Heading out to the west side of Alice springs there is so much this national park has to offer, with gaps, gorges, Chasms, valleys, history, holes and canyons all to explore, take the walks and see the beautiful sights. These places are a popular tourist attractions because they are easy to access, and even better for us as the roads had just been graded. There is also talk of them bituminising the road out to Kings Canyon to make it even more accessible from both sides. Alice Springs has not had a decent amount of rain for 3 years according to the locals that we talked to, so for these places to have water in them still is a real surprise.
Simpsons gap was only 18km from Alice Springs, and short stroll from the car park. We decided to walk through the sandy river bead to get an appreciation for the view amongst the ghost gums (or you can walk along the path), then across a little rocky outcrop and into a beautiful gap.
Standley Chasm Is an aboriginal owned and operated reserve, you will have to pay a fee to walk the 1.2km’s along a beautiful natural creek bed, to get to the high rock wall with the most beautiful colours of the earth. It gets quiet narrow in there and there was reminisce of water from the last rains, you could only imagine the beauty and power of the water flowing through it if they had some heavy rain once in a while.
At Ellery Creek Big Hole there is a lot of water still about with what would be a great spot to go for a swim if it was a little warmer, I could imagine it would be a popular spot in the heat. Like all the places up here it is surrounded by beautiful red rocks, has soft white sand surrounding it to make it look amazing. We were told it is over 30 meters deep, but not sure how true this is, especially now that it has been filled in after the last heavy rains brought in a whole heap of sand filling it up.
Serpentine gorge
As we took the walk, the landscape had just had a controlled fire burn so it was vast and patches where minimal, but there was enough to capture all the beauty of this gorge, into the river bed it wasn’t very hard to get in. I climbed up to the look out to the right before you enter the gorge and the view is simply amazing it is a long steep climb but well worth it.
Ochre pits
By this stage we where getting a little blazed by gorge after gorge, but this was awesome to see where the aboriginal mined for ochre, the different layer of colours through the walls was amazing, not only to see where there paintings originated from but how they would get there materials to paint them from the natural environment, this was a short walk from the car park with easy access for all.
Glen Helen is where we set camp for 3 days while we explored. We were new to the area and didn’t know about all the awesome free campsites and unsure if we could take the van to Kings Canyon with so many people telling us different things. We set up here to explore the majority of the sites until we found out the road had been graded. Still was an ok site to stay, with dingo’s visiting us every night why we had campfires roasting marshmallows. The gorge itself had a lot of water in it and on the afternoon or early morning light it was absolutely beautiful.
They have an awesome pub, with a fire inside and a beautiful outside view of the river running along it. It was so tranquil to site and relax at the end of the day,
Across from Glen Helen is an awesome free camp along the fink river. There were many places you could camp along the edge of the river, that had a lot of water still in it. Would recommend that if you don’t need power or water, camp there and save your money.
Roma Gorge was automatically one of my favourites as you need a 4wd to see this one meaning that not too many people would be visiting. The sign said it would take 1 hour to get out there and another hour back, however it took us about 20 mins going steady to reach the final car park driving in and out of the dry riverbed the whole way. A short walk to reach the gorge were our eldest was lucky enough to see a Spotted Quoll and all we got to see was her reaction trying to get the words out that she had seen it.
The gorge itself was beautiful and had a large white rock keeping water in the other side that you are not allowed to cross as it is a sacred site. Along the walk in and around the gorge we found a lot of aboriginal engravings again that were very detailed, again there are stories to these and i will let you find them out for your self to find out when you come out and take a look.
Redbank was quite a long walk compared to the rest, it starts out as a marked track then just disappears and you just king of keep walking through the riverbed hoping your going in the right direction. When we got there some crazy guy was swimming and I swear it was 0 degrees. The gap closes in at the end and the young fella told us the water goes really far back, but its very stinky. one of the better looking gorges we have seen in this area so don’t miss out on this one.
Palm Valley was the number 1 destination for me as soon as I heard that you need a high clearance 4wd and some serious guts to get in all the way. With this we just had to visit, however it was nothing spectacular to brag about on the 4wd side of things. Fun, yes and whilst there are some jump ups that most standard 4wds will make up and some small water crossings that just cover your wheels, overall it wasn’t very hard. Along the way the wild horses were crazy thick and not too afraid of the car when we approached, which my eldest loved.
Palm Valley itself was beautiful we did the 2-3km walk around and it was amazing how many palm trees and ferns can grow in the middle of the desert. I think they said that they last counted 12,000 odd palm trees in the area. The walk wasn’t too hard with some stairs at the turn around point for the smaller walk or if you are fitter than we are you could try doing the 7-8km walk.
Kings Canyon walk is not for the faint hearted, there are 2 main options, the first is an easy 2 km return walk into the canyon to see it from the ground up and the second is the rim walk. The rim walk is a 8-9 km walk that goes straight up from the start, this is not your average walk like Uluru there are many hill climbs and step ups along the way that really take it out of you, especially if you are carrying a baby the whole way, like I did.
We had to stop and rest for about 15 minutes why Jayde got her breath back as she was feeling sick after climbing up the start of the track, if it wasn’t for the kids yelling out we are not quitters in this family she would of turned around and went back to the caravan.
The views along the way are spectacular with the cliffs that look like someone has cut the stone away, the trees growing through rocks and the beautiful Eden’s Garden this walk has it all including some water at the end of it. There are many detours along the way that you should take to check out different things along the way, it just makes the walk that little bit longer as you have to back track the same way you come to get back to the main track.
All in all the west side is amazing and well worth a look, there are ways and to get to all of these places except Redbank gorge and palm valley by staying on the bitumen if that is your thing, with short walks at the end of most of them. there is free camping on the banks of the Finke river basically across the road from Glen Helen right along the side the river with some beautiful views. Whilst there are others this would be the easiest place to get a caravan into if that is what you are towing like us
Cheers
Lapping The Island
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