{"id":3355,"date":"2019-09-07T06:04:04","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T10:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=3355"},"modified":"2019-09-07T06:04:04","modified_gmt":"2019-09-07T10:04:04","slug":"watarrka-np-kings-canyon-disappoints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=3355","title":{"rendered":"Watarrka NP: Kings Canyon Disappoints"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Friday September 6, 2019<\/h3>\n<p>Road video and map &#8211; <a href=\"\/Tripmapper\/Mapview2.aspx?DataFile=AustraliaEast\/2019_09_06_Kings_Canyon&amp;Video=YOvCRlOvYtE\" target=\"_blank\">Erldunda to Kings Canyon<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Today delivered the first disappointment of the trip. The &#8220;red centre&#8221; of the country is famous for Uluru (Ayers Rock) but there are also several other National Parks in the area and one that caught my attention was <em>Watarrka National Park<\/em> and its <em>Kings Canyon<\/em>. In reviews so many people raved about the rim walk and the incredible views of this amazing canyon and so I decided to spend a day driving here, doing the 4 hour rim walk and then staying at the Kings Canyon Resort before heading to Uluru tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p>I was not expecting the equivalent of a Zion Canyon but I was expecting something special and, if Kings Canyon was moved to the desert southwest of the US it would be just one of hundreds of canyons that garner no special attention. The rim walk itself was very pleasant and the resort is good but my schedule is so tight that I wish I had used the day for something else. However, if this is my only disappointment, I will regard myself as very lucky.<\/p>\n<p>The canyon is about 130 metres (425 feet) deep and, in places, the sheer rock faces of the upper half seem about to fall.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3358\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Unstable.jpg\" alt=\"Kings Canyon Unstable\" width=\"760\" height=\"1013\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Unstable.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Unstable-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><br \/>\nThe red colour of the rock is pretty intense in areas.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3359\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Color.jpg\" alt=\"Kings Canyon Color\" width=\"760\" height=\"1013\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Color.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Color-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><br \/>\nThe rim walk initially climbs from the canyon floor to the rim on the north side then, sort of, follows the rim before descending into this lush area, called the <em>Garden of Eden<\/em>, near the closed end of the canyon before climbing back to the south rim. A lot of elevation change but the canyon is only 1.3 km (0.9 miles) long.<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3357\" src=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Garden-of-Eden.jpg\" alt=\"Kings Canyon Garden of Eden\" width=\"760\" height=\"570\" srcset=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Garden-of-Eden.jpg 760w, http:\/\/relativerest.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Kings-Canyon-Garden-of-Eden-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday September 6, 2019 Road video and map &#8211; Erldunda to Kings Canyon Today delivered the first disappointment of the trip. The &#8220;red centre&#8221; of the country is famous for Uluru (Ayers Rock) but there are also several other National Parks in the area and one that caught my attention was Watarrka National Park and &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/?p=3355\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Watarrka NP: Kings Canyon Disappoints<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[84,3],"tags":[89],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3355"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3363,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3355\/revisions\/3363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/relativerest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}