Yulara, Australia · Oceania

5 ideal things to do in Yulara

The short list, pulled out of the long essay. No opening hours, because they change and I would only get them wrong — just what is worth your morning, roughly when to turn up, and where I have wasted time so you don’t have to.

By Ščenza

Last checked July 29, 2025

1. 01

   The free ranger-guided Mala Walk

   Mala car park, northwest face of Uluru·Morning — earlier in the hot months, later in the cool ones

   Parks Australia rangers walk this two-kilometre stretch every day, it costs nothing, and it is better than most of what is sold out of Yulara. You get the Mala story, the rock shelters, the cooking hollows, the ochre, and an explanation of the no-photography sections that actually lands once you have heard the reasoning. It finishes at Kantju Gorge, where the wall goes straight up and the sound of the place changes. Turn up early — there is no booking and no queue system, just a ranger and a hat.

2. 02

   Uluru-Kata Tjuta Cultural Centre

   Inside the park, a short drive from the rock·The middle of the day, when the light is flat and the flies win

   Mud brick, low, laid out to Anangu design, free, and the one place in the park with an air-conditioned reason to slow down: the Tjukurpa tunnel, an information room in several languages, and two galleries where Anangu artists work — Maruku and Walkatjara. Money spent here goes where it should, which is not true of everything sold at the resort. There is a picnic area behind with the rock in full view. Give it two hours, on your first day, so the rest of the trip means something.

3. 03

   Kuniya Walk to Mutitjulu Waterhole

   South side of Uluru·Late afternoon. After rain it is a different place entirely

   Short, flat and mostly in shade, which makes it the walk you can still do on a day when the base loop is out of the question. It ends at a permanent waterhole tucked against the rock wall, dark green and absolutely still, with rock art in the shelter above it. The Kuniya and Liru story is written into the geology here and the signs will show you where; once you have seen the marks it leaves in the stone you cannot stop seeing them. I sat there forty minutes and a bird came down to drink and that was the afternoon.

4. 04

   Walpa Gorge, Kata Tjuta

   Forty minutes' drive west of Uluru·Early morning. Valley of the Winds shuts when it gets hot

   Everyone does the Valley of the Winds and then drives away, and Walpa is the short walk on the other side that gets skipped for being easy. It runs up a slot between two of the domes on a gentle rock ramp, and the wind funnels through it without stopping — walpa is the word for wind. At the top there is a patch of spearwood, some shade, thirty-six conglomerate domes stacked around you, and no sound whatsoever except moving air. Twenty minutes each way, and worth an hour.

5. 05

   Cycle the Uluru base loop

   Bike hire at the Cultural Centre·First thing, ahead of the heat and the coaches

   Ten and a bit kilometres round the base; walking it takes most of a morning, and riding it takes under two hours, which means it can be done before breakfast by a person who still wants a day afterwards. The track is flat, sandy in patches, and you get off and walk at the sacred sections, which is correct. My one complaint about the bicycle is that it makes it very easy to go past things, and this is emphatically not a rock you want to go past.