Pinnacles Desert Track — Cervantes to Pinnacles Loop via Nambung National Park

The Pinnacles look like something a science fiction prop team built on a budget — thousands of limestone columns jutting out of yellow coastal sand, some two metres tall, spread across a flat desert floor inside Nambung National Park. From Cervantes on WA’s Indian Ocean coast, the access track runs 17 kilometres to the Pinnacles Desert Loop, a one-way 4-kilometre sandy circuit that winds through the spire field. The formations are ancient seashell limestone left exposed after wind stripped the overlying sand — what you’re driving through is essentially a fossilised coastal dune system from tens of thousands of years ago. Early morning light turns the columns orange and deep shadow; midday is flat and brutal. Get there at dawn.

This is the easiest trail in this database and deliberately so — it’s included because it’s genuinely worth doing and genuinely underrated by overlanders who assume easy means boring. A standard AWD handles the loop comfortably in dry conditions; 4WD recommended after rain when the sand softens. The main Pinnacles Desert Loop is a one-way signed circuit, but tracks beyond the park boundary toward Lake Thetis and the Cervantes coastline are 4WD accessible. Entry fee applies — self-registration at the gate. Best visited April through October to avoid extreme summer heat and tourist crush. Camping is not permitted inside the park but sites exist in Cervantes township. A solid half-day run paired with the Cervantes lobster fishery is a proper Western Australia coastal overland.