Uluru (Ayers rock)

Overview: 

The glow­ing heart of Australia’s red cen­tre, the famous Ulu­ru which sits in the great and vast Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park, tow­ers 340 meters above ground and is one of the most spec­tac­u­lar, awe-inspir­ing and spir­i­tu­al sights on the plan­et – with the famous sun­ris­es and sun­sets which see the great rock illu­mi­nate in a kalei­do­scope of mul­ti­ple glow­ing colours com­bined with its sheer size, clear star­ry nights and great and beau­ti­ful vast sur­round­ing land­scape mak­ing Ulu­ru not just the great sym­bol of Australia’s famous out­back but a tru­ly incred­i­ble won­der of the world.  

Root­ed in the his­to­ry of Aus­tralia, Ulu­ru is believed to be part of a nation­al Park that dates back more than 500,000 years old, with the tra­di­tion­al and now legal­ly recog­nised own­ers of this land, the Anan­gu hav­ing called the area home for more than 30,000 years, with Ulu­ru being the source of muck folk­lore and spir­i­tu­al mean­ing for its right­ful own­ers.  

Found in the famous red sands and stun­ning but harsh land­scapes of Australia’s cen­tre the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al is also home to the Olgas – a series of 36 dome like tow­er­ing rock for­ma­tions that tow­er above even Ulu­ru as well as the Wal­pa Gorge and a series of unique but stun­ning Flo­ra and Wildlife, that all inhib­it the 512 square miles of the nation­al park. 

As Ulu­ru is now right­ly per­ma­nent­ly closed for tourists who wish to climb it, the best way to expe­ri­ence this incred­i­ble won­der is by get­ting there for the stun­ning sun­ris­es and sun­sets ear­ly and view­ing the stun­ning colour changes in the rock – which sees its go from mul­ti­ple shades of orange to red and pur­ple – and gives you a chance to take in the tru­ly incred­i­ble stun­ning views that are reflect­ed with­in the rock with the chang­ing of the sun.  

 With Ulu­ru and the Olgas also being hike able on some incred­i­ble treks, as well as being explore on camel­back and offer­ing some of the most incred­i­ble night-time con­stel­la­tion and astron­o­my view­ing on the plan­et, the great long domed Ulu­ru and the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park are not just a stun­ning nation­al sym­bol for Aus­tralia and the great out­back, but also one of the most beau­ti­ful, spir­i­tu­al and awe-inspir­ing nat­ur­al won­ders on the plan­et.  

Where:

The Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park lies in the heart of Aus­tralia in the famous desert plains of the out­back in cen­tral Aus­tralia – with the near­est main town being Alice Springs – some 5 hours or 45o kilo­me­tres away and the near­est small­er town being 18km away in Yulu­ra. 

For per­spec­tive on the remote­ness Syd­ney is a 29 hour dri­ve away and is close to New Zealand than it is to Ulu­ru, so it makes mak­ing sure you’ve got your plans in place to get there safe­ly all the more impor­tant.  

Getting there:

Most trav­ellers will use Alice Springs as a base for get­ting to Ulu­ru – before trav­el­ling on up to the town of Yulu­ra and onwards to the won­der.  

For get­ting there, you have a cou­ple of options giv­en Australia’s size, with the eas­i­est being to fly into either Alice springs or Yulu­ra and hire a car or get a bust onwards to the won­der. 

For those fly­ing, flights to Alice Springs are avail­able from all over Aus­tralia – or you can choose to fly direct­ly into Yulu­ra air­port – with flight from Bris­bane a com­mon option as well as from across the coun­try, and then hop­ping on the free shut­tle bust that will take you to the won­der or by hir­ing a car and dri­ving to the won­der.  

For those who head to Allice Springs, which serves as a major town in the mid­dle of the out­back, it’s a five hour dri­ve to Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park – so you can like­ly for­get your sun­rise if you go on a day trip, and chances are any bus or tour trip will see you cat­tled into an over­crowd­ed bus giv­en lim­it­ed options on your trip – still for those who want this option there are a range of tours on offer in Alice Springs.  

Alter­na­tive­ly, for those who want a bit more of an adven­ture on their jour­ney to this remote out­back won­der, you have the option of self-dri­ving. While you can do this by hir­ing a car from Alice springs or Yulu­ra, Ulu­ru is a com­mon des­ti­na­tion of one of the great­est and most remote road trips on the plan­et – the incred­i­ble Stu­art high­way.  

Stretch­ing 1,761 miles, the Stu­art high­way runs all the way through the heart of Aus­tralia from Dar­win (croc­o­dile ter­ri­to­ry) in the north all the way through Alice Springs and the out­back to the south of Aus­tralia in Ade­laide. Trav­el­ling either north to south, or south to north – you’ll cov­er rough­ly a thou­sand miles to reach Ulu­ru pass­ing through remote wilder­ness, mul­ti­ple Kan­ga­roos and some of the most remote towns in the world – includ­ing Cad­ney Home­stead with a pop­u­la­tion of 16 and Kul­gera with a pop­u­la­tion of 20 – as well as the famous min­ing town of Coober Pedy – home of the Aus­tralian Opal — before even­tu­al­ly arriv­ing at Alice Springs and then the won­der of Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park.  

While not to be tak­en light­ly – as it is incred­i­bly dan­ger­ous and you’ll be on your own if your break down, the Stu­art high­way is a tru­ly incred­i­ble road trip – and is not called the explor­ers way for noth­ing, as you pass through remote towns, stun­ning scenery and the great nat­ur­al beau­ty and out­back of Aus­tralia before arriv­ing at the incred­i­ble won­der of Ulu­ru in the heart of Aus­tralia. For more on the Stu­art High­way Click Here.  

By Ghan Train:

For anoth­er tru­ly incred­i­ble trav­el­ling expe­ri­ence to reach Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park – you can go by train across the out­back of Aus­tralia before arriv­ing at Alice Springs.  

Going either North to South from Dar­win to Alice Springs, or South to North from Ade­laide to Dar­win, the Ghan train is one of the great­est train jour­neys on the plan­et that takes you down the spine of Aus­tralia and the out­back in an incred­i­ble com­fort­able jour­ney over 2 days 1 night as you get the chance to watch the vast Aus­tralian out­back pass you by from your win­dow. 

Stop­ping in icon­ic towns such as Coober Pedy, the appeal of the train is the amaz­ing scenery – with the starlight evenings, mul­ti­ple ranges and vast flat lime­stones offer­ing a tru­ly incred­i­ble jour­ney before you arrive in Alice Springs to trav­el onwards to the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park.  

While the Ghan is also a throw­back to the great trav­el jour­neys of yes­ter­year – unfor­tu­nate­ly it’s prices are not and you can expect to pay any­where between $1500 AUD to $3500 AUD for a 2 night 1 night jour­ney – a steep price but one worth it for the incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence.

Best time to Visit: 

While Ulu­ru is stun­ning no mat­ter the sea­son – it’s best to avoid it in the Aus­tralian Sum­mer that runs from Octo­ber – April – as the heat and the weath­er can make it just too hot.  

Instead we’d sug­gest vis­it­ing between May – August, when the weath­er is a cool­er 20 – 30 degrees, and while this means you may miss out on the water­fall effect at Ulu­ru it will make the hikes and walks much more enjoy­able – and give you a bet­ter chance of see­ing wildlife and avoid­ing sun­burn.  

For times, you need to bud­get at least 2 days 1 night at the won­der – prefer­ably 2 nights, as wit­ness­ing the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set is an expe­ri­ence you real­ly shouldn’t miss out on ! 

Explore: 

The incred­i­ble Ulu­ru Rock with­in the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park is undoubt­ed­ly the main attrac­tion you’ve come to the mid­dle of the Aus­tralian Out­back for – with the mes­meris­ing sun­ris­es, sun­sets, hike and vast and beau­ti­ful desert all com­bin­ing to make a fas­ci­nat­ing, cul­tur­al and beau­ti­ful won­der to explore.  

While peo­ple do come to see Ulu­ru for a day, we’d strong­ly advise bud­get­ing a cou­ple of days – which will give you enough time to see the rock chang­ing colour dur­ing the day, take in the incred­i­ble water­falls that cas­cade down its side dur­ing the wet sea­son, as well as take in the both the incred­i­ble Olgas and Wal­pa Gorge that lie with­in the around 1,300 square kilo­me­tres of the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park – for a series of bonus won­ders!. 

It’s also worth con­sid­er­ing and remem­ber­ing dur­ing your explo­ration of this won­der of its spir­i­tu­al sig­nif­i­cant to the local Anan­gu peo­ple – which you can learn more about in the inter­est­ing Cul­tur­al Cen­tre. While climb­ing the rock has been right­ly banned at the wish of the Anan­gu peo­ple, it’s still nec­es­sary to be respect­ful of local tra­di­tions and cul­tures – and of course immerse your­self in the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of this sacred site for a true Ulu­ru Expe­ri­ence.  

Stand­ing at an incred­i­ble 340 metres high and pre­sent­ing a kalei­do­scope of dif­fer­ent shades of colours from Orange to Red to Pur­ple through the day with the chang­ing sun, Ulu­ru is tru­ly a unique won­der and one of the great sym­bols of Aus­tralia, so in no par­tic­u­lar order the below are our top things to do when vis­it­ing the incred­i­ble won­der or Ulu­ru and the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park: 

Observing Uluru – Sunrise, Sunset & Waterfalls:

The clas­sic and eas­i­est way to see the won­der observ­ing the incred­i­ble Ulu­ru at any time, as regard­less of the time of day you come to see it the tow­er­ing and great rock will burn a unique shade of colours from Orange to Red to Pur­ple – giv­ing a glow­ing and illu­mi­nat­ed appear­ance and mak­ing for incred­i­ble pho­tos and a great sight as the great won­der tow­ers in the mid­dle of the Aus­tralian Out­back.  

While you can eas­i­ly stroll around the rock on a hike, there are a series of key view­points that give you the best view­ing point for tak­ing in its splen­dour – with the best times to wit­ness the incred­i­ble glow­ing and trans­for­ma­tion of the won­der undoubt­ed­ly being at ‘Hap­py Hour’ either sun­rise or sun­set when the famous Ulu­ru changes from shades of almost Orange to Pur­ple and descends into Dark­ness with the ris­ing and set­ting of the sun. 

Sunrise viewing spots:

While we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend giv­ing your­self a full day to watch both the sun­rise and sun­set, and see how the rock changes colour over the course of the day, for those arriv­ing at sun­rise you’ll be treat­ed to the incred­i­ble sight of the great Aus­tralian out­back sun ris­ing over the great won­der giv­ing it life – with the great rock light­ing up as Orange and Maroon for an awe-inspir­ing and spir­i­tu­al expe­ri­ence.  

While sun­rise can be viewed from any spot around the Rock – we’d advise head­ing to the ded­i­cat­ed sun­rise view­points for the absolute best views: 

Talinguru Nyakunytjaku viewpoint:

The main view­point for sun­rise – the Talin­gu­ru Nyakun­yt­jaku view­point offers a straight on and incred­i­ble view of the ris­ing with a series of ele­vat­ed plat­forms for a tru­ly incred­i­ble sight – if you’re lucky you’ll also be accom­pa­nied by a series of birds who will pro­vide the back­ing track as you watch the incred­i­ble rock light up with the stun­ning sun and go through a range of shades of colour from dark brown to light orange.  

Just be sure to get here ear­ly – well before sun­rise – as this is a pop­u­lar spot and you’ll find bus­loads of tours are dropped off here about 15 min­utes before sun­rise, so it’s worth get­ting there ear­ly to get a good spot.  

Sunset viewing spot:

While the sun­rise at Ulu­ru is spec­tac­u­lar – sun­set is tru­ly some­thing else, with Ulu­ru quick­ly trans­form­ing through a range of colours and offer­ing a spir­i­tu­al and awe-inspir­ing sight as the sun descends over the won­der.  

With the rock going from Orange, to Pink to Pur­ple over the course of some half an hour it’s undoubt­ed­ly a pop­u­lar attrac­tion, and like­wise you’ll find numer­ous peo­ple com­ing to wit­ness the incred­i­ble spec­ta­cle of an Ulu­ru Sun­set – so be sure to get to one of the fol­low­ing view­ing points well in advance and bring a qual­i­ty cam­era with you so as not to miss the action: 

Uluru Sunset Viewing Area

Incred­i­bly well sign­post­ed (and well named) the Ulu­ru Sun­set View­ing area offers an incred­i­ble straight on view of the won­der at sun­set – allow­ing you to see the clas­sic chang­ing of colour of the won­der and grab those pic­ture-per­fect post­card images of the illu­mi­nat­ed won­der as it changes through a range of bright colours light­ing up the out­back.  

While a pop­u­lar spot – it also does not have capac­i­ty dur­ing the peak sea­son to accom­mo­date every­one, so for this rea­son we’d advise get­ting there ear­ly – or check­ing the time that your tour leaves – to ensure you get a good spot and can watch the incred­i­ble sun­set over the immense won­der of Ulu­ru.  

Kata Tjuta sunset viewing area

For those who don’t like mas­sive crowds – or arrive when the Ulu­ru Sun­set View­ing Area is sim­ply too full, as a back­up option we’d rec­om­mend the Kata Tju­ta sun­set view­ing area – which will slight­ly fur­ther out gives a wider angle of the incred­i­ble sun­set and again allows you to watch the incred­i­ble chang­ing colour of the rock at sun­set from an ele­vat­ed area – giv­ing you the best pos­si­ble expe­ri­ence to snap some incred­i­ble pho­tos and take in the immense nat­ur­al beau­ty of the great Ulu­ru Rock.  

Sunset Dinner 

For those with a bit more mon­ey and who fan­cy a roman­tic expe­ri­ence at the incred­i­ble won­der – while watch­ing the sun­set from the com­fort of their own table, you have to option to indulge in a sun­set din­ner – with a pri­vate din­ing expe­ri­ence fea­tur­ing a three course meal on option – with cham­pagne served and an incred­i­ble up close view of the immense won­der at sun­set.  

Expect to pay a cou­ple fo hun­dred dol­lars for the expe­ri­ence, but you’ll get to sam­pel a ragne of out­back del­i­ca­cies – includ­ing Kan­ga­roo – before being tak­en after sun­set to a series of unique view­ing spots to sight the con­stel­la­tions and stars – for a tru­ly incred­i­ble din­ner in one of the worlds most roman­tic spots.  

Waterfalls at Uluru

Along­side the chang­ing colours of the rock at sun­rise and sun­set and through­out the course of the day, one fur­ther unique phe­nom­e­non to look out for at Ulu­ru is the incred­i­ble water­falls that cas­cade down the great rock dur­ing the wet sea­son after an out­back show­er. 

Com­mon­ly seen between Novem­ber – May dur­ing the out­back wet sea­son the water­falls are a tru­ly unique sight – as the out­back rain and the asso­ci­at­ed drop in tem­per­a­ture explodes the incred­i­ble out­back desert into life, with the rain­wa­ter not only result­ing in the rock of Ulu­ru chang­ing colour, but result­ing in the water gath­er­ing and down head­ing down the var­i­ous ridges of the rock cre­at­ing a mul­ti­ple water­fall rock around – a tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar site and one very much worth see­ing if you can time your vis­it for the sea­son ! 

Field of Light 

Along­side view­ing the incred­i­ble sun­set, there’s also an amaz­ing per­ma­nent art exhi­bi­tion at the base of Ulu­ru that is tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar and well worth a vis­it. Known as the field of light, the art design stretch­es for half a kilo­me­tre with 50,000 light anten­nas light­ing up the vast desert before the great Ulu­ru Rock.  

While you’ll have to pay to enter – and have the option of hav­ing a bit of tea while look­ing out over the field — the light instal­la­tion against the back­drop of the stun­ning night sky of the out­back is tru­ly spec­tac­u­lar, with the anten­nas cre­at­ing a nerve like reach across the desert and a spec­trum of mul­ti­ple flower like vio­let blue and green colours for a tru­ly stun­ning pho­to oppor­tu­ni­ty and expe­ri­ence. 

Night viewing & Camping

Anoth­er incred­i­ble expe­ri­ence at the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park is the amaz­ing night sky – with the lack of pol­lu­tion com­bined with Australia’s posi­tion giv­ing you a tru­ly incred­i­ble clear view of the out­back sky and the chance to spot a var­i­ty of con­stel­la­tions., stars and plan­ets in the South­ern out­back sky.  

While we’d rec­om­mend com­ing quipped with a good cam­era and spend­ing at least one night camp­ing (com­plete with camp­fire and smores) to get to true effect – with the well found Ayers Rock Camp­ground in par­tic­u­lar­ly pro­vid­ing a range of options from self-tent­ing to cab­ins and car­a­van spots – and fea­tur­ing a swim­ming pool, kitchen and laun­dry being our favourite – a chance to see the incred­i­ble Ulu­ru rock against the back­drop of the amaz­ing night stars of the out­back is a tru­ly breath­less expe­ri­ence and one that will give you a night and a moment to remem­ber for­ev­er.  

 Walks: 

Uluru Base Walk:

Along­side view­ing the rock both at sun­rise, dur­ing the day and at night – and tak­ing in the incred­i­ble water­fall and night sky that of the incred­i­ble out­back, for a more up close and per­son­al expe­ri­ence at Ulu­ru you are able to take a walk around its out­er base fol­low­ing a well defined track that offers not just a guid­ed edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ence about dif­fer­ent ele­ments of the won­der – includ­ing its spir­i­tu­al and impor­tance to local Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple – but also gives you stun­ning views of this unique won­der.  

The base walk will take around 4 hours to com­plete, and while rel­a­tive­ly flat com­pro­mis­es 11 km of hik­ing in the oiut­back heat, so be sure to come pre­pared with plen­ty of sun­screen, a good hat and plen­ty of water !. Divied into four sec­tions the below is our advice on hik­ing the base walk at Ulu­ru:  

Lungkata 

Start­ing from the Mala Carpark on the west of Ulu­ru yyou’ll come to the start­ing sec­tion known as the Lungka­ta walk and you’ll straight away be greet­ed with an assort­ment of caves. You’ll also come up across a series of signs that detail the spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and his­to­ry of the west­ern part of the rock for the local Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple – includ­ing that of the famous blue-tonged lizard man who lived in the Lungka­ta Cave and of the leg­end of Lungka­ta who came unstuck while climb­ing the rock.  

Kuniya Walk and Mutitjulu Waterhole -

Con­tin­u­ing your way round the incred­i­ble rock and tak­ing in the many rock for­ma­tions and caves on it’s side you’ll come to the next sec­tion of the Kuniya Walk and Mutitju­lu Water­hole – which in our view is the most spec­tac­u­lar area of the rock being green and rich in life and a fan­tas­tic place to spot Kana­roos and wal­la­bies who call the shel­ter and water from the rock as a home.  

 The area is again steeped in leg­end host­ing the teach­ing cave, and the Kulpi Mutitju­lu cave where pre­vi­ous abo­ro­fi­nal elders would pass down teach­ings to younger gen­er­a­tions – with  

the Mutitju­lu Water­hole again being an incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful spot as a per­ma­nent water spring that sits at the base of Ulu­ru and gives life to the many ani­mals and plants that spring up in the harsh out­back – it’s a tru­ly spe­cial and unique spot and one we’d rec­om­mend tak­ing many pho­tos of and tak­ing your time while pass­ing through it.  

North-east face walk

Con­tin­u­ing round the Rock base and fol­low­ing the trail, you’ll enter the North-east face sec­tion of the rock – where you’ll see a series of signs inform­ing you of the cul­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance of this area of the won­der – mean­ing pho­tos are off lim­its as you head round this sec­tion.  

Mov­ing round the track you’ll pass fur­ther water holes and grass­lands and the key spir­i­tu­al sites of Kuniya Piti  and Taputji – two unique spir­i­tu­al sites as well as the Kan­tju Gorge where a board­walk takes you to the actu­al face of the rock (where those with long arms can reach out and touch it) and where this sec­tion of the walk fin­ish­es  – with this area being the longest stretch of the walk we’d advise to take your time and pace your­self and take in the many for­ma­tions and infor­ma­tive signs that help explain to true beau­ty and sig­nif­i­cant of this sec­tion of the rock to explor­ers.  

Mala Walk 

The last bit of the walk starts from the stun­ning Kan­tju Gorge and takes you into a series of caves once used by the Anan­gu peo­ple , you’ll notice the rock face start the weave away from you as you make your way back to the start­ing point – but before you do you’ll also get to see a series of incred­i­ble and authen­tic Abo­rig­i­nal art carved into the rock and which date back cen­turies – and which illu­mi­nate with the move­ment of the sun – for a fur­ther tru­ly unique expe­ri­ence.  

Once you’ve head­ed back to the start­ing point, we’d advise tak­ing a few moments to look back on the rock and grab some more pho­tos as you reflect on the last few hours spent walk­ing round one of the most icon­ic, spi­tiru­al and awe-inspir­ing sights on the plan­et.  

 Camel Tour 

For those who don’t fan­cy the Ulu­ru Base walk, there’s anoth­er option to get up close to the won­der – in the form of a camel tour. Strand­ing a top the bumpy camel you’ll cross the red sand dunes around the base of Ulu­ru on a camel over the course of an hour – and get to view the incred­i­ble won­der from an ele­vat­ed height – for those who want to take the came expe­ri­ence even fur­ther, you also have the option to take a camel tour at sun­rise or sun­set – giv­ing you mul­ti­ple dif­fer­ent view of the won­der dur­ing its peak colour chang­ing time – although we’re not sure if a camel trip first thing in the morn­ing is the best idea ! 

Cultural Centre 

Along­side tak­ing in the base walk and learn­ing of the great abo­rig­i­nal cul­ture and beliefs that sur­round Ulu­ru, it’s also high­ly rec­om­mend­ed to take a trip to the cul­tur­al cen­tre that fea­tures two orig­i­nal abo­rig­i­nal gal­leries and also a chance ot learn fur­ther about the Abo­rig­i­nal cul­ture and the impor­tance of Ulu­ru to its native peo­ple.  

Fea­tur­ing tra­di­tion­al wood carv­ings, paint­ing and jew­ellery depict­ing tra­di­tion­al sto­ries and that tell the tale of both the olgas and Ulu­ru, a trip to the cul­tur­al cen­tre is a great way to learn fur­ther about the unique won­der that is Ulu­ru.  

The Olgas:

Explor­ing the Ulu­ru-Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park fur­ther and 10 miles away from the rock you’ll find the famous Olgas – or Kata Tju­ta – which are a series of 36 large pro­trud­ing rock domes that are believed to date back more than half a bil­lion in years. 

These unique rock domes – which rise some 650 metres in height are tru­ly incred­i­ble as they rise out of the outback’s red dirt sand and like Ulu­ru change colour with the pass­ing of the sun.  

Mak­ing for an incred­i­ble stop off dur­ing the day at Ulu­ru – while you wait for the incred­i­ble sun­set, the best way to explore these incred­i­ble dome shaped rocks – nick­named many heads by the Abo­rig­i­nal Peo­ple – is undoubt­ed­ly on foot – with our favourite walk around this won­der unques­tion­ably being the ‘Val­ley of the Winds’ Walk: 

The Olgas – the valley of the winds walk:

The stun­ning val­ley of the winds walk is  7.5 kilo­me­tre track that takes you through the incred­i­ble many head Olgas – pass­ing some of the most incred­i­ble scenery of the out­back and gives you a chance to get up close and per­son­al to the incred­i­ble demos.  

Home to the stun­ning Kru look­out and Karingana look­out, the val­ley of the winds trail stands off from the main carpark and take you down a sandy road with the rocks com­ing clos­er and clos­er into view – before you reach the incred­i­ble Karu look­out – where you will get incred­i­ble panoram­ic views of all the domes and the great out­back.  

While a num­ber of trekkers choose to turn back after reach­ing this look­out – it real­ly is worth con­tin­u­ing down the long path – as you’ll find your­self com­ing to an almost oasis like water hole in the mid­dle of the out­back – and near it a series of plants and fau­nas – with wal­la­bies and kan­ga­roos also known to be spot­ted drink­ing from it.  

Mov­ing fur­ther down the sand track, and you’ll come to more of the Domes them­selves – and get the chance to stand at their base and touch them – although climb­ing is out of the ques­tion. IF you keep fol­low­ing the track round, you’ll be greet­ed by more stun­ning views and even­tu­al­ly climb up to the incred­i­ble look­out of Karingana – where you’ll get stun­ning view of the domes and a tru­ly incred­i­ble panoram­ic view of this incred­i­ble sight.  

Hav­ing tak­en as many shots as you can man­age of the incred­i­ble view, you’ll be back on the track and fol­low it as it winds rounds up a creek and past some more lush green­ery before drop­ping you off at the start­ing point.  

While the walk tru­ly is incred­i­ble and will undoubt­ed­ly be one of your high­lights at the Ulu­ru-Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park, just be sure to come pre­pared with lots of sun­screen and water – as it can be a bit exposed in the sun. It’s also impor­tant to remem­ber that while this is an incred­i­ble walk, it’s also anoth­er sacred and spe­cial site for Abo­rig­i­nals – with the rock for­ma­tions believed to be cre­at­ed by spir­it ener­gy and being home to the Snake King Wanam­bi – so be sure to treat the area with respect as you hike this incred­i­ble trek.  

Walpa Gorge

Lying in the shad­ow of Ulu­ru, the Wal­pa Gorge is an equal­ly stun­ning but often over­looked rock coun­ter­part. While not reach­ing the same heights, the Wal­pa Gorge is stun­ning in that you can actu­al­ly hike direct­ly through the two tallest domes of the whole of the Kata Tju­ta before reach­ing an incred­i­ble out­back stream.  

Clock­ing in at 2.6km, the Wal­pa Gorge hike is one well off the beat­en track – in fact you will prob­a­bly do the whole hike in silence such is the ambi­ent atmos­phere at the gorge and the rocky track that leads you to the stream is known for hav­ing an assort­ment of wal­la­bies as well as colour­ful green flow­ers and plants – with the gorge offer­ing a great chance to get up close and per­son­al to some of the domes and take on one of the best hikes in the whole of the Ulu­ru-Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park.   

How long to stay:

Hav­ing got your­self to the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park we’d advise spend­ing 3 days 2 nights – this will give you enough time to wit­ness the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set and the var­i­ous kalei­do­scop­ic changes of the won­der dur­ing the day – as well as  take in the field of light, hike in the stun­ning Wal­pa Gorge and tour the Olgas – and giv­ing you enough time take on a walk around the Ulu­ru Rock.  

For an added bonus as well, we’d advise spend­ing at least one of the nights camp­ing in the out­back in the Ulu­ru Camp­site – it gives you a chance to see the stun­ning night sky light­ing up the rock for an incred­i­ble and awe-inspir­ing view.   

Top Tip:

The out­back is hot ! – very very hot – so be sure to come with plen­ty of water before you enter the Uluru–Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park as it’s not avail­able once you enter – we’d advise bud­get­ing for at least 5 litres per per­son, as you will get through it.  

Along­side this come pre­pared for hot con­di­tions – shorts, tshirt, sun­glass­es, a good hat and plen­ty of sun­screen – as well as a good strong insect repel­lent.  

We’d also advise if pos­si­ble to make your trip there a self-dri­ve tour – with a car with good air-con­di­tion­ing as it will give you more free­dom to explore the won­der at your own pace – and give you a bet­ter chance of secur­ing a good spot at either the sun­set view spot or the Talin­gu­ru Nyakun­yt­jaku view­ing point which can real­ly make your pho­tos or the more spec­tac­u­lar.  

Cost:

While get­ting to the won­der can be a chal­lenge – and depend­ing on your route can cost any­where from $150 — $3,000 AUD, once you get to the Ulu­ru-Kata Tju­ta Nation­al Park, you’ll find things pret­ty afford­able – with entry to the park (which is avail­able at https://parksaustralia.gov.au/uluru/plan/passes/) cost­ing $25 AUD and allow­ing you to come and go as you please for 3 days – which is espe­cial­ly handy for those who wish to see the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­sets over mul­ti­ple days.  

For those not self-dri­ving, hav­ing got­ten your­self to Alice Springs you can expect half day tours – for either sun­set or sun­rise to come in from $70 AUD – and full day tours to dou­ble to $150 AUD – but the full day tours includ­ing free time to walk round the won­der and a trip to the Olgas – which make them a decent bar­gain – and you can expect to pay $40 AUD for the field of light trip as well for those who choose to spend the night camp­ing.  

For those who can’t face a walk – then the camel trips come in at $140 AUD on aver­age but be sure to book in advance and time them for sun­rise or sun­set – oth­er­wise you’ll find your­self on a bumpy camel going round the won­der in the harsh Aus­tralian out­back heat – not a fun expe­ri­ence! 

Final­ly, for those with a bit more mon­ey and who want a true and incred­i­bly scenic adven­ture trav­el­ling to the won­der, you can get your­self a tick­et from either Ade­laide or Dar­win on the Ghan train – and spend 2 days and 1 night on one of the worlds great­est train jour­neys across the immense Aus­tralian Out­back – with tick­ets start­ing at $1,599.00 nd ris­ing as high as $3500 – for a pricey but tru­ly incred­i­ble way of see­ing the great Ulu­ru.  

All in though and for those not tak­ing the Ghan, we’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing $600 — $1,500 Aud for a trip to the incred­i­ble Ulu­ru. 

Fun Fact:

Although it took more than a cen­tu­ry for the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment to recog­nise it, the Abo­rig­i­nal Aus­tralians known to them­selves as Anan­gu have called Ulu­ru home for at least 35,000 years – with the rock hold­ing a spe­cial and sacred mean­ing in their cul­ture and beliefs.  

 Best photo spot:

While the sheer size and beau­ty of Ulu­ru is Stun­ning at any time of day – if you can time your day­time vis­it short­ly after rain­fall, which nor­mal­ly occurs dur­ing the Aus­tralian sum­mer of Novem­ber – May, you’ll get to wit­ness the incred­i­ble water­falls pour­ing down the won­der for a tru­ly unique and incred­i­ble phe­nom­e­non – you may have to get up close to the Rock to tru­ly snap it, but it’s well worth it.   

But the undoubt­ed beau­ty and high­light of a vis­it to Ulu­ru is to wit­ness it come alive with the chang­ing of the suns, with the incred­i­ble glow­ing effect of both sun­rise and sun­set undoubt­ed­ly the time to grab shots of the won­der.  

For sun­rise we’d rec­om­mend head­ing to the Talin­gu­ru Nyakun­yt­jaku view­ing point, and get­ting a spot on one of the two view­ing plat­forms a good hour or so before the sun ris­es – as you’ll find it fills up mas­sive­ly 15 mins before as tour groups arrive – and on clear day you’ll also be able to snap the Olgas in the dis­tance.  

For Sun­set we’d rec­om­mend the apt­ly named Sun­set view­ing area – while very pop­u­lar it gives you a direct line of sight to the won­der, and is undoubt­ed­ly the best place to watch the kalei­do­scope of colours that the Ulu­ru Rock reflects as the sun descends – it’s from here that the typ­i­cal ‘post­card’ snaps of Ulu­ru in all it’s illu­mi­nat­ed glo­ry are nor­mal­ly tak­en — just be sure to get here ear­ly as it does fill up.  

Final­ly for those who are lucky enough to head to the won­der on a clear day we’d rec­om­mend stay­ing up late and wit­ness­ing the incred­i­ble and clear night skies over Ulu­ru as a bonus pho­to – you’ll need a good cam­era, but the chance to see the stun­ning out­back night time stars and plan­ets reflect­ing back down is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence, and a true way to see the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Ulu­ru.