The Northern Territory: Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon

So we are back from our first big trip! We traveled to the Northern Territory to visit Uluru, Kata Tjuta, and Kings Canyon. So here goes a brief overview....

This is us by our 4WD Nissan Patrol at Alice Spring Airport. The SUV was huge and it took diesel gas too! We were able to go on a 4WD track from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon. It was very bumpy, but fun nonetheless!

Our first stop on the way to Kings Canyon was Stanley Chasm. It was basically this huge chasm in between two mountains. It was really beautiful. At a certain time of day, the sun hits inside the chasm just right it is glows red. We were there too early to see that, but it was still beautiful!

This is a brumby or a wild horse. The are just a bunch of brumbies running around Australia! It was pretty cool to see. I never thought I would see a wild horse!

This is Redbank Gorge. Stop 2 on the way to Kings Canyon. It was essentially a giant gorge with a swimming hole. Justin, Rob, and Beth all took a nice dip in the water, but I am a wimp and just put my feet in. It was plenty cold!

While at Redbank Gorge we came up this little guy. A Black Footed Rock Wallaby. They are pretty shy and are hard to find in the wild, so we were really excited to see him!

This is Me, Rob, and Beth at the start of our Kings Canyon hike. There were tons of school groups out that day, so we had to deal with lots of people, but I didn't mind because it was so incredibly beautiful. It was like no other place I had been.

Here we are walking down a rocky trail. As you can see, the terrain and scenery are absolutely beautiful! It was pretty hot this day too, around 90 degrees!

Here is Justin at a lookout point.

This is all of us!

More beautiful scenery!

More scenery!

What is that I am pointing at you may ask, well let me tell you. Wild one humped camels! Yes, wild camels. Australia has the only wild one humped camels in the world. They were just hanging out on the side of the road. This was our third pack to see too!

This is Uluru. The famous big red rock at the center of Australia. It is a sacred site for the Aboriginal people. We were able to see it at both sunset and sunrise. This is at sunset. We honestly have like 20 photos of it to see how it changes colors. As the sun goes down and goes up it makes it really red.

We did a base walk around Uluru. This a picture of part of its base. It is about 5 miles around the base. It is crazy because every turn it looks completely different.

This is part of Uluru called the whale. Can you see the whale face? It has a little eye and a big mouth.

More of the unique rock of Uluru. By the way it is made of sandstone.

Now we are at Kata Tjuta. It is another sacred Aboriginal site. It is so sacred we aren't even allowed to hike around the base. Kata Tjuta is made up of 36 rock domes made of conglomerate.

We did a trail called the Valley of the Winds and this is looking through two of the rock mounds.

More of our hike.

This is Kata Tjuta as sunset. It was really beautiful to watch it turn red.

Well, that is our trip in a nutshell. It was amazing and we had the time of our lives. Justin was happy because we saw brumbies, camels, wallabies, dingoes, lizards, and crazy birds. Yes, we did see dingoes. They were hanging around our campsites. They looked just like dogs. It was a trip of a lifetime. And now next week we are off to the Great Barrier Reef! We miss you all!