A tour of the Mona Vale Headland Reserve, located in Mona Vale, a suburb on the Sydney Northern Beaches. The Mona Vale Headland Reserve is an easy adventure, and only a short walk from the main Mona Vale Beach car park.
Our entry point to the track is the corner of Bassett Street East. There are also street entry points at the end of Grandview Parade and Hillcrest Avenue. Although this is only a short trail, maybe a total of 800m all up, it is yet another example on the Sydney Northern Beaches where you start right smack bang in the middle of suburbia, and then after only a couple of minutes wandering along the trail you lose sight of the trail and any sign that you are located in the most populous city in Australia. Sometimes you don’t need to travel far to be able to mentally escape.
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The walk offers excellent views of Basin Beach and Mona Vale Beach to the south and Bungan Beach to the north, worthy of adding this to a list of the best walks in Sydney. On the day when I walked this trail I experienced the added bonus of encountering a few local horse riders. These horses have most likely come from Warriewood (one of the last spots on the Northern Beaches to find horses until you venture up towards Ingleside).
This definitely isn’t a pram friendly walk, with stairs the whole way. The express route to the top is via a grassed strip which runs between Grandview Parade and Hillcrest Avenue. This grass strip is relatively steep, so take care, particularly if it has been raining as the grass may become slippery. Having said that, the horses made it down the express route unscathed.
Mona Vale Headland – Other Adventures Nearby
Once you have finished this walk then your options are for additional walks are many. To the north you can drive to Newport and walk the South Bilgola Headland Trail which joins Newport Beach with Bilgola Beach, or go slightly further north to the witness the amazing views of Bangalley Headland. To the south an immediate option at the southern end of Mona Vale Beach is the Warriewood to Mona Vale Beach Path, which leads you all the way to Warriewood Beach …where many more trail options await.
Mona Vale Headland – Getting There
For public transport, take the B-Line bus to the main stop at Mona Vale and walk to Mona Vale Beach. It is approximately 1km from the bus stop to the start of the trail. If you are driving then you have a few different options. You can either park in the Mona Vale Beach carpark or surrounding streets and then take the walk a couple of hundred meters up the road to the trailhead, alternatively you can park almost at the start of the trail on Barrenjoey Road, Basset Street, Grandview Parade or Hillcrest Avenue. It all just comes down to where you want to start your adventure.
View our big list of walks, to check out our other adventure options.
Gear used:
- Camera: https://amzn.to/2YU36Zu
- Awesome value camera mount kits: https://amzn.to/2LFJF34
