Cool camping in the Flinders Ranges
The cooler months are the best time of year for a camping trip to the Flinders Ranges.
The searing heat of summer gives way to mild days and cool evenings, and away from city lights, the dazzling brilliance of the Milky Way arcs across the night sky.
In spring, desert blooms burst from rust red sand to splash the outback with colour.
Whether you’re a city slicker occasionally drawn to the call of the wild, or you’re hauling a battle-hardened caravan behind a rig that could scale Everest, there’s a camping spot in the Flinders Ranges that’s just right for you.
Easy
About five hours’ drive north of Adelaide on a sealed road, Wilpena Pound is a colossal natural amphitheatre encircled by towering quartzite bluffs.
It’s part of an ancient landscape that’s been twisted and folded by immense tectonic forces over millions of years.
Rawnsley Park Station is a short distance south of the pound and Discovery Resorts Wilpena Pound sits among native pines at the base of the escarpment. Both properties have a caravan park, store, pool and jaw-dropping views.
If you’re just dipping a toe into the world of canvas lodgings, book a Discovery Resorts luxury Safari Tent. Experience the thrill of roughing it, but with air-con, ensuite amenities, and a comfy king-size bed.
If you’re keen to explore the region but prefer to stick to sealed roads, head 50km north to the former copper mining settlement of Blinman, the highest town in South Australia.
Book a mine tour, grab a cool drink at the pub and tuck into a meal at the seasonal café.
Not too hard
The unsealed roads through Brachina Gorge and Bunyeroo Valley in Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park are passable to vehicles with decent ground clearance, in dry weather.
The tilted walls of Brachina Gorge reveal how immense forces have heaved the earth skyward and ripped it open to expose a multilayered record of the region’s turbulent geological past.
The undulating drive among cypress pines through Bunyeroo Valley is relentlessly pretty, and leads to an iconic view of Wilpena Pound from Razorback Lookout.
There are bush campgrounds with long-drop toilets in Brachina Gorge, and several camping spots nestled among the pines in Bunyeroo Valley.
Park entry and camping permits for Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park are available online.
If you’d to like to learn more about the cultural significance of the area, book a tour with an experienced guide.
A little more adventurous
Turning off the unsealed Arkaroola Road onto the narrow Grindells Hut access track, in the northern Flinders Ranges, feels instantly remote.
This is hilly terrain in the heart of Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park and you’ll need a high-clearance off-road vehicle to tackle it. It may not be a particularly challenging drive but it’s exceptionally scenic and a lot of fun.
After 17km of ups and downs, the track reaches Grindells Hut – a renovated settler’s cottage that can be booked as holiday accommodation through Parks SA.
Just down from the cottage, beside Balcanoona Creek, the bush campground is surrounded by hills, completing the middle-of-nowhere theme.
The 6km Balcanoona Creek Hike and the 15.8km Italowie Gorge Hike pass this way. Rock-hopping hikers can take the four-wheel-drive track to Lochness Well and follow Balcanoona Creek up to squeezy Bunyip Chasm.
The hardcore clambering crowd can venture even further along the creek to complete the heart-in-mouth climb to the top of the Blue Range.
Hold onto your hat
There are several pastoral properties in the Flinders ranges with user-pays four-wheel-drive tracks of varying degrees of difficulty, and camping areas for off-roaders.
Horseshoe Top-End, north of Orroroo, has rightly been described as a mini Wilpena Pound, with much of the property surrounded by an elliptical ring of hills.
There’s a handful of cosy campsites within the pound, spaced at least a kilometre apart for privacy, and these are easily accessible in two-wheel-drive vehicles with good ground clearance.
But you’ll need a four-wheel-drive to reach one of the most spectacularly located campgrounds in the Flinders Ranges.
Perched on the edge of the hills, the Top of the World campsite looks out over the vast Willochra Plain, with tree-lined creeks scribbled across its surface and high peaks marking a distant horizon.
So, as the sun heads north and temperatures drop, why not organise a camping trip to the wonderful Flinders Ranges?