Kings Canyon

Visiting Kings Canyon should definitely be on your list of places to see when touring through the Northern Territory - about 470 kilometres from Alice Springs along the Stuart Highway and 320 kilometres from Uluru.

The  turn off to Kings Canyon is about 150 kilometres from Yalara (Ayers Rock Resort) along the Lasseter Highway. Salt Creek Rest Area is along the road and the only place we found to pull over for lunch - plenty of shade and flies. 

We stayed at Kings Canyon Resort which is just lovely with a range of accommodation, restaurant, bistro, service station, small store, and lovely reception area. This is the closest accommodation to Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon Creek Walk – a relatively easy walk along the edge of the creek  and a viewing platform looking up onto the he wonderful red/orange cliffs of the canyon. This gives you an idea of the sheer height of the rock faces. 

The large parking area for Kings Canyon several buses and a number of cars - one of the only places in the area with good mobile telephone and wifi reception.  Shaded areas with seating are provided for visitors and good signs showing where the walking tracks started and what coloured arrows to follow. A large hat sits on the fence near the car park made from cement – I guess reminding people to wear one (a hat I mean).

We returned to Kings Canyon early the next morning to undertake the Kings Canyon Rim Walk – highly recommended. First part of this walk is to ascend the side of the rock covered hill about 100 metres up before heading around the top. Great viewing areas of this incredibly old sandstone.  

The Garden of Eden – down several steps and to the bottom of a ravine which is much cooler walking and a permanent body of water. Up the stairs to other side of canyon and then along the rim before heading back down to car park.  

Wonderful morning as the temperature was only 22 degrees when we started. We were advised to commence this walk early as it is often closed when the weather is too hot.