Watarrka (Kings Canyon) Area - Watarrka National Park

The park has long been the spiritual home of Aboriginal families. The Lurijta People lived there for 20,000 years. They gave it the name Watarrka for the umbrella bush that grows there. Its main feature is Kings Canyon, a blend of craggy rock and cliff faces dotted with pockets of vegetation.

Two walking tracks through Watarrka National Park offer a chance to immerse yourself in the solitude of the Australian outback. The canyon walk, a six kilometre walk through the Garden of Eden - which has a delightful series of permanent waterholes - leads through stands of desert oak woodlands and unique rock formations to the rim of the canyon. This walk takes around three to four hours, and rewards you with a breathtaking view of the 300 metre drop to the valley floor. Another walk, the Kings Creek walk, meanders along Kings Creek for 2.6 kilometres and takes only an hour, ending at a spectacular lookout.

A fern-fringed oasis, called the Garden of Eden, and a couple of scenic walks give bushwalkers a chance to have their own unique encounter with part of Australia's remote heartland.