Day 9 kings Canyon.

Day 9

July 29th

Kings Canyon

It is so much more relaxing to walk Kings Canyon without little kids that you worry about. Last time we took this loop rim walk we had our boys with us (aged 9 and 11) and we were less fit than we are now. It was stressful on the body and the mind. This time it was still quite a difficult walk (mostly due to the steep climb up many uneven stone steps at the start, and the hard sandstone which you walk upon, which is very hard on the feet). The tracked length of the walk was 8.6km (including the side paths) and it took us 4.5 hours (we sauntered around, taking stacks of photos and took a long break for lunch at the Garden of Eden).

Garden of Eden

Spotted beside the road

We had both forgotten how amazing this walk is. There were so many changes of scenery as we went. The beehive like rock formations, the sliced off cliffs dropping vertically, the tiny flowers growing between the red rocks, the twisted trees, clinging to life in a crack in the sandstone, the startling blue sky, the surprising pools of water down below with the ancient cycads growing. It was a really relaxing day, just strolling along, and being amazed time after time by the views which delighted us and had us in awe.

By the end of the walk our feet were pretty sore, so I took a break while Trevor and the others completed another 2.4km walk along the creek in the centre of the canyon.

There was a limited access network at the information shed, which is where I sat in the shade, and uploaded a brief update to Facebook. Sadly, it was not a good enough signal to upload pictures to the blog, but I did manage to upload some of the words so that if people could get to the blog they could still see what we had been up to to some extent. We will add pictures later as we are able.

We collected wood from the site of the road on the way back to camp and were also delighted by a few groups of 7 or 8 bright green budgies, who flitted across the road playfully in front of us as we drove. We moved into a new campsite further from the action and much quieter, and settled down for a quiet evening, enjoying another excellent natural light display as the darkness fell, and the beautiful stars came out.