National trail: Crown Creek fire trail

If it's not enough to view the splendour of the park from your car or the picnic area, perhaps canyoning, mountain-biking National trail: Crown Creek fire trail, or climbing Pantoneys Crown or Donkey Mountain are more your style. Come well prepared into this remote and sometimes challenging country, or join one of the private tour companies that bring groups into the park.

The geological evolution of this park has produced Triassic Narrabeen sandstone cliffs, slot canyons, grand mesas and the beautiful, yet often strangely delicate, pagodas. These pagodas are formed by wind and rain shaping the Banks Wall and Burramoko sandstone layers that spread right across the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Property, and they range from quite small to over 60 metres in height. They are amazingly beautiful against the blue mountain sky.

Gardens of Stone National Park is part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area World Heritage Property. The Greater Blue Mountains was named a World Heritage Area for its astonishing biodiversity. It contains almost 100 species (or 13%) of eucalypts in the world. This is because of the great diversity of habitats and landscapes in the region. Plateaus, heaths, flat valley floors with varying exposures and fire histories produce the incredible range of plantlife growing in the park. 

The diversity of the park supports a wonderful array of birdlife - this is an internationally-recognised bird watching area. You may see such threatened birds as the regent honeyeater, swift parrot, spotted harrier, square-tailed kite, turquoise parrot, lyrebird, and many more. Spring and autumn are the times to see the migrations across the sky. Walkers may also come across rare broad-headed snakes, Lesueur's gecko, heath monitors, brown antechinus, bush rats and occasional quolls. Brush-tailed rock wallabies can be seen along the caves and ledges, and the upland swamps in the eastern part of the park are home to giant dragonflies.