Outback Tours Kings Canyon

Kings Canyon Gallery

Kings Canyon (Watarrka) is located about 450 km southwest of Alice Springs and is one of the Northern Territory's most spectacular natural features. The scenic landscape of Kings Canyon contains gorges, rocky ranges, and rockpools, and is home to many unique species of plants and animals. Kings Canyon features ancient sandstone walls shaped by the elements, rising 100m to a plateau of rocky domes. Kings Canyon was named by explorer Ernest Giles in 1872.

Kings Canyon is easily accessible by 2WD vehicles via the Luritja Road from Yulara and Lasseters Highway, both good quality sealed bitumen roads. It can also be reached via Larapinta Drive which runs through the West MacDonnell Ranges and joins the Mereenie Loop Road, a gravel road for which 4WD is recommended. Kings Canyon can also be accessed via the Ernest Giles Road from the Stuart Highway, though this is a dirt road for which 4WD is strongly recommended. Careful driving should be practiced at all times on gravel roads in Central Australia, the Northern Territory and elsewhere in the outback.

Kings Canyon rises above the valley of Kings Creek, and is spectacular at sunrise and sunset. Many beautiul water holes sustain an amazing variety of fauna and flora, including more than 600 species of native plants. The abundance of fauna in Kings Canyon is due mainly to its location, which combines the flora of the Western Desert region with that of the MacDonnell Ranges and Simpson Desert.

Kings Canyon is generally accessible throughout the year, with the cooler months from April to September being the most pleasant for visitors. Accommodation is available at the Kings Canyon Resort and at nearby Kings Creek Station. Most visitors come to see the spectacular Kings Canyon itself, with colossal sheer vertical walls and stands of lush relict vegetation in sheltered gullies protected from the vast and harsh desert that surrounds Kings Canyon.