Kings Canyon Rim Walk NT (6 km)
Watarrka National Park
Nearest Town
- Yulara (303 km)
- Alice Springs (473 km)
Starting Location
Kings Canyon car park
Finish Location
Kings Canyon car park
Best Time to Travel
Year round but if the temperature is forecast to be over 36° Celsius you must start the walk by 9:00am to void the excessive heat
Kings Canyon Rim Walk Review
The Kings Canyon Rim walk provides the opportunity to gain a birds eye view of the desert landscape. The Rim walk is a one way walk, marked with blue arrows and starts with a fairly hefty climb from the car park up a series of stone steps to the summit of the canyon.
Apart from being a way of managing foot traffic on the top of the canyon it also ensures that those not fit enough to undertake this walk soon pull out. For fit hikers, this walk will present no problem but if you don’t fall into this category or have young children you may be better off doing the 2.6 km Kings Creek walk. If you do decide to take kids up on top of the canyon, keep a careful eye on them as you have some serious drop offs to contend with.
Once you have done all the hard work at the start you will be spending most of the time navigating the canyon rim to various lookout points that provide spectacular views. The maximum altitude on this walk will vary depending on how far you want to explore the canyon top. You can stay on top of the canyon rim for the whole walk before descending back down to the car park or you also have the option of descending down into the Garden of Eden around the halfway mark. The Garden of Eden is essentially an oasis, complete with water in the middle of the canyon. And just beautiful!
The rock colouring and formations on this walk, like much of the surrounding parks, are spectacular and as a bark fanatic there are some pretty amazing ghost gums and other occasional trees to which you can get up close. While I don’t rate this walk as highly as the Uluru base walk, I would still recommend that you make time to do this walk.
Walk signage with temperature comfort rating
Interpretive signage map
The walk starts with a nice big set of rock stairs
Trail markers – blue arrows
One of the many lookouts
I love tree bark even when its dead
View from one of the lookouts onto the plain below
Garden of Eden sign
Looking down into the Garden of Eden; lots of water
Garden of Eden view
Canyon view showing other hikers and some of the infrastructure
Getting There
Many people will either do this walk as part of a tour to Uluru or as part of a larger self drive road trip. Watarrka (Kings Canyon) can also be accessed by Yulara (map from Google Maps)
Things to Know
- Phone: Yes, Optus and Telstra phone signal
- Water: there is water at the car park
- Toilets: There at the car park
- Trail: This walk is on natural trail, mainly rock
- Dogs: No dogs allowed on leash
- Other:
- This trail is very popular so if you want a bit of solitude start early
- No camping is allowed on this trail
- There is a resort located nearby if you are looking at staying before travelling on
- If you are doing this walk, heat can be an issue particularly when you are on top of the canyon so if the forecast is going to be 36° Celsius or over you will need to start the walk before 9am
- Most travellers visiting Watarrka National Park (Kings Canyon) tend to be doing the ‘grand tour’ and will often be travelling to/from Uluru Kata Tjuta
Disclaimer
This walk was undertaken by the team from Australian Hiker