Clover Hill Trail, Macquarie Pass National Park: Length & difficulty

The Clover Hill Trail in Macquarie Pass National Park, New South Wales, brings wildlife, diverse landscapes and Rainbow Falls. It’s an occasionally tough Grade 5 walk, stretching 6km return.

The Clover Hill Trail is an invigorating and sometimes challenging walking track in Macquarie Pass National Park, New South Wales.

Near Wollongong and Kiama, this National Park is a short drive west of the Princes Highway as it heads south from Sydney to Gerringong and Nowra. You can easily incorporate the Clover Hill Trail into a road trip heading south – say from Sydney to Jervis Bay or Sydney to Batemans Bay.

How long is the Clover Hill Trail?

The Clover Hill Trail is not an especially long walk – this is a 6km return hike. But it can be tough going in places. According to the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, this is a Grade 5 walk. It has short steep hills, obstacles and a few steps. Some bushwalking experience is recommended.

Most walkers will complete the return walk to Rainbow Falls in two to three hours.

Where is the start of the Clover Hill Trail?

The Clover Hill Trail follows an old logging route towards Rainbow Falls, and the trailhead is at the Cascades Picnic Area.

The walk to Rainbow Falls starts in forest, but quickly emerges into the open through the old paddocks of Clover Hill. The clearings give better views of the Illawarra Escarpment’s enormous sandstone cliffs.

Wildlife on the Clover Hill Trail

A major part of the appeal is the variation in scenery. The forest sections have a mix of eucalypts, Illawarra flame trees and big ferns. There’s also plenty of wildlife – with kangaroos on the fields, and goannas and lyrebirds in the forest.

The toughest part of the walk is the scramble at the end of the track, heading upstream on the Macquarie Rivulet to Rainbow Falls.