Day 24: Watarrka / Kings Canyon

Today we headed out on the Kings Canyon Rim Walk, which was a 7.3km walk (3-4 hours). It started with a steep climb up some very impressive rock steps. Then continued along the northern wall of Kings Canyon, through bee hive rock formations, some great examples of cross-bedded alluvial sandstone formations, and paleo river ripples. There were also lots of flowering plants that I'm still learning the names of! We then dropped down into the Garden of Eden, which is a small oasis at the head of the canyon. We were lucky enough to get about 10 minutes at the large pool at the end of the canyon to ourselves, despite how busy the track was. Once we climbed back out of the head of the canyon we headed along the southern rim back to the car park.

Then it was back to camp for the afternoon. The kids spent the rest of the day at the playground until we collected them to walk up to the local lookout and watch the sunset. We then treated ourselves to dinner at the Kings Creek Station Cafe (beef burgers for the kids and camel burgers for the parents).

We finished off the day with a campfire and marshmallows as the full moon rose over camp.