A popular day trip highlight from Perth is visiting Nambung National Park in WA’s wheatbelt, some 200km northwest of the city, to see one of Western Australia’s curiosities – The Pinnacles.

Coach trips operate from Perth or hire a car for a self-drive tour.

The yellow sandy, lunar-like landscape of the Pinnacles Desert is dotted with thousands of variously shaped limestone pillars; some like tombstones while others are similar to columns that reach as high as 3.5 metres. This surreal environment, which looks like the set for a sci-fi film, is located around 17km south of Cervantes, on the eastern side of the Indian Ocean Drive.

Debate still continues on how the pillars were formed with theories that they are an eroded limestone conglomerate created from ancient seashells. Visitors to the Pinnacles Desert Discovery Centre can see exhibits on the geology of the Pinnacles and learn about the area’s cultural heritage and its flora and fauna.

The National Park has other features including at Lake Thetis in the north where visitors can take the boardwalk to see one of the world’s few locations of living thrombolite structures – one of the earliest forms of life comprising microorganism communities. Thrombolite fossils date back a staggering 3.6 billion years. Sections of Nambung National Park, which are rich in flora and fauna, fill with native wildflowers during the second half of winter and early spring. It’s a popular time to visit as visitors follow the colourful fields of the Everlastings Wildflower Trail.

If you’ve come this far then it’s a short drive to Cervantes, the starting point of Australia’s Coral Coast. It’s a great beach stop and if you like a seafood lunch head for Cervantes’ famous Lobster Shack for some of WA’s delectable Western Rock Lobster.