The reserve's nature conservation headquarters is located here, beside the village of Moremela, at the canyon's southern, or upper reaches.

[2] Sustained kolks in the Treur River's plunge pools have eroded a number of cylindrical potholes or giant's kettles, which can be viewed from the crags above.

They quite closely resemble the traditional round or oval rondavels or African homesteads, which are made with local materials.

Sometimes they are also called the Three Sisters, though this may confuse them with a similar threesome visible from the N1 road in the Northern Cape, very far to the south.

The flat-topped peak adjacent to the rondavels is Mapjaneng, "the chief", who is remembered for opposing invading Swazis in a memorable battle.

From this escarpment—a mostly unbroken rampart of cliffs—opens a vista into the Lowveld expanse and escarpment forests, the Eden-like aesthetic appearance of which prompted the name.

Impala, kudu, blue wildebeest, waterbuck and zebra roam the wooded lowveld area.

[7] The Abel Erasmus flat gecko is known to occur at Bourke's Luck inside the reserve.

Birds associated with flowering plants of the higher slopes include Gurney's sugarbird and malachite sunbird.

A breeding colony of bald ibis occurs in the grassy uplands, besides small numbers of cape eagle-owl and red-breasted sparrowhawk.

Forest birds include crowned eagle, Knysna lourie, cinnamon dove, olive bushshrike, green twinspot and wood owl.

The reserve's vegetation is classified as the Northeastern Drakensberg High-Mountain Sourveld ecoregion, an area prone to lightning-induced burning.

National Park status had been considered, if some adjacent areas were to be incorporated and their forestry activities discontinued.