NSW Central West - Day 2

Today I drove out to Nangar National Park - located midway in a triangle made up of Orange, Parkes and Forbes. Getting there was a bit of an adventure - the access road is an unsealed narrow track with lots and lots of causeways as both it and a river wind there way up the gorge, criss-crossing each other as they go. Most are concrete but a few are just loose stones. Heavy rutting getting on and off some of the causeways also made things a little hairy.

Once safely parked, it’s about 1km to the actual track head, following a 4WD road. An absolutely lovely hike though, with an incredible and expansive view from the summit of Mt Nangar. The walk starts out with a gentle slope but gets quite steep and rocky in places as it makes its way up with mountain - there about a 400m gain in elevation. Very pleasantly, I had both the track and the view all to myself - I didn’t see another person for the duration.

Just part of the gorgeous view from Mt Nangar
 


The National Parks website suggests allowing 5-6 hours for the walk but that’s a little excessive - even with a long stop at the top to check out the view, it’s more in the vicinity of 3.5 hours at a comfortable pace.



 
After finishing around 13:30 - too late to contemplate taking another of the hikes in the area due to ~17:00 sunset - I continued onto Parkes for lunch and a look-see. It was pleasant enough but, besides the Memorial Hill Lookout and the Henry Parkes Statue, there wasn’t a lot to see, so I ended up making a quick visit to "The Dish" as well before driving back to Orange.

The Dish
 

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