Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Kings Canyon

Sunday morning we drove back to Uluru - Kata Tjuta Natonal Park to visit the other major rock formation in the park, Kata Tjuta. It is 36 mounds, similar to Uluru, but each one smaller, and all together in one formation. Some of them are actually taller than Uluru, but not as large around. Even though they are not the main attraction, I like them better. They're the same red color, but the texture of Uluru sort of looks like the bark on a tree, and Kata Tjuta looks like straw. The rocks are lots of different shapes, and a few at one end sit together like loaves of bread. There is a walk between two of them in the "Valley of Winds." We thought about doing the hike, but the heat was a bit much, and we knew we had a long drive ahead of us. So we drove around for a few different angles, walked up close to them for some photos, and headed to Kings Canyon.

On the way to Kings Canyon we stopped for lunch at Curtin Springs, an authentic Australian cattle station (ranch) with over 1,000,000 acres. I'm not sure what the largest ranch is in Australia, or the world for that matter, but  a million acres sounds like a lot. By my calculation that is a 40 mile by 40 mile square, or the road from Longmont to Denver on all four sides.

We made it to Kings Canyon about 4:00, so we decided to go straight to the canyon, to see if we want to go back tomorrow, or just leave straight to Alice Springs in the morning. Let's just say we are going straight to Alice Springs. Not to diminish the beauty of Kings Canyon, but there are several better canyons just in Colorado, and I'm not even going to mention the rest of the west. The closest comparison we can make is Zion National Park, but that is only because of the feeling, it cannot compare to Zion. The red sandstone contrasts with the green trees and shrubs, and there is some unusual flora here, but the extra four hours in the car was probably not worth it, until dinner tonight. We went to a BBQ restaurant like you might see in a movie about the Australian Outback. It was like a huge shed, with rows of tables, and a two person band playing. I am guessing it was husband and wife, and neither was a great singer, but they could really put on a show. The woman got someone from every group or family up on stage at one point or other, got them into silly costumes or wigs, and had them help sing or play an instrument. Katka got drafted from our family, and had on a crazy black wig. She really got into it, singing and dancing along with a group of 6-7 other moms. I could sing along with the chorus of most of the songs, they were old cowboy or country songs, including Waltzing Matilda, of course.