The Blue Mountains

From Featherdale, we jumped back on the Wonderbus (our bus tour company) to cruise down the road for our afternoon activity, the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are a mountain range (or hills really, topping out at about 3,100 feet) so named because of the blue haze that forms above the treeline. When it's warm out, the eucalyptus trees in the forest evaporate both water (like all trees) but also eucalyptus oil, which refracts light and casts a blue color. The rock formation you see on the left side of the picture is the "Three Sisters", a famous rock formation in the Blue Mountains. Aboriginal legend has it that the witch doctor didn't want some rowdy boys marrying his three beautiful doctors, so he turned them into stone. But then the doctor was killed by said boys, and so was then unable to turn the sisters back into people again. Legend aside, the views were spectacular. The best way to describe it would be to imagine the Grand Canyon completely filled in with a tropical rainforest.