The Painted Desert, literally painted or colorful desert, is located near the town of Arckaringa, 121 kilometers northwest of Coober Pedy and 73 kilometers southwest of Oodnadatta in the Australian state of South Australia. The town of Marla is 132 kilometers away.
The landscape with countless colors as we see it today was created over an estimated 80 million years from the sediments of an ancient inland sea through erosion and leaching of minerals from the ground. These colors give this region a unique character and range from ochre, yellow, red to brown and contrast depending on the light and time of day.
A large area of the Painted Desert is covered with mica minerals. 50 kilometers from Oodnadatta are remarkable landscapes such as the Arckaringa Hills, the Anna Creek Painted Hills and the so-called Moon Plain. Two of the landscapes have often served as film sets in the recent past.