Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon is a deep cleft cut into the sandstone of Central Australia, and its walls are the reason people come: sheer faces of red and ochre sandstone rising more than 100 metres above the creek bed. The canyon lies within Watarrka National Park, whose name comes from the Luritja word for the umbrella bush that grows across the surrounding plain. Luritja and Arrernte people have lived in this country for at least twenty thousand years and remain its traditional owners.

The rock tells a long story. The upper cliffs are Mereenie Sandstone, laid down roughly 400 million years ago; beneath them sits the older Carmichael Sandstone, and between the two runs a thin band of purple shale that records a change in the ancient environment. On the plateau above, weathering has carved the sandstone into rows of rounded, beehive-like domes known as the Lost City, a maze of cracks and turrets that glows almost crimson in low sun.

The classic way to see all of this is the Rim Walk, a six-kilometre loop graded moderate to difficult that usually takes three to four hours. It climbs steeply onto the plateau, threads through the domes and drops into the Garden of Eden, a permanent waterhole sheltered by cycads where the desert suddenly turns green. The pool is a sacred men's site, so swimming is not allowed. The park as a whole holds more than 750 plant species, dozens of them found nowhere else in the region, which is why the gorge floor feels so different from the spinifex country outside. Film buffs may recognise the rim from the closing scenes of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

Getting there

Kings Canyon is about 244 km from Alice Springs in a straight line; by road it is roughly 321 km via Larapinta Drive and the unsealed Mereenie Loop (4WD only), or about 474 km on sealed highways via the Stuart and Lasseter Highways and Luritja Road. From Yulara, the resort town beside Uluru, it is around 300 km on sealed roads. The nearest airport is Ayers Rock (Connellan) Airport (AYQ), about 119 km away as the crow flies.