Both the dam itself and the tourist's picnic and lookout areas are on a more modest scale than the other dams, but the Nepean has a special quality of its own which makes it as an interesting place to visit, or to take the family. The Nepean is the most easily accessible of the dams, being just a kilometre or so off the freeway, and a few kilometres from Bargo. Except here it is obvious time and fashions have changed since the extravagant and novel days of the earlier dams. A peaceful place to rest and play. There are a number of picnic areas on several levels leading down to the dam itself, but here they don't intrude on nature so much - the tall trees and scrub come right up to the edge of the lawns, giving you a more immediate feeling of being in the bush itself.
Facilities are excellent.
On the upper area is a shelter area with tables seating up to 80 people, a smaller one for up to 20, with electric barbecues and boiling water. Private picnic areas. Best of all is the natural bushland which surrounds you closely - giving more of a sense of being in the outdoors. Silence and tranquility. On this lower level are also the exotic touches typical of earlier landscaping - a walkway flanked by camellias and azaleas, the remnants of formal garden beds once lovingly attended by former curators, a lovers' seat, and lookouts from which to see the lake stretching up into the gorges.