Journey to the Red Center 5: Brick Beehives

After getting up at a leisurely 6am, we cleared out.

We stopped at Kings Canyon for the last hike of the trip. It another day of beautiful scenery in the desert. Muscular rounded rock formations look like brick domes or beehives.

And there's an oasis; a deep, rugged gorge cut by a stream, filled with plant life.

Cycads, an ancient form of palm tree from the dinosaur days, thrive there -- some are a thousand years old, but they look like they could have grown in a year to my eye. The little valley of green is a rarity in the harsh, dry bush.

You can see layers of stone from the ice age(s) on massive sliced cliff-sides.

We saw some parrots near our lunch site.

After stretching our legs, we got back on the bus for several hours. We stopped at the giant echidna roadhouse again, where I saw this emu resting.

Then we drove several hours to Alice Springs, the end-point of our outback adventure. That night, the group had one last dinner together.