The normal way to go from Alice Springs to Kings Canyon is to travel south down the Stuart Highway at 130kph for 200kms; then turn west for 110kms; and then head back north for 165kms.
The alternative is the shorter and slower route through the West MacDonnell Ranges to Glen Helen and then continue on for 265kms on the Mereenie Loop Road which takes you straight to Kings Canyon.
150+kms of the loop road is corrugated gravel and is guaranteed to shake most of your fillings out and create a multitude of brand new rattles in your car.
Since I have always wanted to go on the Mereenie Loop Road, it was a no brainer which way we would go and it turned out to be a great drive.
While most of the time, the corrugations were quite bad, the road was pretty good and much wider than I expected. The corrugations are worst in the middle of the road and consequently, you spend most of the time with your off side wheels on the edge of the grass since that is where it is the smoothest. As a result, I reckon that the vehicles are gradually making the road wider and wider.
@leggzy I wouldn't write it off too quickly Leggzy. I presume you took the caravan to Tibooburra and I doubt the Mereenie road would be any worse than the roads around there.
@terryliv hmm ok, thanks. The road from Tibooburra to Broken Hill is sealed all the way, so no problem there & all the other dirt roads were well graded. Our trips around Tibooburra & out to Cameron Corner were day trips without the caravan. The road into Mutawintji was a well graded dirt road, as it was to White Cliffs. Corrugations aren't good for caravans, especially long distance, so we generally try to avoid them. Would need to talk to other caravanners who have travelled it to get their opinion, but thank you for the info given 👍
@leggzy Broken Hill to Tibooburra is sealed? Wow!!!!
One of the options we looked at for the drive home from Uluru was to head south on the Stuart then across to Wilpena Pound, Broken Hill, Tibooburra (Camerons Corner) then Thargominda and home.
We opted for the Kakadu trip instead since we were closer to it and could do the drive to Thargo, Tibooburra and Wilpena Pound in a few days any time we wanted but going to Kakadu from Brisbane is a much greater distance and takes a lot more time.
@terryliv it's only been in recent years that the last sections were sealed - I think some time in 2020 the last section was sealed? Before that, it was only sealed in sections.
July 3rd, 2021
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One of the options we looked at for the drive home from Uluru was to head south on the Stuart then across to Wilpena Pound, Broken Hill, Tibooburra (Camerons Corner) then Thargominda and home.
We opted for the Kakadu trip instead since we were closer to it and could do the drive to Thargo, Tibooburra and Wilpena Pound in a few days any time we wanted but going to Kakadu from Brisbane is a much greater distance and takes a lot more time.