Travelling the West MacDonalds

The Mereenie loop is a well maintained gravel road - corrugated a lot of the time but generally ok - as for the Finke Gorge NP track up from the E Giles road - that is a real track most of the time - there is often significant water to cross, maybe deep dry sand sections (riverbed) and narrow paths between vegetation - all variable of course, depending on the last water events through there - been through there with a Subaru Forester a few years back, but conditions were very good then - but definitely not van territory. Check in the Treks section here for expert advice on those routes.

There has been a lot of work done on the road over the past two years. From the start of the Larapinta Drive 12 km south of the turn to Glosses Bluff. it is bitumen all the way back in to Alice. A fantastic drive and one you should accomplish easily in your vehicle and van.

You may glean some road info from my blogs below

Mereenie Loop and Western McDonalds

Meerenie Loop - Kings Canyon

Cheers Mick

Crikey, next thing we'll be having a Happy Meal at Ormiston Gorge:-)

Its the MacDonnell Ranges.

Straight off the sign at the southern end..........
"This drive follows the Finke River and includes long sections of deep soft sand. It is heavy going in places and you will need to use low range 4WD a lot."

Also.......
"4WD vehicles with high clearance are essential. Trailers of any sort are not recommended."

I wouldnt say it was that hard, but the high sections are rocky and narrow tracks through scrub. Some of the lower sections are soft river sand. A few smaller dunes appear at the southern end also. The area just south of Boggy Hole can be tough depending on conditions, often over rock platforms along the waters edge.

Cheers

Gday,
Id be taking the loop rd rather than the Boggy Hole track.
Boggy Hole track is fine with camper trailers but I wouldnt recomend caravans.......unless its something like a Kimberly or something really small and light and your pretty comfortable with it.

Cheers

Sounds like the road is nowhere near as bad as it was many years ago when first opened. In those days we took our time with a 2WD camper trailer yet the corrugations still managed to jolt & snap the radiator off the car body. It was an expensive repair exercise when we got back to Alice Springs.
To this day I've still never had anyone give me a definite answer on how to drive on corrugations. In those days I felt at a certain pace we would manage to hit every second one which felt comfortable enough.
That aside, this road is certainly worthwhile rather than having to backtrack.