Elim Beach; unbelievable, protected beach camping near Cooktown
After more than a week exploring the magic Cooktown and Bloomfield region of Far North Queensland, we decided to head out to Elim Beach to check it out.
It had been a while since we’d camped near the coast, and with a relentless south east wind that hammers this region through the dry season we knew our opportunities for nice coastal camping were going to be severely limited.
Elim Beach faces north, which means its protected from the nasty south east wind that virtually blows Cooktown off the map for months at a time, and we were incredibly excited to pull over the last hill and see a bay that was almost completely calm.


Where is Elim Beach?
Elim Beach is not too far north of Cooktown, but you have to drive out and around to get there, which makes the total driving time nearly an hour.
Initially we were going to give this a miss due to the detour (and Battle axe road was closed, making it even worse, to take us to the Cape), but we decided to check it out anyway, and I was very glad that we did.

Do you need a 4WD to get here?
The road to Elim Beach is almost entirely bitumen, except for the last 1.5km which is fairly compact sand. You’d be fine taking most vehicles in with a bit of clearance, but if you are towing anything heavy you’d probably want a 4WD.

It’s worth mentioning that the road in is home to a ridiculous amount of wild horses, and whilst we didn’t come close to hitting any, they run freely and are on the side of the road, and through Hope Valley by the hundreds.
It’s pretty amazing to see, but take it easy and be prepared to stop if you need to!

What’s there?
Elim Beach is a small, picturesque private property that butts onto the amazing coastline. It’s home to the coloured sands, and Cape Bedford, which we go into further.

When you arrive, you’ll see a number of small buildings, with a fair bit of construction and renovation going on.
The owners in the office were beyond friendly, and took us for a quick walk down to check out the beachside camp sites.

There’s a big grassy area for tents and another for caravans and RV’s.

What are the amenities like?
Elim Beach is no fancy caravan park. It’s got basic amenities, but no hot showers, so enjoy a cool shower during the day. When I say basic amenities, that’s meant very literally; the toilet block is old, and pretty average.
The showers are literally water pipes with a shower fitting on the end, but the toilets are decent. By the looks of it, there’s a new one being built soon, which would be great (and hopefully it has heated water!).
You’re allowed to have fires in your own fire pit, or some are set up around the place, and kick back whilst you watch some of the best sunsets you’ll see anywhere nearby.

Watch the vlog
Want to see what we got up to at Elim Beach, and then further up Cape York? Check out our vlog:

Coloured sands and Cape Bedford
One of the major attractions for visiting Elim Beach is the Coloured sands, which you drive near on the way in. If you are camping, access to these is part of your stay, but if you visit for the day you’ll need to head to the office, and pay $11 to drive there.
To get there, you head back out of the camp (once you’ve paid your fee’s), and head down towards the beach. You can drive all the way when it’s a receding tide, but water covers the flats and if you pick the wrong time to go you’ll be in trouble real quickly.
Alternatively, you can park at the top and walk down onto the beach and around, which is about 300 metres, plus the actual coloured sands walk.


When we first arrived at the coloured sands, I didn’t think too much about it; we’ve seen plenty of amazing dune colours in WA at places like Francois Peron, but it didn’t take long to realise this is absolutely spectacular.

The walk takes you over a big, interesting tree near the beach, and you head upwards, through some amazing sand and rock cliffs and formations.
It looks a bit sketchy, and there’s a few places that you need to make big steps to get up, but it just continues to climb.


You’ll eventually get to two trickles of water that were nice for a cool off (as it was seriously hot), and we didn’t go much further than this as it was pretty dodgy with our young kids.
You can walk across the top to the big dune further north though, and then come down this. The views and formations here were really beautiful, and its absolutely worth a look.


Expect it to be windy here though, even if its not windy at Elim Beach, as the wind seems to curve its way around.


Beach front camping
Whilst camping at Bloomfield Cabins and Camping, some other travellers had raved about the beach front camping to us, and we were keen to see what it was like.
You need to pay extra to get these sites, but they are pretty incredible, and actually had less wind than the main camping area, which was ironic.

That’s not to say that the grass camping isn’t any good (and in fact the grass is nicer than some of the sandy sites), but the views are amazing, and some of them have a whole new level of privacy, rather than camping amongst a big group of other campers.


What does it cost?
It’s $15 per person per night here, or $20 per person if you want a beach front site. Children are an extra $5 per night if they are over 6.
We paid $80 for two nights, which although its more expensive than even the Peninsula Caravan Park in Cooktown, it is unique and pretty amazing. Purely based on the location, I think its worth it. The amenity upgrade should also help with this.

Sand flies and mosquitos
Typically, anything on the coast in Far North Queensland is going to have bucket loads of sand flies, or mosquitos.
We saw a number of sand flies and got bitten a bit, with Sarah and Cooper getting hammered. Mosquitos were around, but not in any big number and overall weren’t really that much of a problem.
The nasty thing about sand flies is that you don’t always feel yourself getting bitten. Of course, when you visit, this could be completely different, so make sure you have some form of protection or repellent for these nasty blighters.
Would we recommend Elim Beach?
This place well and truly exceeded my expectations. It’s nothing fancy or amazing when you drive in, but the camping is fantastic, the owners are absolutely amazing, and you really couldn’t ask for a nicer location, and its up there with the better Camping in Queensland.
There are very few places that are properly protected from the wind along this part of the coast in the normal dry season, and that makes Elim Beach even more special.
Yes, its expensive compared to other places that you can go to within a few hundred kilometres (and the amenities are nothing to write home about), but we didn’t feel like we had been ripped off when we left. It’s a special place, and one that we’ll remember for a long time!
We saw some pretty awesome wildlife here too, which certainly added to the experience, and whilst the kids were super challenging in terms of behaviour, they did love playing in the creek next to our camp too.





If you’re looking for amazing coastal camping heading up towards the Cape, absolutely call in at Elim Beach, and enjoy a few nights!
