Gibraltar Range National Park lies on the high edge of the New South Wales Northern Tablelands, in a part of the country where granite rules. The range is a broad plateau at about a thousand metres, strewn with huge boulders, crags and rounded domes of grey rock, and covered in a mix of heath, eucalypt forest and, in the damp gullies, patches of rainforest. The Dandahra Crags and the Needles are the best-known rock formations, and the walks to them take you through low flowering shrubs that attract honeyeaters in spring.
The park forms part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia, a World Heritage group that preserves some of the oldest forest types on the planet, plants whose ancestors were here when Australia was still joined to Antarctica. Nearby Washpool National Park contains stands of ancient tree ferns and giant eucalypts. The climate is cool and often wet, with mist in the mornings, a fine drizzle even in summer, and cold nights. Platypus swim in the creeks, and you may hear lyrebirds calling in the undergrowth. The smell after rain, of wet eucalypt and earth, is a considerable pleasure.
The road through the area is the Gwydir Highway, which crosses the range between Glen Innes on the tableland and Grafton on the coastal plain. The western stretch is a broad, open road, but as it crosses the range it becomes more twisting, with long curves, steep descents and forest on both sides, and the surface is generally fair. Fog, damp patches and logging trucks mean you must pay attention, and wildlife on the road is a hazard at dusk. A mild day in autumn or spring is the best time to be here, and winter can bring frost, ice and even snow in the higher parts.
Services are thin on the range itself, and the data lists no nearby town, so plan around the bigger places. Take fuel in Glen Innes, which has several thousand people and a full set of services, or in Grafton on the coast side, and carry a warm layer, water and some food. Phone reception is patchy in the gullies, and a puncture or breakdown can mean a long wait. Camping areas in the park are basic but well kept, and they are a good way to hear the forest at night.