Royal is Australia's oldest national park and the second oldest in the world. Yellowstone is the oldest. We came here in the winter and it was very quiet. There were maybe four or five others where we camped.
Royal has many activities for the outdoors enthusiast. We're mostly rock climbers and hikers, so we spent two days hiking here. Since it's winter, their slow season, we had the park almost to ourselves, which works for me. On the first day, we walked along the coast for a few hours. It's mostly an easy stroll on the beach with a little incline here and there, but nothing most people can't do. We stopped often to admire the views and watch the crashing waves hit the the rocks with a thunderous boom.
On the second day, we took the ranger's suggestion and hiked to Provident Point for some whale watching. It took us about three hours from the Marley Trail, I believe to get to Provident Point. When we arrived at our destination, we discovered that you can drive to this point. Oh, well. It was more fun to hike it anyway. The hike was wonderful. We were away from people hiking on an easy trail that has views of the ocean and forest. Although it's winter, weather was surprisingly very pleasant as we were away from the coast and in the canyon.
Provident Point is absolutely gorgeous! There is a viewing station high up on a cliff. From there, you look down on the vast ocean, and surrounding you are seaside cliffs and clusters of rocks. The waves crashed into the clusters creating foam as they retreated back into the ocean. To make the experience even more memorable, we saw whales from a distance. This was quite a treat as I've never seen whales before. They were breaching and blowing water from their blowhole. I could've sat there for hours watching the waves and spotting for whales. Next time we're here, we're going to do the Coast track, which is 52 miles round trip. If you are visiting Sydney, I highly recommend spending a few days in Royal Mountain. read more