My take on the Painted Desert

Most, or possibly all of them are taken within walking distance of the main road west from Oodnadatta.

This is the road. :)
http://www.aulro.com/afvb/attachment...5&d=1418094589

I had the honour or privilege of viewing this area from Arckaringa Station looking down on the floodplains of Arckaringa Creek.

Spent best part of a day around the area.....took plenty photos too.

The public cannot access it from the station any more as some arseholes started engraving their names in large letters into the soft stone of the hills.

There is also some good pastoral history to be seen on the property but the public stuffed it up for themselves and will never have the opportunity to see it again.

Mt Barry and Mt Sarah are the same and you have to know the families very well before they'll let you cross their properties.

But the painted desert is pretty awesome and best appreciated if you can be there both at sunrise and sunset......to see the colour change......go early , go slow.

You can camp at Arckaringa Station for an early start or late finish and there are fire pits , bbqs , rooms available and hot showers. But you cannot go into the painted desert from there......you have to go back out.

And to think it was once under the ocean, terrible (not man made) global warming back then, apparently :o

The rusty red colour is just that, Iron oxide. I was also privileged to see this landscape up close when working there and flying over it...and looking for a bit of opal, but it's just out of the fields, which is a good thing for preserving it.

Ever heard of plate tectonics?

yes you see great examples of it in the Flinders Ranges.