Kings Canyon Rim Walk
Drive 300 km from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon in Watarrka National Park for the rim walk — a 6-km circuit around the top of 270-metre sandstone walls above the Garden of Eden, one of Australia's finest day walks.
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Kings Canyon Car Park
Kings Canyon is a 300-km drive from Alice Springs — the journey itself passes through quintessential Red Centre landscape of mulga woodland, salt lakes, and the distant MacDonnell Ranges before Watarrka National Park appears ahead.
- 2
Rim Walk Climb
The rim walk begins with a steep 100-metre climb known as 'heartbreak hill' — the climb takes 10 minutes and arrives at the canyon rim for the first panoramic view of the sandstone country stretching to the horizon.
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Kings Canyon Rim
The canyon rim is a remarkable landscape of beehive domes — the rounded sandstone outcrops created by weathering along intersecting joint lines create an alien landscape that has become one of Australia's most recognised images.
- 4
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is a hidden palm grove in a sheltered canyon below the rim — cycad palms and ferns grow around a permanent waterhole, a complete contrast to the exposed desert rim 150 metres above.
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Lost City Formation
The Lost City section of the rim walk passes through the most dramatic beehive dome formations — the rounded sandstone outcrops, some 10 metres high, create a maze that early explorers found disorienting and named accordingly.
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Canyon Rim Sunset View
The western end of the rim at sunset turns the sandstone walls deep red — the 270-metre drop into the canyon floor, with the evening light on the rock, provides one of the Red Centre's most dramatic landscape moments.
Walk this route with audio
Stories play automatically as you reach each stop — no tapping needed.
