Cape Range National Park

Cape Range National Park tickets and tours: which one to book

Cape Range is the limestone range and the beaches of the North West Cape at Exmouth in Western Australia, with the Ningaloo reef lying just offshore, and the park is the land half of a marine holiday: almost every tour sold from Exmouth is about the water, and the few that name the park itself are the Yardie Creek gorge boat cruise, run daily in the dry season up the only permanent water in the range with the rock wallabies on the cliffs, and the astronomy sessions at the Milyering visitor centre under skies without light pollution.

The park entry fee is per vehicle per day, paid at the gate or covered by a Western Australian parks pass, and the Ningaloo snorkelling from the park's beaches costs nothing beyond it, which is what makes the place special: at Turquoise Bay the drift snorkel over the coral starts from the sand, at Oyster Stacks the reef is a few metres out at high tide, and the Lakeside and Osprey beaches are the same. The boat tours from Exmouth and Coral Bay for whale sharks from March to July, humpback whale swims from August to October and manta rays all year use the reef off the park and are the region's big product, with the park beaches the free days between them. Guided kayak and snorkel tours of the lagoon, and 4WD tours of the range's gorges, are the rest. Independent visitors need a car, and the campsites on the park's beaches are booked months ahead in winter.

Visiting Cape Range National Park: what you will see

The park was declared in 1964 and extended in 1972, and covers about 500 square kilometres of the western side of the North West Cape, a peninsula of limestone uplifted from the sea floor and cut into gorges, with a coast of white beaches and dunes facing the Ningaloo lagoon, which lies inside the fringing reef along the whole length of the park and is a World Heritage Site together with the range. The range is the only elevated limestone plateau on this coast, rising to 314 metres, riddled with more than 700 caves and cut by canyons: Charles Knife canyon, reached by a road along its rim from the east, looks into a gorge of red rock from the top; Shothole canyon is driven along its floor; and Yardie Creek on the west coast is a gorge with permanent water held back by a sandbar, where the boat cruise and the rim walk find black-footed rock wallabies and ospreys.

Mandu Mandu gorge has a walking trail along a dry riverbed once used by Aboriginal people, and the Milyering visitor centre explains the reef and the range. The beaches are the park's glory: Turquoise Bay, one of the finest in Australia, with a drift current that carries snorkellers over coral gardens and turtles; the lagoon a few metres deep with reef fish, rays and reef sharks; and the sand where three species of sea turtle nest from November to March, watched from the Jurabi turtle centre. Red kangaroos, euros and emus graze the spinifex plain in the evening, and more than 600 wildflower species colour the range after the winter rains. The Vlamingh Head lighthouse at the tip of the cape is the sunset spot, and Exmouth, founded in 1967 for a naval communications base, is the town.

Cape Range National Park: best time to go, seasons and hours

The park is open at all times, with the Milyering visitor centre from 9 am to 3.45 pm and the Yardie Creek cruise from April to October. The dry season from April to October is the visiting season, with warm days, cool nights and calm water, and the whale sharks from March to July and the humpbacks from August to October;

the summer from November to March is very hot, above 40 degrees, with cyclone risk and the turtle nesting as the reason to come. The wildflowers bloom from July to September. Snorkel at Turquoise Bay in the morning before the wind, and at Oyster Stacks only around high tide. Allow three days for the beaches and the gorges, or a week with the boat trips. Coral Bay is an hour and a half south, and Karijini is a full day's drive inland.