Siding Springs, NSW
78.8 km (2 hrs )
★★☆☆☆

The Solar System Drive is the world's largest, at a scale of 1: 38 million. There are five different routes, all beginning from the 'Sun' at the Siding Spring Observatory in Warrumbungle National Park. My dad and I did most of the south-eastern route which heads towards Merriwa (the other options being Birriwa, Tamworth, Bellata and Dubbo). Each of the planets is shown in scale, relative to the dimensions of the 'sun', the giant dome of the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory.

Tours of the observatory were paused due to covid, but having been on previous occasions, it is definitely worth a visit. Note that the observatory is open to the public during daylight hours only. Heading down observatory road, you pass through the inner planets in quick succession, before distances between the planets gets much longer. Uranus was the last planet my dad and I visited, located some 79 km away!

This is a great way to get to know more about our solar system and gives you a real perspective on just how vast the distances in space are. My dad and I very much enjoyed stopping at each of the planets.