes.
Taking care of the glow worms
We mention this not to preach but to protect the glow worms, after the disaster of the glow worm tunnel at Helensburgh where people nearly wiped them out and caused it to be shut to the public.
Please don’t shine light on the glow worms, they don’t like it and will turn their lights out. To find a spot to sit and relax in - the picnic bench is the best - you can use a torch shone directly at the ground, and then turn it out.
You’ll see so much less if you keep a light on. Bringing a torch with red light is even better, although still don’t shine it on the glow worms directly.
Also if you’re keen on getting a photo, bring a tripod which will allow you to capture the glow worms without shining a light on them. If you need any tips, please feel free to ask! You don’t need light to photograph them if you have a tripod and the right settings.
How to get to Water Nymphs Dell
There are actually two routes into Water Nymphs Dell and you can even make a circuit walk of it if you don’t mind doing some road walking in-between. Personally we walked the trail as a return because we heard that one route is significantly prettier than the other and shorter, which suited our night time adventure better too.
To find the start of the route we used, head for Westbourne Avenue and park at one of the gravel laybys. The trail begins opposite house number 30 Glenview Road and heads straight into the bush via a staircase (click here to see an approximate location of the trailhead - it isn’t marked on Google Maps).
The other possible route starts at Dell Road and is a longer route and as we didn’t use this one we can’t say how it is, but let us know if you try it!
Where to stay just 5 minutes away
If you want to stay overnight to make your glow worm adventure more relaxing, the best place to base yourself is Wentworth Falls, we stayed in the cottage below.
Apple blossom Cottage
We stayed at Apple blossom cottage and it’s really cute and cosy, and has a full kitchen so we could self cater. There are three bedrooms so if there are only a couple of you, check out our second recommend below.
You can check out the reviews and prices on Booking.com.
Mountainside B&B
This is the B&B that we could never get in to and believe me I tried many times!
I wanted to stay the moment I saw a photo of the bathtub with a view. Judging by the reviews from others if I ever get in there it will have been worth the wait.
You can check out the reviews and prices on Booking.com
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