Best time to go
The site closes during the wet season, when the track becomes completely impassable. Plan this one for the dry season, and aim for early morning or late afternoon if you want softer light and long shadows through the formations.
Overview
About The Lost City
Why stop
- Towering sandstone formations with a genuine ruined-city feel
- Short walking loop among distinctive rock shapes
Heads up
- 10 km 4WD-only approach is a serious detour
- No facilities or camping at the site
Map
Where it is
Loading the Litchfield map
Full mapPlan your stop
Before you go
Best time to go
Getting there
3 active Litchfield alerts
- CautionReynolds River Track: deep water crossingsThe Reynolds River Track is open to 4WDs only, but rough conditions and water crossings about 500–600 mm deep require care.Official details
- ClosureTabletop Track closedThe Tabletop Track is closed because an Excess Heat Warning is in effect and there is no accessible drinking water. - Permit access only; do not plan an unpermitted walk on the track.Official details
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Litchfield Tour Guide
Your drive to The Lost City, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Litchfield National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
Recorded for this place
The Lost City0:00 / 0:28
“You're approaching the Lost City, where huge sandstone blocks stand like walls and narrow streets. After the long four-wheel-drive track, the walk itself is a short loop, roughly seven hundred metres, so take it slowly.”
Plays as you drive up to The Lost City in the Parkwolf Litchfield Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- The Bowerbird's Optical Illusion
- Blyth Homestead
- Tolmer Falls
- Tolmer's Hidden Bat Colony
- 68 audio storiesacross Litchfield’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Works offlinemaps, 17 trails, 31 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about The Lost City
Why make the tripA cluster of towering sandstone formations stands in loose ranks across open country, and the…
A cluster of towering sandstone formations stands in loose ranks across open country, and the overall effect really does read like the ruins of an ancient city: blocks stacked into walls, pillars, doorways and narrow lanes. There is no literal history here, just rock shaped into shapes your brain insists on naming. The payoff is the scale and the strangeness of walking among them.
What you do herePark at the carpark and take the short walking loop that threads between and around the…
- Park at the carpark and take the short walking loop that threads between and around the formations. Visitor reports put the loop at under 1 km.
- Walk slowly and look back often. Visitors consistently note that the formations look different from one another, so the same block reads differently from each side.
- Photography is the main activity, especially in low, angled light.
- There is no swimming here, so this is a dry-land stop between the park's waterholes.
Honest drawbacksNo facilities of any kind at the site, and camping is not allowed.
- No facilities of any kind at the site, and camping is not allowed.
- The access track is the main friction. This is not a casual roadside stop, and drivers without a suitable vehicle should skip it rather than risk the drive.
- A Northern Territory Parks Visitor Pass is required.
- How busy it feels varies. Some visitors find it quiet, but do not count on having the place to yourself.
