Keen to get the kids off their screens? Well, bring them for a walk to lovely little Flint and Steel Beach in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park.
The trick is to bring a whole pack of them.
No whinging!
A Walk To Flint and Steel Beach with Kids
Things you need to know before you go:
- The walk down from the car park to the beach isn’t long but it is STEEP. There are wooden steps and steps cut into the rock. Be prepared for a hard walk up hill on the way back.
- You need to pay to enter the National Park. Best thing is to buy an annual pass for all NSW National Parks costing $65 and then use it a lot. This can be done as you enter the park. A day pass costs $11.
- There is no water at the beach, you need to take your own.
- The distance to the beach is just 1km each way but, trust me, it feels much longer on the way up.
- We went with eight children aged 11 – 13 years and they scampered up and down, no worries. We met other families with children aged five and seven.
- We wouldn’t recommend this on a boiling hot day… too sweaty on the way back. We were there on an overcast day, with spots of rain, but still warm enough to swim.
Here’s a map… zoom in to find the beach if it doesn’t appear at first.
Setting Off: The Flint and Steel Beach Car Park
The track down to Flint and Steel Beach starts at a signposted car park on West Head Road, see map above. There’s space for a few cars right by the road and for more a little bit further down the track.
We had six boys and two girls with us, the boys flew away too fast for us to keep up. Most of the track is well kept, like these wooden stairs, but there are a couple of really steep bits and one rocky semi-scramble
Things to do at Flint and Steel Beach
- Play cricket, the boys found wooden sticks and planks and set to it with a ball they’d brought
- Swim, the water tends to be calm in Pittwater and clear too, lazy laps along the beach are lovely
- Explore the rock pools and twisted rock formations
- Picnic and play
- Dig holes on the beach
- Watch the wildlife, we saw two sea eagles swooping around for ages above us
- Enjoy the views over to Patonga Beach and out to Lion Island
The walk back was not too bad… it is so steep, but also very scenic and not long. The kids whizzed up and then sat around panting. The mums went up slower and steadier.
A little stop to catch the breath and admire these vast rocks is well worth it.
After the walk, you might want to pop along to West Head to soak up the glorious views over Palm Beach, click here for info.
There are many more things to do in Ku-ring-gai Chase national Park, check the website here.
Read all about Bobbin Head playground and walk on our post here.
You might also enjoy tis post about the Jibbon Beach Loop Train at Bundeena in the Royal National Park here.
Lovely write up of a great walk. We’ve done this with our kids as well, but on a really hot day it can be a hard slog back up the hill. When we were there some nudists were at the eastern end of the beach, but as the beach is so spacious this wasn’t a problem. There’s plenty of room for everyone.
Oh that’s interesting that there were nudists there. Totally illegal, but in that area I would not mind either. It IS a hard slog up the hill. A couple of days ago I walked up and down to Empress Falls which was also totally steep, steeper in fact as there are stairways… I would need plenty stops and water on a roasting Sydney day.