Kings Canyon

My lovely boss gave me another Monday off so we decided to put our caravan in storage again and take a trip to Kings Canyon.

We didn't leave as early as usual on our trip because we had to go to the visitors centre and buy a permit to drive on the Meerenie Loop, it's on Aboriginal land and takes up 93 kilometres of the 357 kilometre drive.


You can't take caravans this way and it's advised if you do go this way that you have a 4WD as the roads are all unsealed, we did see a couple of small cars drive past and they did not look comfortable!
You can get there via the Stuart Hwy on all sealed roads but it is the long way being about 475 kilometres from Alice.


The permit only costs $2.20 but it must be purchased on the day your driving, you sit it on your dashboard, not that any one checked ours, but for $2.20 we weren't complaining.


After getting our permit we headed off on Larapinta drive to Kings Canyon, we drove past Simpsons Gap on the way and stopped at the small town of Hermannsburg to get a drink,  as soon as we pulled up we saw about 10 dogs that were free to roam into the supermarket and anywhere they pleased really.

The dogs were skin and bones and I had to do all I could not to put them all in the car and fatten them all up, I was holding back the tears and Brenton was trying not to vomit as the smell near the supermarket was not inviting.


We left Hermannsburg feeling a bit hopeless and less ignorant to what these small communities are actually like, and Hermannsburg is only 60 kilometres from Alice so we can only imagine how bad it would be in the smaller communities.


Back on our way we noticed a a slight detour ahead due to a massive piece of the bridge missing.

Just past the bridge was a sign for a 4WD track to Palm Valley, it was only about a 25 kilometre track off the main road and Brenton was pretty keen to see it, so once again we were off track but it was well worth it, this is probably the most difficult track we have done so far and there were a heap of water crossings, some a bit deeper than I would have preferred, but we did make it safe and sound, although it did take almost an hour given the rough terrain!

Brenton checking to see if we will make it!

Palm Valley is in the Finke Gorge National Park and is the only place in Central australia where Red Cabbage palms survive, they say they are reminders of a tropical rain-forest that once covered the area millions of years ago. 

It was great to see this tropical environment in the middle of the desert, we did one of the shorter walks because we were still hoping to make it to Kings Canyon, although there was a campsite at Palm Valley if we needed to stay.

We saw a heap of these little lizards on our walk but they were way too quick to catch, although we did spend a fraction of our time trying!

Once we had a good look around and some lunch we decided it was early enough to drive back to the main road and head to Kings Canyon, once on the main road it wasn't long before the road got wider, the bitumen ran out and it was red dust and sand almost the whole way!


At first it was extremely sandy and the car was a tad hard to steer, then it got extremely hard and bumpy, by far the worst road I have ever been on, it was giving me a headache from all of the bouncing and every time a car came past us you were virtually driving blind as there was so much red dust! No doubt there will be plenty more roads like this.


We saw a heap of animals on our drive including this little dingo/wild dog.

Wild horses

We stopped at a lookout just before Kings Canyon it was sunset and we were now in the Watarrka National Park, from the lookout you actually couldn't see a great deal which was disappointing,  so we decided to get a bit closer before we got the camera's out!

We couldn't have arrived at a better time another amazing sunset in the outback!

We were finally on a sealed road again and were at the Kings Canyon Resort in no time, it was just as expensive to camp here as it was to camp at Ayers Rock, $32 per night, just for a tent. We paid for two nights thinking we'd need it but only stayed the one and they were more than happy to give us our money back, thank god!

It's a very big resort and is all a bit closer together than the Ayers Rock resort, there was plenty of room for us and we could even park the car nice and close to the tent. We quickly got to work setting up, we losing light extremely fast , and setting up a tent in the dark is no fun! 


Apparently the resort is known to be a popular spot for dingo's/wild dogs and there are signs all around the park saying not to feed them, obviously they didn't like the smell of our curry or our cereal, because we didn't see them at dinner or in the morning.

We left early and it was a great day, not a cloud in the sky and we couldn't wait to get a close up of Kings Canyon, it was only about 15 minutes to the canyon from the resort, and it's good to get there early as the car-park fills up quickly!

We decided to do the 3 hour canyon walk that takes you right up the top and around Kings Canyon giving you the best views, taking the very steep steps up further and further, we weren't sure it was ever going to end, but after a few short breaks we were at the top and it was worth it.

The start of the walk

Not even half way to the top yet!

It was like another world up the top, there were rock domes covering most of the area that were said to be sand dunes millions of years ago, the views were amazing, looking down from the edge was breathtaking but a little scary, it's so high up, about 270m!

We followed our markers around the walk stopping every few minutes to take pictures, then we got to an extremely steep staircase that led us into the 'Garden of Eden', a huge water-hole with palms and vines coming out of the edge of the rocks and from the water, it's really amazing to see in the middle of all that rock!

The Garden Of Eden

If you have a fear of heights, it's here that you would notice it the most, coming down the stairs and then crossing the bridge on top of the garden of eden and then it seems even steeper walking up the stairs on the other side to get back to the top of the canyon.

A small water-hole on the top of the canyon.

Once you get to the other side of Eden the sights continue to impress especially looking down into the canyon, this is certainly the best view we had all day and it only took 2 hours to get there!!

On our way down.

We loved Kings Canyon, even more than Ayers Rock, we had a really great day and knew that the pain in our legs from the canyon walk would be well worth it the next day!

The walk down was refreshing and once again we were on the road again heading towards the Henbury meteorites conservation park.
The park contains twelve craters which were formed when a meteor hit the earth’s surface roughly 4,000 years ago.


You can get there on sealed roads but that's the long way, so to save us some time we took another unsealed road and 90 kilometres of uncomfortable driving later we were at Henbury.

You can camp at this site overnight for a few dollars, and they allow fires, it was tempting to camp here as it was getting late but we decided Alice wasn't much further and we may even be home in time for Sunday roast at the Pub which was more tempting than the Henbury camp site.


It was only a 25 minute walk return to see two of the meteorite holes and as you walk up the edge it's hard to believe it was an actual meteorite site, one even had a water hole in it, apparently it's a favourite for the dingo's/wild dogs.

This is one of the craters, it's hard to see it's full form in a photo.

We didn't see any dogs but we saw plenty of grasshoppers and let me tell you, they grow them big out here!! 

It actually hurt when they jumped into our legs!!

It wasn't long before we were back at the caravan park eating our roasts, a great end to an eventful weekend!


xx