Road condition Mereenie Loop
Submitted: Saturday, Feb 07, 2015 at 15:39
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hooks
Hi everyone, Can someone comment on the road surface for the
Mereenie Loop road from
Kings Canyon to
Glen Helen Resort, which is approx. 128km west of
Alice Springs. Is it suitable for a Van if driven to the road conditions? While some distance is sealed at both ends the rest is unsealed and a permit is required.
Reply By: Motherhen - Saturday, Feb 07, 2015 at 16:54
Saturday, Feb 07, 2015 at 16:54
Hi Hooks
Although not a long distance, it is all unsealed and notorious for being rough and corrugated, even as little as two weeks after being graded. Unless you have a dedicated and quality off road caravan, I would not recommend risking it. You may be lucky and strike it just graded but for us the supposed grading a week or two before was not evident. We took our Bushtracker through, and it took all day, because we and another traveller were assisting someone who broke a spring on their camper trailer early in the journey. We had been travelling on these types of roads of much longer duration, such as the Tanami Road so were
well prepared and had the right rig.
See My
Blogs from 2008 for details of our touring in the area.
If you just want to drive it, you could do it as a day trip from
Kings Canyon resort. Otherwise I do not consider it a short cut compared with taking the longer routes which are sealed. I have a map and chart of distances and times on all the roads in the area which I can provide this by email. You can contact me through my profile or
Blogs.
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Follow Up By: Member - DingoBlue(WA) - Saturday, Feb 07, 2015 at 21:43
Saturday, Feb 07, 2015 at 21:43
Have to agree. Went through there without camper or caravan and was ok (nice drive) but in my opinion a little rough for trailers or caravans.
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Follow Up By: hooks - Sunday, Feb 08, 2015 at 11:21
Sunday, Feb 08, 2015 at 11:21
Thanks Motherhen, I thought it was highly likely that this section of road was going to be rough.
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Follow Up By: Zippo - Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 22:12
Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 22:12
Bit late on this, but echo what DingoBlue said. We did it in July 2014 in a Subaru Forester on standard (aka city slicker) tyres at normal pressure. It was corrugated and rough most of the way from King's Canyon to the Hermansburg/GlenHelen
junction (where the bitumen appears) and hadn't seen a
grader in long enough to not matter. But driving to conditions on that ~156km section took us 2 hours.
Some scenic bits, some wild horses. One spot would get sticky after rain.
Towing? Only if you have a really rugged trailer and a penchant for slooow travel ....
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 22:19
Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 22:19
From that
junction the road to
Hermannsburg got a whole lot rougher too.
Palm Valley was worth going to for a few days.
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Follow Up By: Zippo - Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 23:05
Monday, Feb 09, 2015 at 23:05
We went around the blacktop to
Glen Helen Gorge ("Resort" indeed - snort!) the way the O/P planned so have only ever reached
Hermannsburg from the Alice side, back in the 70's.
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Follow Up By: Motherhen - Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 at 00:17
Tuesday, Feb 10, 2015 at 00:17
With good sealed roads linking the main
places, the "short cuts" do not save time. We were surprised to find the road from the West Macdonnells to the Meerenie Loop
junction sealed as it was unsealed on my maps. The track into Tnorala (Gosse
Bluff) was rough, but an interesting impact crater which was a mystery only fully solved in the late 1960s.
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