Nambung National Park

Top choice in West Coast Australia


Around 14km from Cervantes, Nambung is home to the eye-popping Pinnacles Desert, a vast, alien-like plain studded with thousands of jaunty limestone pillars. Rising eerily from the desert floor, some of them 3.5m tall, these columns are remnants of a compacted seashell layer that once covered the plain and, over millennia, has slowly eroded. The one-way Pinnacles Desert Dr loop road runs through the formations, but it's more fun on foot, especially in the crepuscular evening light when crowds evaporate.

The park's slinky black interpretation centre delivers the low-down on the Pinnacles, and sheds some light on the rest of the park's ecology: huge sand blows, banks of low scrub and wandering emus. Nearby Kangaroo Point and Hangover Bay are good for a post-Pinnacles picnic, with barbecues and tables; Hangover has the better swimming (a good hangover cure).


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby West Coast Australia attractions

1. Hangover Bay

3.28 MILES

This sweep of white sand and aquamarine water makes a good picnic spot, close to the Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park, and with BBQs, toilets and…

2. Kangaroo Point

4.77 MILES

Low-key, beachy picnic spot near Nambung National Park, with tables, toilets and and BBQs. The turnoff is 4km north of the Pinnacles Dr/Indian Ocean Dr…

  • placement: superzone
  • path: Destinations/POIs/superzone
  • possible size: [970, 250], [970, 90], [728, 90], [1, 1],
  • targeting:
    {
      "url": "australia/western-australia/cervantes-and-pinnacles-desert/attractions/nambung-national-park/a/poi-sig/1161914/362555",
      "destination": "West-Coast-Australia",
      "continent": "Australia-&-Pacific",
      "country": "Australia",
      "region": "West-Coast-Australia",
      "position": "superzone"
    }