Ellery Creek Big Hole, 90 kilometres west of Alice Springs, will be closed for most of the summer months.

Northern Territory Parks and Wildlife district manager Phil Cowan said the closure would allow the popular swimming hole's 2 kilometre dirt access road to be sealed

"We've got a exciting project to seal that 2 kilometre of access road in of Namatjira Drive as you drive to the campgrounds' and work is already started.

Mr Cowan said the decision to re-seal the road in the hotter months of the year was made as there are fewer visitors to the region.

"But we'll reopen the place for a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Years.

"So people will still be about to get in there and have a swim and enjoy the waterhole for a couple of weeks over the Christmas break.

Mr Cowan said that the department is aware of the waterhole's popularity and there was some consideration in making it accessible throughout the road work period.

"The difficulty with the Ellery road is [that] it's quite narrow as it gets closer to the campground infrastructure.

"There's a number of red gums on the eastern side of the road going in there and that they are sacred trees that can't be touched.

"There's just no ability to sort of have one line open while the other is closed because the road isn't actually that wide.