Upon reaching the Pinnacles Desert, you choose between exploring the area on foot or driving through the desert on a dirt road. Along the circuit, there are frequent spaces where you can pull over to leave your vehicle and freely walk around the desert.
Based on your pace, allow 1-2 hours for sightseeing and even longer for stargazing. This is generally how long you’ll have on day tours from Perth, although they’ll also fill the day by visiting Cervantes, sandboarding at Lancelin, and stopping at coastal viewpoints along the drive.
You will need a national park pass to visit Nambung National Park and can get multi-day passes if you visit several Western Australia parks.
The Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre facilities include informational displays, toilets, and a free parking lot.
Cervantes is the nearest place to get food, including the famous lobster at the Cervantes Lobster Shack.
No pets are allowed to enter the national park.
Nambung National Park is found just off Indian Ocean Drive, which follows Western Australia’s coastline and is near the town of Cervantes. The national park is a 2-hour drive north of Perth and just a 15-minute drive from Cervantes. Because of its remote location, taking a tour is your only other option for driving yourself there in a rental car.
The best time to visit Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles is in the late evening, just before dusk. At this time of day, the sun's low angle stretches the shadows of the Pinnacles and shifts the color of the desert. Stay in the park once the night falls, and you’ll be in the perfect place for stargazing on clear nights.
While the Pinnacles are the most famous thing to see in Nambung National Park, there’s more for tourists to explore with places such as Lake Thetis. This lake looks unremarkable from afar, but following the boardwalk loop around it, you can see the lake’s stromatolites and mound-shaped mineral formations created by microbial life forms. Living versions of this phenomenon are scarce.
