Detour

STONE GARDEN They look masterminded. In the Pinnacles Desert, thousands of soaring spires rise from shifting yellow sands like some antipodean Stonehenge. Dutch explorers sailing along the coast in the 16th century spied these jagged sharp-edged columns and tombstone-like pillars from their ships and concluded that the formations were evidence of some ancient civilization. They were wrong. The Pinnacles are another of Western Australia's natural wonders, and perhaps its most photographed.

Nestled in the heart of Nambung National Park 245 km north of Perth, the limestone formations, which range in height from a few millimeters to four meters,...