Cassia Hill Circuit & Simpson Gap, Western MacDonnell National Park - December 2016

Simpson Gap from Cassia Hill.

Hey, hey it's time for another chapter from our epic adventure in the red centre last Christmas, yep once again I really cranked out the kilometres today, walking around two whole kilometres! The good thing about such a short walk though was that I was able to more or less complete the whole walk in between the tropical showers that were sweeping through. This little stroll is just out of Alice Springs at Simpson Gap, so for a bit of a change we didn't have a huge drive just to get to the track head, twenty minutes after leaving hotel we pulled up in the muddy carpark and after pulling on our boots, set off into the scrub.

Once again we were dodging the rain on this excursion.

There are a couple of nice Ghost Gums near the start of this walk.

The Cassia Hill Circuit starts off heading west through the witchery bush, crossing the paved cycle path that runs in to Alice Springs before our route divided. We veered to the right (our return would be from the left) and soon started the gentle climb up Cassia Hill. Now this isn't a tough climb, in fact you wouldn't get a much easier climb, but there was still reason to stop for a while as the view back across the Alice Valley to Mt Gillen was particularly good. I reckon the country up here is best described as epic and even a little bit of elevation like Cassia Hill generally offers a pretty good view.

Rungutjirba Ridge.

Sam on the climb up Cassia Hill.

Once we crested Cassia Hill the track continued on making its way down the other side, now the view was of the cliffs of Rungutjirba Ridge and Simpson Gap. With Cassia Hill situated away from the rest of the mountains, the little hill definitely punched above it's weight. Dropping down and heading back towards the ute the track crossed a couple of dry gully's before meeting up with our outward route. With the circuit complete it was just a matter of retracing the last couple of hundred metres back to the car park, thankfully beating the threatening clouds.

The view across the Alice Valley from Cassia Hill.

Bloodwood (I think).

Sam's on her way back down to the ute.

Now our day wasn't over though, instead of heading back into town to spend the rest of the day watching the cricket, we jumped into the ute and headed a couple of kilometres to the Simpson Gap Carpark. We haven't been into Simpson Gap for a long time, I missed it when I was on my Larapinta Walk, just having a bite to eat and then heading off to Wallaby Gap on what was a 40+ kilometre day!    I'm thinking that maybe the last time I visited was on our honeymoon, 26 years ago. The walk in from the carpark to the gap is only a couple of hundred metres and it's dead flat so it's not tough, in fact nowadays there's a crushed gravel path that runs along the west bank of the creek most of the way in (in the ye olde days you use to have to walk in along the soft sand in the creek). With the remains of a tropical cyclone pummelling us today when we actually got to the waterhole it was actually pretty hard to get a photo without getting water on the lens of the DSLR, the wind was whipping the water out of the water hole sideways. Standing behind one of the many rocky bluffs I did my best to get a shot for the blog before deciding that we had better start heading back towards the ute, the looming clouds promising an imminent soaking, at least it wasn't cold I suppose. We wandered back along the creek bed so we could check out a couple of big red gums growing in the sandy bed, if you are here one day and the weather is more kind to you keep an eye on the huge scree slope on the east side of the creek, with luck you may spot a yellow tail rock wallaby. We weren't hanging around looking for wobblies today though, just getting back to the ute before the weather deteriorated again.

This family friendly path wasn't here when I last walked into Simpson Gap.

It was tough getting a photo of the water hole today as the wind was whipping the water sideways.

The big scree slope on the left is a good spot for spotting Yellow Tail Rock Wallabies.

The Dirt.

The Cassia Hill Circuit came in at 2.2 kilometres, with 70 metres climbing on my GPS. While this isn't a tough walk it's worth checking out if you have an hour or so up your sleeve, as I've already mentioned the views from this little hill are better than it's height would have you imagine. The Simpson Gap walk is hardly a walk at all, you can almost throw a stone from the car park to the gap, well almost! The Cassia Hill Walk is written up in Take A Walk in Northern Territory's National Parks by John & Lyn Daly. To be honest though it's such an easy walk that the walking notes aren't really necessary. 

Relevant Posts.

Larapinta Trail, 2007.

Trig Hill Circuit, Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, 2015.

Bradshaw Walk, Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, 2015.

Stuart Walk & Spencer Hill Walk, Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve, 2016.

We wondered back up to the car park along the soft sandy creek bed.

These old Red Gums in Roe Creek always make for nice photos.