Watarrka National Park was a two and a quarter hour drive from our base at Curtin Springs Roadhouse – our longest drive for any day trip.

The main and very famous walk to do there is the Kings Canyon Rim Walk – a 3-4 hour circuit of the canyon with small side trails to Cotterills Lookout and the ‘Garden of Eden’ (a steep trail to a pool at the bottom of the canyon).

The canyon is also famous for being very hot, and it is not permitted to start the walk after 9am if the forecast is over 36 degrees (fairly often in summer). As it was August we had no such worries and we started our walk at 10am wearing jumpers (the forecast was for the mid 20s in the afternoon).

After a steep initial climb up to the canyon rim most of the walk was on solid rock along the edges of the canyon – with plenty of trail markers to point the way. The side track there and back to the ‘Garden of Eden’ was also quite steep – but with stairs and boardwalks.

The whole walk (including the side trips and far too many photo stops) took us about 4.5 hours including our lunch break.

Starting from the same car park as the main walk, there was also a short, flat trail along a shady creek (Kings Creek Walk – 2.5km return). We did this walk when we got back from the canyon (after coffee and water). There were a lot of birds on this trail and we saw a few budgies as well as our first ever hooded robin.