THE FLINDERS RANGES

Wandering the Remote Mountains of South Australia

- DAN GREC

The Australian continent has an average elevation of about a thousand feet, which means anything taller than a speed bump in the otherwise flat-as-a-pancake landscape is probably worth a look. In the case of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, we're talking about a genuine mountain range that stretches more than 260 miles from north to south, and has peaks stretching up to 3,900 feet in height-genuinely tall by Australian standards. Like all of Australia, these rocky and rugged mountains are seriously old and were formed somewhere around 500 million years ago. Local Aboriginal people have called the area home for more than 50,000 years.

With a smattering of wild canyons, dusty tracks, hot springs, and ancient Aboriginal history to explore, there was plenty to keep us busy for a couple of weeks in the Outback.

While the bustling national park and centrally located Wilpena Pound are the most well-known attractions, as usual, it's everything far from the beaten path that interests me most.

Skyline Drive

Always preferring wild and remote places, I've never paid to go four-wheel driving, and I always thought it was a strange way to spend money. With so many wild places to explore, I always figured I would rather be out in the middle of nowhere, and Australia was the last place I ever expected to pay for four-wheel driving.

Virtually all of the Flinders Ranges is a national park, and while there are plenty of beautiful places to explore, there really isn't much genuine four-wheel driving owing to it being a protected park. What the region does have, however, is a slew of privately owned cattle stations and farming properties, some of which are the size of small cities. More than a few have capitalized on the hordes of Aussies arriving in well-equipped vehicles looking to explore far and wide.