West MacDonnell NP

Info

The West MacDonnell National Park begins at the doorstep of Alice Springs and extends West along the spine of the West MacDonnell Ranges - a wonderful example of an ancient landscape sculptured over time by climatic elements. (stop us if we're boring you!). We had to be selective where we stopped due to time pressures, so enjoyed:

Standley Chasm - A 15 minute walk through a gully lush with ferns, tall gums and cycad palms to an 80m high fissure that took 100 million years to form.

Ellery Creek Big Hole - An 18m deep pool in a creek through a mountain gap. Such a strange and unexpected (yet welcomed) sight in this scorched, dry landscape. We enjoyed a refreshing swim in freezing cold water, before lunch in the shade!

Ormiston Gorge - Named after Glen Ormiston in Scotland, except this one provides dry vegetation, sand dunes and steep orange cliffs. There were also some more water holes and popular walks - however - too hot for us by this time, so on we went.

We then continued on what was more that 200 kms of dirt road (the bitumen had long run out) along the Meereenie Loop Track which passes through Aboriginal land to the Kings Canyon Resort - our evening destination. It was excellent to see the control over tourism in these areas of natural beauty - no high rise buildings or eye sores - but appropriate building well hidden in bushland.

King's Canyon - 7kms from the resort in the Watarrka National Park, the canyon cuts deep sunburned grooves in a section of the George Gill mountains. The canyon has knife-sliced concave walls, that shelter waterholes key in sustaining tropical greenery. Erosion is visible across the canyon, but provides natural staircases to the fantastic views at the top. We did the 6km walk around the rim and took the whole experience in at first hand. (are you paying attention - there will be a test later!)

The Gallery

Standley chasm	Imagine it with water!	View from the top	Ellery Creek Big Hole...and George!	Tarzan Kirkham!
Jane Trodd!	Must be Chimp!	Ormiston Gorge	Bonnie Scotland...almost!	The end of the road...literally!
Local Aboriginal road signs (means slow down!)	You can speed up!	One of the 100,000 wild camels in Australia	King's Canyon	Walk completed!
George having a rest	Look no hands!	Life...on the edge!	Doesn't this look like a cut mars bar out of the fridge?!	View from the rim walk
270m down!	Nee at the Garden of Eden	Mr & Mrs Kirkham - still honeymooning!

 

West MacDonnell NP