Going to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

What to do in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park

by Dan Oko

Regardless of what you call it, the Uluru formation is breathtaking. Rising more than a thousand feet out of Australia’s pancake-flat, red-sand desert, the much-photographed monolith has until recently been known by its European name, Ayers Rock. In 2005, Australia handed back Ayers Rock and the surrounding territory to the local Anangu tribe, whose leaders advocate calling the rock by its ancestral Aboriginal name, Uluru. Found some 270 miles from the city of Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory, the rock anchors Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park—and FYI, the Anangu would prefer no one climb it, but there’s no formal prohibition. There is plenty to keep you entertained in the 776-square-mile park. Head out for a day trip to the dramatic Kata Tjuta, or the Olgas, a second formation that offers several hikes of varying distances.

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