West MacDonnell Ranges – Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Leave the first response January 10, 2009 / Posted in Travel

Ellery Creek - cold fresh water swimhole at West MacDonnell Ranges

West MacDonnell Ranges is part of the MacDonnell National Park, and is only a 20 minute drive from Alice Springs in Northern Territory. It is famous for it’s cold waterholes and beautiful gorges.

There are a lot of bush walking trails you can do amongst the different gorges. West MacDonnell National Park has the longest marked bush walking trail (230 km) known as Larapinta Trail. Ummm thanks but no thanks. The National Park also has many four wheels drive tracks.

Here are some of the places I managed to visit:

Simpsons Gap – it has bike tracks which are loved by cyclists. The bush walking trials here are very interesting. My mate and I did a quick return 1.5 km Cassia Hill walk which took us about 30 minutes. We had some great views of “the gap” as well as cassia plants (witchetty bush, mulga, senna).
Standley Chasm (Angkerle) – this was the only place where we had to pay a small fee, well worth it! The best time to go is during mid day where the sun is right overhead to light up the 80 metre vertical walls to blaring red. The widest chasm is up to 9 meters across.
Ormiston Gorge – we did an 1 hr (2km) return Ghost Gum walk that took us for a great view of the gorge.
Ochre Pits – a quick 300 metre walk from car park took us to Ochre site where deposits of ochre were used by Aboriginal people for colouring materials on paintings/bodies as well as medicinal.
Ellery Creek Big Hole – This cold water swimming hole was perfect for us to take a dip in the afternoon after our ‘gorges hopping’ and bush walking under blaring sun. The water hole was so clear and fresh with views of towering gorges.

So if you’re not a big fan of bush walking, sweaty armpits and the sun then the MacDonnell Ranges’ isn’t the place for you. Go away, stop reading this blog I enjoy every moment of it!