The extraordinary ancient rock formations that make up the “Pinnacles ” are located about 245 Km north of Perth near the coastal town of Cervantes on the Indian Ocean. Nambung National Park is home to the Pinnacles Desert, which features a series of limestone formations sporadically scattered over vast yellow, rippled sand dunes.
Regarded as one of Australia’s most unique landscapes, these incredible limestone spiers rise eerily out of the sand, some several metres tall. You can get up close to the Pinnacles on a scenic drive which winds for about 5km through the desert or walk a trail that includes an amazing lookout over the Nambung National Park. It is a park with a 27km stretch of sparkling coastline bordered by rolling ancient sand dunes that extend inland into banksias woodlands. Pretty red river gum trees line the banks of the Nambung River until it disappears into limestone caves. Massive sand dune fields characterise the area near the coast where the Pinnacles Desert lies. These amazing natural limestone structures, numbering in their tens of thousands, rise like pillars out of the bright yellow sand and can stand as high as five metres, and were formed approximately 25,000 to 45,000 years ago. Remarkably, this unique desert was practically unknown to the wider public until the late 1960’s.
I went to see this brilliant landscape 2 weeks ago. The first thing that struck me was its otherworldly presence, which seems to characterize so many of the sacred places I have visited around the globe. At first, as we traversed the first 2-3 km in our hire car, even though the formations looked visually stunning, I felt a harshness which didn’t reflect a spiritual location. It wasn’t till we reached the final kilometer that I intuited a location on the left of the track, about 150 meters off the road, that had a distinct resonance about it. On closer inspection I could understand why, as it was full of striking rock forms. ( see last 5 photos below ) This “earthly moonscape” certainly offered a never ending diversity of shapes, texture and colour, in this isolated location.
Natural sculptural formations at the Nambung National Park
Ancient rock formations – Pinnacles, WA
Limestone structures at “the Pinnacles”
Sacred pinnacles – Nambung National Park
The Pinnacles Desert
Pinnacle rock structures
Pinnacle Desert
Rock gathering at Pinnacles
Pink galahs – Pinnacles
Natural obelisk – Pinnacles, Australia
Pinnacle rock formations
Ancient sculptural rock forms
Pinnacle Desert
Alien like rock formations
Rock forms at Pinnacle Desert
King Neptune of Pinnacles
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