Hike | Northern Territory | Australia
Trephina Gorge: The Best Walks in the East MacDonnell Ranges
Text | Anninka Kraus
Photography | Tobias Kraus
Australia Northern Territory
While Uluru and the tremendously popular West Macs lure plenty of visitors to the Northern Territory’s Red Centre, the East MacDonnell Ranges have remained an insider tip. This is where Alice Springs locals head on weekends to explore a stunning scenery of steep, red and purple quartzite cliffs.
We visited the West and East MacDonnell Ranges back-to-back and were equally impressed by both. Even though I’d give preference to the remarkable West Macs with its narrow chasms, gorges, and waterholes, Trephina Gorge Nature Park, 85 kilometres east of Alice Springs, makes for a fantastic day trip from the city, without the crowds.
location & park information.
There are two areas to the park: Trephina Gorge and John Hayes Rockhole, the two gorges dissecting the East Macs. Trephina Gorge is 2WD accessible, but the track to John Hayes Rockhole is very rough and suitable for high clearance 4WD vehicles only. We have travelled a lot of backcountry roads in NT, and that track is one of the most adventurous we’ve seen.
Camping in Trephina Gorge Nature Park: Basic campgrounds are available in both areas of the park, Trephina Gorge and John Hayes Rockhole, and must be booked in advance (fees apply).
Trephina Gorge | East MacDonnell Ranges
Trephina Gorge Walk & Panorama Walk
At the Trephina Gorge end, two loop walks run through the tree-lined creek bed and across the towering red ridges, the 2.5-kilometre, Grade 4 Panorama Walk and the 2-kilometre, Grade 3 Trephina Gorge Walk.
You can also just stroll the sandy creek bed to a semi-permanent waterhole (a muddy puddle at the time we visited), or wander downstream to Trephina Bluff and view large River Red Gums, one of Australia’s endemic eucalypt species.
track details.
Hike the Trephina Gorge Walk | Loop trail | 30 min
Start/End: Trephina Gorge campground
Distance: 1.4km
Time: 30 minutes
Elevation: 45 meters (+/-) (lowest point: 555m / highest point: 595m)
Difficulty: Grade 3 (moderate
track details.
Hike the Panorama Walk | Loop trail | 1 hour
Start/End: Trephina Gorge campground
Distance: 2.2km
Time: 1 hour
Elevation: 75 meters (+/-) (lowest point: 555m / highest point: 630m)
Difficulty: Class 4 (moderate to difficult)
map Trephina Gorge Walk
map Panorama Walk
Trephina Gorge & John Hayes Rockhole | East MacDonnell Ranges
Ridgetop Walk
Our favourite trail in Trephina Gorge Nature Park was the Ridgetop Walk, a 9km one-way trail that connects Trephina Gorge and John Hayes Rockhole via a wonderful Grade 5 ramble across the rugged ridge.
If you haven’t arranged for a pick-up at the other end, you can make this walk into a loop trail by returning via the gravel road as we did. Completing the circuit adds eight kilometres to the total trail distance, however, the official time estimate of seven hours for the whole loop is very generous. It took us four hours at a steady pace.
We started on the gravel road in the early afternoon and walked along the ridgeline dotted with pale green spinifex as the light grew soft and painted the quartzite cliffs in a reddish-golden glow.
The sweeping views across the plateau and into the gorge were just incredible and we loved the solitude on top of the plateau. There’s only one downside to this trail that I can think of, and that was a large number of sticky flies (I’m talking about hundreds of flies here) following our every step.
track details.
Hike | Loop trail | 4 hours
Start/End: Trephina Gorge campground
Distance: 17km loop (9km one-way, if you can arrange pick-up at the other end)
Time: 4 hours
Elevation: 380 meters (+/-) (lowest point: 540m / highest point: 880m)
John Hayes Rockhole
At John Hayes Rockhole, the Chain of Ponds Walk, a Grade 4, 3.5-kilometre loop trail runs through the gorge and past plenty of natural rock pools (you can expect to get your feet wet).
We walked only about half of that loop, the trail section that is shared with the Ridgetop Walk and includes the lookout, but another hiker we met, who had just completed the whole circuit, really enjoyed the walk.
map Ridgetop Walk
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