[2][3] It is located 135 km (84 mi) kilometres north-west of Sydney, between Lithgow and Mudgee, in the Central Tablelands, just above the Blue Mountains.

The only population centre of any kind is the village of Glen Davis, which includes a camp-site and often serves as a starting point for bushwalks around the Capertee River and other parts of the Wollemi National Park.

Sandstone cliffs and limestone formations predominate the escarpment, which descend into a deep chasm sculpted into the environment over millions of years.

[4] The original inhabitants of the land surrounding the valley are the Aboriginal Wiradjuri people, as shown by the 2,000-year-old rock art in the area which feature stencilled hands, boomerangs and throwing sticks.

[9] Henry Lawson refers to "the wild beauty" of the Capertee area in his poem 'Song of the Old Bullock-Driver', written in 1891 and published in Verses, Popular and Humorous (1900).