Moonrise at the Pinnacles

So on our road trip I noticed how full the moon was at Northam, and thought, hmmmm, full moon and a trip to the Pinnacles might be fun. How wonderful would it be to get those formations with the moon rising behind them? So John didn’t get much of a rest from our road trip when we had to pack up the car again and head 3 hours north. In my opinion, it’s a very difficult 3 hour drive because there really isn’t much civilization to see in those 3 hours.

The fellow at the gate was concerned we were paying a lot of money to arrive so late, and I assured him, “It’s OK, we’re here for a moonrise!”

I don’t know what to say about the Pinnacles except they seem like a freak of nature. When you enter the area, it’s like Scotty just beamed you to another planet.

From Wikipedia:

The Pinnacles are limestone formations contained within Nambung National Park.

The raw material for the limestone of the Pinnacles came from seashells in an earlier epoch rich in marine life. These shells were broken down into lime rich sands which were blown inland to form high mobile dunes.

The mechanisms through which the Pinnacles were formed from this raw material are the subject of some controversy.

The Pinnacles remained unknown to most Australians until the 1960s.

It’s a true desert landscape in Nambung National Park, where the weathered rock spires of the Pinnacles rise out of yellow sand dunes.

Yet the park sits on the deep blue Indian Ocean. You wouldn’t know it to look at the features at the Pinnacles.

A scenic walk and drive trail winds past the ancient limestone pillars of the Pinnacles, some several metres tall. They’re scattered across the desert in their thousands, creating an eerie, alien-like landscape.

This one was low to the ground.

Some are as high as three and half metres, and some finish in a jagged point, while others have rounded domes, resembling tombstones.

At leas the moon came up…

…and the sun went down…

…and we were in a pickle of what to take photos of next.

We enjoyed the views no matter which way we directed our cameras.

What an amazing night to be at the Pinnacles

We decided we would have to come back soon.

Then we just grabbed the video camera, which is easier to handle, and turned it on us. Barb and John at the Pinnacles on a very special night.