Blue Mountains Explore began as a group of out-door-loving-locals who began posting their canyoning, climbing, bushwalking & trail-running adventures on Instagram @bluemtns_explore in 2016. This quickly amassed a large and passionate following. Keen to expand their knowledge through exploration and share what this adventure-packed landscape has to offer, they began tagging their discoveries with #lostmtns. Taking on a life of its own the group became known as the #lostmtns team.

The team printed this unique hashtag on a few stickers, which became highly sought after.

Recognising the love the community has for the Blue Mountains they live in led to the team wanting to share with others unique new places they found throughout the region. During the pandemic in 2019 they worked together to gather thousands of images of places they had explored, putting together their first guidebook, ’This ain’t the city’.

Their goal was to counter pandemic fatigue, assist with declining mental health (especially among youths) and promote the outdoors as a way of coping with these challenges. Whilst helping invigorate local businesses in the Blue Mountains region and boost much-needed tourism.

The first edition of ’This ain’t the city’ sold out in 3 weeks, with continued increase in demand over the following 2 years. 2021 saw the team add to their publications ‘Epic’ and ‘Wild’ Guidebooks, with the innovative feature of QR codes linked to a live mapping system.

The team continue to document their adventures and prefer to feature places not faces while maintaining a low key profile in the community. They continue to focus on educating others on bush safety; Leave No Trace policy and respecting the national parks, landscapes, horizon lines, secrets and legends. Always ready to share their love for nature and the uniqueness of this beautiful place they call home with anyone who wants to get out there and explore for themselves.