Red Centre road trip: Alice Springs to Uluru
≈ 665 km · ~8 h driving · ideal in 7 days · 4 stops
The drive into the middle of Australia, where the road runs dead straight for hours and the rock at the end is nothing like the postcard. Three of the country's great walks are strung along it — a gorge system west of Alice, a canyon rim, and the base of Uluru itself — and the desert night sky is the fourth attraction.
Photo: Unsplash
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The route at a glance
- Alice Springs — 2 nights
- Glen Helen — 1 night
- Kings Canyon — 1 night
- Uluru — 2 nights
The stops
- 1
Alice Springs
The Royal Flying Doctor Service base and the Telegraph Station explain how anyone lives out here at all. Anzac Hill at sunset gives you the MacDonnell Ranges in profile.
- 2
Glen Helen
The West MacDonnell gorges — Ormiston, Ellery Creek, Simpsons Gap — are permanent waterholes in a desert range, and cold enough to hurt. Swim anyway.
- 3
Kings Canyon
The Rim Walk climbs 500 steps in the first fifteen minutes, then delivers six kilometres of sandstone domes and a palm-filled chasm called the Garden of Eden. Start at first light.
- 4
Uluru
Walk the 10 km base track and the monolith stops being a shape and becomes a place — caves, waterholes, rock art. Then drive 50 km west for Kata Tjuta's Valley of the Winds.
Good to know
Do this May–September. Summer here regularly exceeds 40°C and rangers close the long walks after 11am, or entirely. Carry far more water than feels sensible (3 L per person per day minimum) and fuel at every roadhouse — the gaps are 200 km+. Climbing Uluru has been prohibited since 2019; the Base Walk is the experience anyway. Park entry to Uluru-Kata Tjuta is ticketed and valid three days.
More road trips
Or start from a blank map and build your own — Stopful shows drive times between stops, splits long days, finds hotels and EV chargers along the route, and tracks the budget as you plan.