The fascinating rock formations known as the Pinnacles can be found half an hour’s drive south of Jurien Bay. There is an entry fee of $15 currently to enter this national park.

Once we had parked we headed into the Pinnacles Discovery Centre to learn more about these rock formations sculpted by wind and rain. Some friendly locals greeted us just at the doorway.

Once we had spent some time learning about the Pinnacles and the surrounding desert-like landscape we made our way from the Discovery Centre out to the Pinnacles on foot. Along the way we passed some plants that were flowering. The first was this Acacia.

The second was this Allocasuarina with its tiny but brilliant red flowers.

As we approached the edge of the Pinnacles area we saw this information board.

As you can see it is quite a large area. We wanted to get up close to the rock formations which we felt was easier to do on foot.

As we followed the marked trail and explored we couldn’t help but notice a couple of the rock formations had the look of solidified creatures from a sci-fi movie.At one point we came to a stretch of sand with no pinnacles.Along the way we did encounter some flowering plants such as this Acacia, a different one to the one we had seen at the Discovery Centre.A bit further along we came to a viewpoint. We could see back into the desert one wayand out to the Indian Ocean in the other direction.This brings me to a contentious point. Should WA National Parks allow vehicles to be driven through the middle of these unique rock formations? It does allow people with limited mobility to get up close but the road goes right through the middle of the rock formations at one point. 

Anyway we continued our walk, following the markers through some scrubby vegetation.Again we came upon a lifelike creature. We thought this one could easily be a petrified kangaroo.This clump seemed to have a slightly denser number of pinnacles.These two showed the vagaries of how wind and water have eroded these rock formations – one tall and thin, the other short and stumpy.On our return to the carpark we discussed whether we should drive around the area as well. In the end we did. Not sure at the time whether that was a good decision environmentally but it did give us a look at the breadth of the area covered by the pinnacles.After completing the drive circuit we realised that for a large part vehicles were on the fringe of the pinnacles. However on this section of the ‘road’ we were very close to a couple of them. We did like the way small rocks were placed to define the trail for vehicles.You will have to excuse all the remains of dead insects on the windscreen in this shot as the car hadn’t been washed since we had been in Broome, a month previously. Overall we drove away from Nambung National Park well pleased with our walk and drive around the Pinnacles, a not to be missed stop for visitors to this part of Western Australia.