Parking
Use the Dunphys Campground car park at the end of Megalong Valley. The access road crosses private property; drive slowly, watch for livestock and leave gates as you find them.
Overview
About Wild Dog Mountains Loop from Dunphys Campground
Why go
- Broad views across forested sandstone valleys
- A complete ridge circuit from Dunphys Campground
Heads up
- A remote, long day with about 700 m of climbing
- Route finding is part of the outing
Map & elevation
The route
Loading the Blue Mountains map
Full mapElevation377–757 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 Wild Dog Mountains Loop from Dunphys Campground, 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 trailhead
Dunphys Campground and the Wild Dog Mountains0:00 / 0:34
“You're nearing Dunphys campground, a grassy clearing with views toward Mount Cloudmaker and the Wild Dog Mountains. I'd choose it for a remote camping base, with a chance of kangaroos or wombats visiting the grass.”
Plays as you drive up to this trailhead in the Parkwolf Blue Mountains Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Why Gum Trees Let the Sun Through
- How a Ridge Makes a Cloud
- The Memorial on Mount Dingo
- The Ant's Takeaway Seed
- 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 Wild Dog Mountains Loop from Dunphys Campground
The loopThe Wild Dog Mountains circuit is a 14.
The Wild Dog Mountains circuit is a 14.9 km loop from Dunphys Campground through remote bush paths and management trails in the southern Megalong Valley. It is a long ridge walk with open views over forested sandstone country and about 700 m of climbing. The mapped route here is the main circuit, not the separate walk to Splendour Rock. Fit hikers comfortable navigating beyond busy, signed day-use areas should allow about six hours on the trail, plus breaks.
Published time estimates differ: one map-based calculation gives 4 hours 10 minutes of walking before breaks, while another gives 6 hours 10 minutes. Plan around the longer estimate and leave extra daylight for navigation and stops.
How the route unfoldsThe circuit leaves Dunphys along Carlon Creek, climbs towards Black Horse Ridge, then swings…
The circuit leaves Dunphys along Carlon Creek, climbs towards Black Horse Ridge, then swings around the Blue Dog Ridge area. It returns north on the Medlow Gap and Bellbird Ridge management trails. Expect a mix of narrower bush footpaths and wider management tracks. The connected tracks and substantial climb make it useful to check your position at junctions.
Some descriptions list peaks and Splendour Rock with this area, but they are outside the main loop stored here. Splendour Rock via Wombat Parade is a separate 17.7 km return walk, not an extension included in this distance.
Ridge viewsA route-side opening looks across deep forested valleys towards layered sandstone ridges.
A route-side opening looks across deep forested valleys towards layered sandstone ridges. Eucalyptus branches frame the view; include them in the foreground if you want to show the depth of the valley rather than just the distant escarpment.
The Wild Dog nameWild Dog belongs to a wider naming story for these ridges.
Wild Dog belongs to a wider naming story for these ridges. Local history traces the theme to an early comparison of one difficult ridge to a black dog; bushwalker Myles Dunphy extended the dog names across the surrounding peaks and tracks. The names describe the broader range, not a list of summits this loop visits.
Start, water and rulesDunphys is a remote campground at the end of Megalong Valley, with parking, toilets, picnic…
Dunphys is a remote campground at the end of Megalong Valley, with parking, toilets, picnic tables and barbecue facilities. Bring all drinking and cooking water; water is not supplied, and no refill point on the loop was verified. The access road passes through private property, so drive slowly, watch for livestock and leave gates as you find them. Dogs are not permitted in NSW national parks except trained assistance animals.
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.
