Kings Canyon

Only cloud seen for weeks!

After we finally got away from Alice Springs we spent 1 night at a free camp (Kernot Range was a nice spot for a stop-over) then 4 nights at Kings Canyon Resort.  The Resort is only 10km from Kings Canyon and you look out over the Giles Ranges from your van site. Nice caravan park but everything is very expensive -  $42/night for powered site, $2.33/ltr for diesel, $9.00 for a stubby of beer, and at the general store $4.00 for a can of baked beans!! Luckily we had stocked up on most things at Alice Springs but we still had to buy some fuel as its quiet a drive in to the Resort off the Stuart Highway.  Kings Canyon was first seen by white men when Ernest Giles came this way. He named the Canyon after his brother-in-law and fellow explorer (must have been trying to keep in the good books with his missus after spending years away exploing Oz).

 There are three ways to see the Canyon: 



Look-out at end of Canyon base walk

Take the relatively easy canyon floor walk along the dry creek and look up at the huge sandstone walls of the Canyon and admire the amazing array of plants and trees in the valley floor.


 

 

 




I got up before sunrise the first morning we stayed to get some sunrise photos on the canyon walls – a bit of a waste of time as the canyon runs east-west and the north and south facing walls don’t get much of the early morning sun (should have slept in!).

 

You can just see the car park which is the start of the rim walk

Take the more difficult 3.5 hour rim walk which initially requires walking up a very steep path (500 steps) from the car park to the top of the canyon. 

 Linda was having trouble with a sore hip so I did this walk by myself. Travelling for over 15 months has certainly taken its toll on my fitness and it was a 25 minute haul to the top with 3 stops on the way up.

 

 

steps leading down into the "Garden of Eden"

Once you reach the top it is then a reasonably easy walk around the rim of the canyon through some mind blowing scenery.

A long way straight down from the cliff edge

At times it reminded me of the Bungle Bungles with its eroded rock domes and desert views but once you got close to the cliff face and looked up, down and across the Canyon it a different world.

 

 

The north wall

For the first time in my life I actually suffered from some mild vertigo at one of the loftier look-outs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of the most enjoyable walks I have done since leaving Perth and is on par with the gorges of Karijini.

The third way is to view the canyon, ranges and desert plains from a helicopter.  


Seemed bigger in the advertisment?

We had been planning to do this since deciding to come to Kings Canyon months back and figured what we had saved by free camping since we left Brisbane in May would pay for the flight (the caravan repairs and associated accommodation and towing costs on our second stay in Alice nearly put an end to this plan but luckily the Insurance Company came good and paid for most of the costs).

 

 

The view at 3500 ft

Seeing the Canyon, Katherine Springs, and the Giles Ranges from up to 7000 ft was a ride to remember. Linda was more than a little worried about spending ½ an hour at 5700 ft in something small that doesn’t glide J but once we were up in the air we both thoroughly enjoyed the flight.  

 

 

Linda’s eagle eyes spotted some brumbies and feral camels (price of beer out here it helps to be a camel) out on the open plains.


The "Bungle Bungle" like bee-hives of the upper plateau

Kings Canyon is almost a 900 km diversion off the Stuart Highway as you head south from Alice Springs (half of which you have to do anyway to get to Uluru), it’s expensive but worth the trip in for the unique scenery.







Kings Canyon now ticked off the bucket-list J.