Uluru

DesertsNorthern Territory,Australia

A sandstone dome rising 348 metres from red desert in central Australia, sacred Aṉangu country, walked around in 9.4 kilometres and burning red at dusk.

September·Edge of season

Sep–Oct

September carries the rest of the park's best wildflower bloom across the sandplain, and highs climb from 29°C to 33°C. The flies return, though 40°C days stay rare: barely one October afternoon a year closes a track.

Year-round The rock stands and turns colour at dawn and dusk every day, and the gates open every day of the year. The ten-kilometre base loop circles it every month, though 40°C afternoons shut two sections.

Uluru rises 348 metres straight out of the red desert at the centre of Australia, a single dome of sandstone with nothing else anywhere near it. Most people come for the few minutes at dusk when it changes colour, and the colour does not build so much as switch: the wall goes orange, then a deep burning red, then out, and the whole sequence is over almost before you have settled. The near-vertical lines running up that wall are the edges of flat sandstone beds, tipped upright long ago by a collision that folded the whole region. But Uluru is not scenery, and this is the part visitors most often arrive without knowing. It is Aṉangu country, held under Tjukurpa, the creation law, and the Aṉangu were handed the title deeds in 1985 before leasing the park back to the state for ninety-nine years. A short drive away, Kata Tjuṯa, which means many heads, is a cluster of thirty-six rounded domes, and the tallest of them actually stands higher than Uluru. After dark, on the desert floor within sight of the rock, some fifty thousand solar-powered glass stems come on and bloom slowly through their colours. Once you are clear of the resort, the sky is as dark as any in the country. The rock itself, though, is walked rather than watched. A track circles it in 9.4 kilometres, and along the way you pass signed stretches where photography is not allowed, because what is held there under Tjukurpa belongs to particular people and not to everyone. With Aṉangu guides the wall stops being a wall: the clefts and scars are not erosion but marks left by ancestral beings, the plants beside the path all had uses, and there is rock art in the caves. The loop passes the Muṯitjulu waterhole, under a long gash in the stone. That is not weathering either. It is the wound from a fight, and it has been read that way far longer than anyone has been driving out to watch the sunset.

Worth knowing

Good to know

Sunrise and sunset are two separate viewing areas — the sunrise deck frames Uluru beside Kata Tjuṯa, while the sunset car park faces the western wall, and the colour peak lasts only a few minutes.
Time your stargazing to a moonless night and dress for the cold — winter skies are darkest but the temperature drops close to freezing after sunset, so bring far more warmth than the daytime suggests.
Walk the full base loop early, with plenty of water — the ten-kilometre circuit has almost no shade, and even winter mornings heat up fast once the sun climbs.
Bring a fly net for the warmer months — from about September to April desert flies swarm around your face, and a cheap mesh net turns the base walk from misery into something you enjoy.

Things to do

1
Take your place before the wall starts to turn
The colour does not build; it switches, and the whole sequence is finished inside a few minutes. The difference between a good evening and a missed one is whether you were already standing when it started, not whether you were still walking up. Sunrise runs it in reverse from Talinguru Nyakunytjaku on the far side, where three shelters and two platforms take the crowd.
2
Walk the base loop, past the stretches you cannot photograph
The track that circles Uluru passes several signed sites — Kuniya Piti, Pulari and Mala Puta among them — where photography and filming are not allowed, because what is held there is restricted under Tjukurpa to particular people. Everywhere else you can shoot freely. There is drinking water and a toilet at the Mala car park, which is the place to fill up before you set off.
3
Put the resort lights behind you for the stars
The park's darkness only pays off once you are clear of the resort. The Field of Light and the Yulara village outside the park boundary throw enough glow to wash out the low sky, so put them behind you and give your eyes twenty minutes before you judge anything. From out there the rock is a black cut-out with no lit edge anywhere on it, and the horizon stays dark all the way round.
4
Walk through the Field of Light after dark
After sunset, Bruce Munro's installation of some 50,000 solar-powered glass stems switches on across the desert floor and blooms slowly through colour. Named Tili Wiru Tjuṯa Nyakutjaku — 'looking at lots of beautiful lights' — it glows below the darkened outline of Uluru.
5
Explore the domes of Kata Tjuṯa
A short drive away, Kata Tjuṯa — 'many heads' — is a cluster of 36 rounded domes, and its tallest actually stands higher than Uluru itself. Walk the Valley of the Winds track between the giant walls, which feels nothing like the single dome down the road. The Aṉangu hold this place just as sacred.
6
Learn to read the rock with Aṉangu guides
On a walk led by Aṉangu guides, hear the Tjukurpa stories held in Uluru's caves and walls, learn how desert plants were used, and see the rock art. You come away seeing the wall as a record rather than just a landform.