Walking the Pinnacles Desert on a drive north from Perth

Thousands of weathered limestone spires stand in rippled yellow-ochre sand at Nambung National Park, from ankle height to 3.5m, under open sky. A narrow unsealed one-way sand track curls between them. At low sun the shadows run long and hard across the field.

The pinnacle field and the drive

Pinnacles Desert (Nambung National Park) is two things, the Desert Lookout and the one-way drive, and one to three hours on site covers both. The lookout gives you the field from above, the spread of it, the way the pillars thin out into open sand. The drive puts you down among them at close range.

The track is sand and unsealed, and it threads between the pillars rather than skirting the field. Take it slowly. Walkers have the 1.5km Desert View Walk, which is also the fallback for anyone who cannot use the loop.

Vehicle rules on the loop

The loop bans vehicles longer than 7m, caravans and trailers. Motorbikes and bicycles cannot use it either, so riders and cyclists walk the Desert View Walk instead. Coaches and minibuses come through all day, and large groups park at the Discovery Centre and walk the trail.

Plan the vehicle before you plan the day. With a towed camper or a long motorhome you are on foot in the field, which changes how much of it you see in an hour.

Paying at the gate or going guided

Entry is $17 a vehicle for up to 12 occupants. A concession vehicle or a motorcycle pays $10. Vehicles carrying more than 12 people pay $8 a head, and coaches and minibuses are charged that way.

Driving yourself buys you the hours nobody else wants, early morning and the last of the light. Guided sunset and stargazing trips from Perth run every day of the week and take a full day; book ahead.

The Discovery Centre

Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre (Nambung National Park) is free once you have paid park entry, and it opens 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily except Christmas Day. Go in before you drive the loop. Wall-sized geology cutaways explain how the pillars came out of the dune, and the field means more afterwards.

The pavilion is low rust-and-timber, half-buried in dune sand at the edge of the pinnacle field, with a wide shaded verandah and a small retail gallery inside. The galleries are open-plan and absorb a full busload. Toilets are on site. There is no cafe anywhere inside the park.

Beaches and kangaroos inside the park

Hangover Bay (Nambung National Park) sits 10 minutes from the loop and your park ticket covers it. A crescent of blinding white sand runs down to flat turquoise water, with a low limestone headland at one end and a short boat ramp on the dune edge. Gas BBQs, tables and toilets are there, and none of it is bookable. Dolphins turn up offshore, and migrating humpbacks pass in season. The water is cold.

Kangaroo Point (turnoff outside the fee gate) is free, unstaffed, smaller and quieter, with picnic tables under simple shelters and coastal scrub growing right down to the sand. Western grey kangaroos graze the grass verge in late afternoon, which is the hour you are otherwise killing while you wait for the light.

Living rock at Lake Thetis

Lake Thetis Stromatolites (2km from Cervantes) is free, unstaffed and open dawn to dusk. Dark cauliflower-shaped mounds break the waterline of a shallow salt-crusted lake ringed in white mineral rime, coastal heath behind it. The rock is living, and it is 3.5 billion years old.

A low timber boardwalk with interpretive panels runs the loop in 30 to 40 minutes. It is narrow, and groups spread out along it. The first 300m is wheelchair accessible. After dark the concrete paths make a flat pad for a telescope.

Night sky at Thirsty Point Lookout

Thirsty Point Lookout (end of the town road, Cervantes) is a limestone bluff with parking and a panoramic sweep over Ronsard Bay's turquoise shallows and reef lines. Kitesurfers work the wind out in the bay. It is free and open, with no restriction on how many of you turn up.

Cervantes is an accredited Astrotourism Town with almost no light spill, and no artificial light reaches the lookout after dark. If you are not joining a guided stargazing run, this is the easiest place to stand and look up.

Eating around the park

Lobster Shack (the harbour, Cervantes) is a corrugated-iron processing shed with blue craypot stacks outside and live western rock lobsters swimming in seawater tanks. Split grilled lobster comes out on paper-lined trays, and you eat it on the ocean-facing deck. Plates run $30 to $70. The factory tour, self-guided or guided, is $10 to $15 a person, and the operation takes tour-bus volume daily. The kitchen runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the shop 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eat here on the way up if you are staying for sunset.

Seashells Cafe (RAC Cervantes Holiday Park) is glass-fronted and sits directly on the Ronsard Bay foreshore, outdoor tables metres from flat shallow water. It opens daily for breakfast, lunch, coffee and cake, $15 to $30, and takes walk-ins. Holiday-park reception and a shop are attached.

Cervantes Bar and Bistro (Cervantes) is family-owned and open seven days from 11 a.m., one of very few kitchens in town serving past mid-afternoon. Mains are $25 to $45. Chalkboard specials list line-caught local fish and rock lobster, and a beer garden sits out back. This is the default once the pinnacles have kept you out until dusk.

Cervantes Country Club (Cervantes) is a plain brick clubhouse with a long licensed bar and green sports grounds through the windows. Mains are $20 to $35. Lunch is Friday to Sunday, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; dinner is Thursday to Sunday, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., with seasonal changes. Function rooms are bookable for a sizeable party.

Staying the night

Pinnacles Edge Resort (a quiet residential street in Cervantes) has self-contained apartments from $240 a night, white low-rise blocks around two outdoor pools with palm planting and a desert-sand colour palette, a few minutes from the ocean. The restaurant serves breakfast 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and dinner 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

One night here does more for a Pinnacles trip than anything else you can book. It buys you sunset, the dark sky and sunrise, instead of a 400km round trip squeezed into one day.

Stops on the drive north

Lancelin Sand Dunes (Indian Ocean Drive, halfway up from Perth) is 2km of bare white sand with no vegetation at all, slopes running to 45 degrees, board tracks scored down the faces and 4WDs cresting the ridge lines. The dunes are open and ungated. Board hire is $15 to $25, and 4WD operators in town run guided sessions for more. Weekends are the busiest. The stop adds an hour.

Skydive Jurien Bay (Jurien Bay, north of Cervantes) puts tandem canopies down on a long white beach, over banded turquoise-to-navy reef water, from a small coastal airstrip. Jumps start at $399, it runs seven days a week with mid-week deals, and solo training runs March to October. Book ahead.

Turquoise Safaris (Jurien Bay Boat Harbour, Harbour Drive) takes a small open boat out over clear shallow water inside Jurien Bay Marine Park, where Australian sea lions haul out on a low limestone island and snorkellers get in alongside them. Australian sea lions are one of the rarest seals on earth, and the trips run year-round. The price band is $$$. Trips are small and personalised, and you book direct.

Lesueur National Park (18km sealed one-way loop) holds more than 820 plant species, some found nowhere else on earth. A flat-topped mesa rises out of rolling heathland, and dense low scrub erupts in yellow banksia with pink and white wildflowers in spring. The loop road is sealed, so 2WD cars and coaches both manage it, and there are picnic sites and lookouts along the route. Entry is $17 a vehicle, $10 concession, and a same-day Nambung pass covers it. Make the detour from August to October.

Best time to go

Low sun is what you came for. Both ends of the day give you the long hard shadows between the pillars, and the middle of the day flattens the field. First light is also the quiet window, before the tour buses reach the park.

The Discovery Centre shuts well before the best light. Put the galleries in the middle of your day and the pillars at either end of it.

Is it worth it

It suits a visitor willing to trade a long drive for one to three hours in a limestone field, with a coastline and a boardwalk to fill the rest of the day. Arrive at noon, see the field flat and turn straight back, and you will wonder what the fuss was.

Before you drive

The Discovery Centre is closed on Christmas Day, the Country Club kitchen opens on four or five days depending on the season, and the boat trip and the skydive both want booking in advance. See the Perth guide and the Perth hotel search.