Parking
Use the small roadside clearing near John Donohoe’s grave on Bourke/Burke Road. Space is limited; local directions then follow the road briefly to the left-hand track entrance. No formal car park was verified.
Overview
About Kings Cave walk
Why go
- A broad sandstone shelter reached in minutes.
- A simple out-and-back with little climbing.
Heads up
- The entrance is easy to miss and roadside parking is limited.
- Uneven footing and stone steps make it a poor fit for anyone needing a smooth path.
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Blue Mountains map
Full mapElevation531–533 m
Plan your hike
Before you go
Parking
Safety
3 active Blue Mountains alerts
- ClosureRoads and tracks closed across Blue Mountains National ParkMany roads, fire trails and walking tracks across Blue Mountains National Park are closed; do not enter closed areas.Official details
- CautionPark-wide solid-fuel fire banA park fire ban is active across Blue Mountains National Park: campfires and solid-fuel barbecues and stoves are prohibited. - Gas and electric cookers are permitted, subject to safety rules.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Blue Mountains Tour Guide
Your drive to Kings Cave walk, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Blue Mountains National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Blue Mountains audio tourRecorded for this area
The Wattle Changes Its Leaves0:00 / 0:27
“A young wattle can show you two different ways of being leafy. Many start with feathery leaves divided into tiny leaflets, then replace them as they grow.”
Plays on the road 0.8 km from the trailhead in the Parkwolf Blue Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Tail That Keeps Wriggling
- The Hotel That Made Its Own Power
- Bedford Creek from Bedford Road
- A Telescope at Woodford House
- 188 audio storiesacross Blue Mountains’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Grey Kangaroo, Wombat, Red-necked Wallaby, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 110 trails, 84 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Trail guide
Hiking Kings Cave walk
A tiny out-and-backKings Cave walk is a short out-and-back from Bourke Road to a broad sandstone overhang near…
Kings Cave walk is a short out-and-back from Bourke Road to a broad sandstone overhang near Linden. Follow the tread to the shelter, then return the same way. The mapped path is about 140 m each way, or roughly 0.17 mi (280 m) round trip. Published estimates range from a rounded 200 m to 0.2 mi, so treat the distance as approximate. Allow about 20 minutes, including finding the turn and spending a few minutes at the cave. This is a small heritage stop, not a longer bushwalk or a lookout circuit.
Finding the entranceThe usual access is a small roadside clearing near John Donohoe’s grave on Bourke/Burke Road.
The usual access is a small roadside clearing near John Donohoe’s grave on Bourke/Burke Road. Walk a short way along the road and take the left-hand track; its entrance is easy to miss and is not clearly signposted. Parking is limited. The grave is a nearby landmark, not part of the cave route. The start is approximate from mapped and local directions, and no official trail page confirmed access, so check locally before setting out.
At the shelterThe path descends gently to a large, shallow sandstone overhang, with uneven ground and a few…
The path descends gently to a large, shallow sandstone overhang, with uneven ground and a few larger stone steps; the same path climbs gently on the return. Anyone unsteady on rough footing may want to skip it. Stories about the cave’s name and John Donohoe’s life are disputed, so treat them as local history rather than settled fact. Formal access and dog rules were not confirmed; check with the land manager before visiting or bringing a pet.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Blue Mountains
58 sightingsGrey KangarooMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
43 sightingsWombatMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
18 sightingsRed-necked WallabyMost seen around 6 PMSighting map
53 sightingsSwamp WallabyMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
23 sightingsBrushtail PossumMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
30 sightingsRing-tailed PossumMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Blue Mountains. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
