Travelers pass red rock canyons and Gosses Bluff en route to Uluru, Australia’s most famous rock monolith. All photos by Serena Renner.
Nothing feels more Aussie than road tripping in a four-wheel-drive campervan through the dusty red center of the Australian Outback. The Northern Territory landscape, with its grooved gorges, surprising rock formations and vast southern sky, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The best way to take it all in is on an Alice Springs to Uluru road trip, passing Glen Helen Gorge, the Mereenie Loop and Kings Canyon along the way.
Alice Springs to Glen Helen Homestead
It was late afternoon when we arrived in Alice Springs, the most populous city in the Northern Territory, so we had to skip such local attractions as the Alice Springs Telegraph Station and Alice Springs Desert Park to pick up our Apollo campervan and make the hour-and-a-half trip to the Glen Helen Homestead Lodge before dark. Luckily there wasn’t much traffic — it seemed as if we were the only ones on the highway hugging the MacDonnell Ranges, home to Ellery Creek, the Ochre Pits, Simpsons Gap and Ormiston Gorge, among other pit stops. We took in white ghost gums; kangaroo, horse and camel crossing signs; and cracked canyon walls as the sun sank over the red center.
Outside the Glen Helen Lodge is a piano stacked with hiking boots battered by the 140-mile Larapinta Trail.
When our Alice Springs to Uluru road trip reached the Glen Helen Lodge, it was about time for dinner at its Namatjira Gallery Restaurant, named after Albert Namatjira, the late Aboriginal landscape painter who grew up nearby. Kangaroo and crocodile spring rolls, barramundi with apples and potatoes, black pepper steak and berry panna cotta are on the menu in a historic dining room decorated with some of Namatjira’s windswept masterpieces.
After you wake up in your motel room or campervan, it’s time to check out the nearby gorges. We headed to Ormiston Gorge, where you can hike about 20 minutes up to the Ghost Gum Lookout and watch the sun stream into the canyon. Before we departed Glen Helen, we also checked out the Finke River — one of the oldest rivers in the world, which runs alongside the lodge — and said “g’day” to the resident parrots and herons.
The view of Ormiston Gorge from Ghost Gum Lookout
Driving the Mereenie Loop
Day two is when the fun really began, driving the bumpy and buzzing unsealed road known as the Mereenie Loop to Kings Canyon. This is where your four-wheel drive comes in handy.
Our 4WD Apollo campervan was a trusty companion for the red sands of the Mereenie Loop.
Our first stop was Gosses Bluff, the relic of a 12-mile-wide crater formed when a comet hit this spot more than 120 million years ago. Today, there’s an easy trail that loops around the crater as well as interpretive signs about Aboriginal traditions, such as the act of collecting rocks representing different foods to ensure a good harvest.
A tree clad in clothing and accessories, seen on the side of the Mereenie Loop.
Farther along the loop, we spotted a tree wearing all manner of human clothing and accessories — T-shirts, underwear, a pink flower lei … It reminded us of the cat tree in the film “Last Cab to Darwin.” Apparently there are other themed trees, including one covered in tires and another brimming with hats.
Kings Canyon and Surrounds
Kings Creek Station is an off-the-grid getaway where travelers stay in tent cabins overlooking the Outback.
Camels and cattle greeted us at Kings Creek Station, an off-the-grid collection of canvas tent cabins where we settled in on night two. There was no Wi-Fi, which was the perfect excuse to curl up with a book, sit around the campfire at night and set about exploring the smooth and craggy canyon walls of Kings Canyon.
A creek crossing on the Rim Trail through Kings Canyon, part of Watarrka National Park.
An even more unique opportunity nearby, however, is the Karrke Aboriginal Cultural Experience, led by Peter Abbott and his wife Christine. The one-hour cultural tour shares the eating, hunting and artistic traditions of the Luritja and Southern Aranda clans, complete with the ceremonial burning of medicinal plants, spear and boomerang throwing demonstrations, and preparation of bush foods including the witchetty grub, which is found in the roots of acacia trees and tastes a lot like popcorn when cooked over an open fire!
The Karrke Aboriginal Cultural Experience teaches visitors about indigenous traditions such as jewelry making.
Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park
The grand finale of our Alice Springs to Uluru trip was a weekend in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Since there are no accommodations right near Uluru or Kata Tjuta, it was nice to have a car to drive into the park each day (though it costs $25 per person for the weekend). Alternatively, you can book one of the many tours that access the park, and then the entry fee is waved. We stayed at Sails in the Desert Hotel, where artwork, furnishings and bath products are all inspired by the local indigenous culture. We also admired the food, night sky and Aboriginal dancing of the Sounds of Silence dinner, held just over a bluff from Australia’s beating heart: Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock).
Uluru (also known as Ayers Rock) is actually grey beneath layers of oxidized iron.
The next morning, we drove to the sunrise viewing area near Kata Tjuta (AKA the Olgas) and watched the red hot sun emerge next to Uluru and then reflect back on the 36 rocks of Kata Tjuta, arguably more important to Aboriginals than Kata Tjuta’s more famous brother. On our final morning, we took a sunrise tour of Uluru and learned that every line and pit of the monolith has a story, which Aboriginal people have been telling to instill morals and lessons and explain the relationship between people, plants, animals and country for 30,000 years. It’s hard not to walk away from “the Rock” with a sense of amazement and deep respect for the indigenous people. On our way back to Sails in the Desert, our guide, John, played “Touch the Silence,” a song written by an Aboriginal musician for the 30th anniversary of the date indigenous people were given back their land here. “Come and touch the wind/ Talking through the spinifex/ Rolls across the sand dunes/ Uluru watching everything/ Touch the silence.” I was speechless.
An Uluru sunrise is best viewed from the sunrise viewing area at Kata Tjuta (the Olgas).
Alice Springs to Uluru Road Trip from Australia Things to Do
