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 is a single dome of sandstone rising 348 metres out of flat red desert in the centre of Australia, and at dusk its wall changes colour in front of you, from orange to a deep burning red and then to brown, with the whole sequence over in minutes. That is the moment people build their day around. But Uluru is bigger than its photograph. It is 9.4 kilometres around, and the base walk shows a rock that is not smooth at all: caves, waterholes, folds and scars, and near-vertical lines running up the wall because the sandstone was laid flat and then tipped on end by a collision of continents. The rock is Aṉangu country, and its clefts and marks are not read as erosion but as the traces of ancestral beings acting out Tjukurpa, the creation law; the best-known story is a battle fought at the Muṯitjulu waterhole. Several stretches of the base are signed as places you cannot photograph, because what they hold belongs to particular people. The best way to understand any of this is to walk with Aṉangu guides, who tell the stories the rock is allowed to tell, show the rock art in its caves, and explain how the desert plants around it were used. A short drive west stands Kata Tjuṯa, "many heads", a cluster of 36 rounded domes whose tallest rises higher than Uluru itself. After dark the desert does two things. Bruce Munro's Field of Light, some 50,000 glass stems lit by solar power, switches on across the desert floor within sight of the rock and slowly shifts through colours. And once the resort lights are behind you, the sky is as dark as any on the continent; in the winter months of June to August the core of the Milky Way stands high overhead. The Aṉangu were handed the title to Uluru in 1985 and lease the park back to the state, so the rock you walk around belongs, in law as well as in story, to the people who have always lived beside it.

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.