Little Bay Horrocks; a perfect, low cost beach camp

There’s nothing quite like falling asleep to the crashing waves on a pristine beach, and waking up metres away from stunning coastline. Little Bay in Horrocks is exactly this; Shire supplied camping set back under 20 metres from the water, and protected (largely) by a huge reef system.

We spent a couple of great nights at Little Bay a number of years ago, and went back again this year to check it out and to take some more photos.

Where is Little Bay?

When you pull into Horrocks, if you stay on the main road you’ll eventually hit gravel, which then turns to a sandy track and takes you right to Little Bay. You’ll find it roughly 5km north of Horrocks town itself.

How many camp sites are there?

Little Bay has 3 camping areas at Little Bay in Horrocks, with two being quite large, and one in the middle being a little smaller.

What amenities are there?

There are two toilet blocks at Little Bay, in between the 3 camping areas. These are your usual drop toilets, and are kept in great condition. Asides from this, there’s a small shelter, and that’s it. You need to bring your own water in, food, power and anything else that you need.

There are a couple of rubbish bins available too, but if you have items that don’t fit in the bin, take them out with you. Leave it pristine for the next campers to enjoy.

How big are the sites?

Camping area 1 and 3 are large enough to fit a pretty significant group of people in. You’d fairly easily fit 4 or 5 cars in, with room with trailers and tents as well. 

I’d say they are large enough to have a couple of smaller groups on the bigger camping areas, and I’m sure this happens too.

What’s the track like into Little Bay?

You need a 4WD to get to Little Bay, and the track in is a short section of corrugated gravel, and then it turns to a sandy track for about 3km.

It goes up and down a number of small hills, and the signs as you enter tell you to let the tyres down to 20 PSI. This is for good reason, as there’s a lot of offset holes that make the drive in and out quite rough, caused by people who don’t let their tyres down properly.

You’d tow a camper trailer in, and some lighter hybrids, but its quite tight in sections and not really suitable for a full size van, unless you are happy to get scratches right the way down it. If you do decide to tow something in, you’ll want the right tyre pressure for beach driving on your vehicle and the trailer, or you will get stuck.

A couple of the smaller hills on the way out would be very easy to get stuck on towing something heavy.

We had one vehicle in our convoy who went up quite slowly, and got stuck in the holes, having to reverse back and give it more steam. The problem with speed though is that things get bashed around a lot more, so take it easy!

Little Bay Horrocks Booking and cost

You cannot book these sites, which means its first come, first serve.

The cost is $15 per vehicle per night, and the ranger comes around and grabs the money from you each day. He’s a good bloke, and takes care of a decent sized area around Horrocks each day.

Launching a boat at Little Bay

We launched our offroad tinny a number of times from Little Bay, simply by detaching the trailer, pushing it into the water, floating the boat and dragging the trailer back out.

There’s a lot of places you can launch, with the sections further south having the fastest drop off, for larger boats.

Fishing and getting crayfish at Little Bay

On our first visit to Little Bay, we caught 2 jumbo crayfish in a couple of minutes just out from camp, using our small boat.

The next day we went out and bottom bounced around the reef out further, and landed a nice Baldchin groper. We then had a big shark come up to the boat with a Cobia hanging around it, and one mulie later and the cobia was hooked and thrown into the boat.

I’m told you can get good tailor off the beach here too, and you can continue driving well beyond Little Bay (tide and sand conditions allowing).

Climb the dune

Right behind camp is a massive sand dune, which has a rope hanging down from the top. If you are keen on a bit of hard work, you can climb right to the top and get some pretty amazing views. If its warm, do it early or late in the day though, as the sand will burn your feet otherwise!

Little Bay weather

In terms of temperature, Little Bay is quite predictable, and is cold in winter, and then warms up towards the summer months.

When its really hot, you will see temperatures of up to the low 40’s, but its quite rare and camping next to the water means it feels a lot cooler.

The wind however, is something that is a lot less predictable, and WA is known as the windy state for a reason. Little Bay is quite protected in terms of the southerly winds, but if its blowing its still not pleasant to be on the beach.

Fortunately with the trees you can be quite sheltered at camp if its windy, but be prepared for some heavy winds!

Where else can you camp?

If there are no spots left at Little Bay in Horrocks, you can either head to the Horrocks Beach Caravan Park, or you need to head to Elbenjo, Northhampton, Port Gregory Caravan Park, Lynton Station, Coronation Beach or Lucky Bay.

There’s quite a few places within an hours drive, with Lucky Bay Kalbarri almost impossible to be full if you are prepared to camp in the dunes.

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