One of the things we reconciled in the research phase of this trip was that there were some things that we wouldn’t be able to see and do with two small young humans and the Kings Canyon Rim Walk which everyone raves about ended up being one of those things.

Unfortunately, the reality is that toddlers get tired and bored and can’t do the things that older children and adults can so despite a great time at Uluru, the girls were kind of over walking and whilst we were looking forward to seeing this canyon that we’d heard so much about, we weren’t sure how it was going to go.

The next morning we headed out to the canyon and were debating about trying the Rim Walk or even the Southern walk after Corey had spoken to some other campers who had tried it the day before.  We knew it was likely that we’d have to carry them in parts but we were optimistic that we’d be able to handle it. But the universe had conspired against us and our normally sunny and energetic Miss A decided that she was going to be a grump and so it became pretty clear that strenuous walks were out of the question and so we made the decision to just tackle the easy creek walk.

Miss Grump stayed that way for the first half, but thankfully perked up after a snack at the end of the walk and seemed to enjoy it more coming back.  The Creek walk was surprisingly beautiful and a fun little walk to take the girls on.

Stupidly, we thought that their improved mood meant they’d be up for another 1km walk to the Kathleen Springs. Erm… nope.  We got halfway into that walk and then Miss B  started to crack it, and soon the grump was back – Miss A was over it too so it was piggy back rides home.  The Karma Bus cleaned both Corey and I up for pushing them too hard!

After our two nights at the Kings Canyon Resort (caravan park – everything’s called a resort out here!), we packed up and decided to try our luck on the Mereenie Loop which is a dirt track connecting Kings Canyon to Alice Springs through the West McDonnell Ranges.  It was try the dirt of backtrack the way we’d come in which would add around 200km to a 300km+ day, so we decided to try the dirt and made it through with relative ease.

The West McDonnell Ranges is home to wild brumbies and camels and is very rocky terrain.I’m not sure the Gibb River Road is going to be an option after our little foray off track with our van, but it was good to see what it was capable of and Corey is finally happy that our van no longer looks like it’s a brand spanker!

Have you done the Kings Canyon Rim Walk? What tours or sites have you missed because your kids were too young to go?