The Pinnacles Desert

DesertsWestern Australia,Australia

Thousands of limestone spires standing in yellow Western Australian sand, built from seashell lime blown inland as dunes, and buried until a few centuries ago.

September·Peaking now

Aug–Oct

Spring is the full show: from August the heath rings the sand with banksia and everlasting, and mild days sit near 20 to 24°C. It is also the busiest stretch of the year, when the wildflower season pulls day trips up from Perth.

Year-round The pillars stand in their yellow sand every day and the park never gates — you can walk among them from dawn to after dark, year-round. What moves through the year is the heat, the heath in flower, and the number of cars on the loop.

The Pinnacles Desert is thousands of limestone spires standing in bright yellow sand, most of them knee- to head-high, the tallest around three and a half metres. They run in a loose field across open dune country, close enough together that you walk between them, with no shade anywhere and nothing growing in the sand around their feet. The lime in them began as seashells, ground up on the coast and blown inland as dunes; rainwater carried it down through the sand and cemented it into rock. Why that rock ended up standing in columns is still argued over. The field has also disappeared before: stone tools found among the pillars show people stood here around 6,000 years ago, after which drifting sand buried the whole thing and gave it back only a few centuries ago. A 4.5-kilometre one-way track threads the field, and the point is to stop, get out and walk. Low sun does the work: early and late, every pillar throws its own long shadow and the sand turns copper, while midday flattens the field into glare. Emus pick their way between the spires, grey kangaroos graze the edges, and in late winter and spring the heath around the sand flowers. Underfoot the sand is soft and deep enough to spill into your shoes. Three or four rows in, the taller columns cut off the sightline back to the track. The Discovery Centre by the entrance closes in the late afternoon, but the desert itself does not. That is when its second show starts. This is one of the darkest skies you can drive to in Western Australia, and for much of the year the bright core of the Milky Way climbs straight over the stones.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The desert drive is one-way sand — you cannot double back for a pillar you liked, so use the parking bays and walk. An ordinary car handles the track.
Nothing stops you staying after dark — the desert has no gate and no lighting, so bring a torch and drive out slowly; kangaroos and emus use the track at night too.
Not one pillar throws enough shade to stand in — the sand reflects the heat back at you, so carry water onto the walk rather than leaving it in the car.
Emus often stalk the field at first light — let them pass rather than closing in, and stay in your car when they cross the track ahead of you.

Things to do

1
See where the sand stops, from the lookout
The raised lookout on the drive is the only place the field reads as a whole: pillars running away from you in every direction until they hit a wall of green heath. The line between the two is startlingly hard — bright sand one step, dense scrub the next, with nothing gradual in between.
2
Walk out into the sand among the columns
Leave the car and take the walk trail into the field, where the fine sand gives underfoot and the spires close in around you. Up close, no two are alike: some are blades, some blunt stumps, some capped like mushrooms. Stay into the last hour, when every pillar throws a shadow that keeps stretching.
3
Stay for the Milky Way over the stones
The desert stays open after the visitor centre shuts, and the sky above it is close to unpolluted. Bring a torch, let your eyes adjust, and the galaxy's core comes up behind the columns, which stand as black silhouettes against it.