After leaving Palm Valley we made a brief detour into Hermannsburg for fuel and to obtain our pass for the Merinee Loop. The Merinee Loop road is an unsealed road through some very scenic landscape. There were a few sections where the corrugations rattled us, but on the whole it was worth the effort. A few hours later we found ourselves pulling into the Kings Canyon Resort.
We set up camp in the midday blazing heat before continuing down to the Watarrka National Park. The 2.6km Kings Creek walk was though the base of the canyon to the viewing platform. The walk was mostly level and mostly shaded for which we were grateful. This pleasant walk ends before the creek that is considered a sacred site by the local peoples.
The next day we packed up camp and headed back to the national park. This was the day we were going to tackle the Kings Canyon rim walk. Although only a 6km trail, the walk is graded as hard due to the terrain.
We prepared our packs making sure we stocked plenty of water and a couple of snacks for the 3-4 hour trail. The first section of this walk is up the steep side of the cliff. The trail is one direction so once at the top there’s no turning back. It was hard work but once we’d reached the top we headed off across the top of the cliffs taking the occasional side tracks to admire the stunning views back along the canyon and to the miniature figures of walkers on the other side.
About half way around we took the side trail to the Garden of Eden. A beautiful shaded water hole where we stopped and had something to eat while watching the local birdlife. Ascending the stairs we soon found ourselves crossing the bridge to the south side of the canyon.
After a stretch along the top of the cliff the path turned away from the edge and steadily descended returning us to the car park about three and a half hours after we’d started.
had a quick lunch in the car park before hitting the road again our next destination Ayres Rock Resort. From here it was about 300 kilometers of sealed road. At some point we decided to swap drivers and pulled over into a rest area. We were startled to see a dingo snoozing atop one of the picnic benches. He looked up as we pulled in and watched us carefully as we exited the car and walked around to the other side. Once we were back in the car and moving away again he lowered his head back to table, satisfied that we weren’t going to interrupt his sleep.
Hit The Toad 
[…] gorge was amazing, so was Palm Valley and Kings Canyon was pretty good […]
Enjoyed this post, we never made it to kings canyon, it was in the original plan but after hearing of the step cliff walk and with three little kids in tow, we thought it best to leave this place till next trip when they are older.