Dog-Friendly Road Trips From Perth: Five Stops Worth the Drive

Short answer: five Perth drives worth the fuel are the Perth Hills for cool morning walks, the coast to the south for beach runs, a Swan River reserve for a flat leg-stretch, a quiet northern beach for a swim, and a jarrah forest stop in the Darling Range for shade in summer. Each is an easy day trip, dog-welcoming, and kind to a car if you pack a cover and water. The trick is timing. Go early, park in shade, and the dog comes home happy rather than cooked, which is the whole point of taking them at all.

The Perth Hills morning run

Up in the Darling Range it stays a few degrees cooler, which suits a dog when the city is baking. Plenty of trails welcome dogs on lead, and the granite is far easier on paws than hot bitumen. Go at first light so you are back before the car sits in a scorching car park, because the hills are about the morning, not the midday.

A bench cover keeps the hills mud off the seat, and the dog usually dries out on the way back down the hill. I take a towel anyway, because winter mornings up there can be damp enough to soak a coat through, and a wet dog in a parked car is a quick way to a musty interior by the time you get home.

Pick a loop with water if you can. Most of the popular hills walks cross a creek or a dam, and a paddling dog is a tired dog on the drive home, which means a calmer passenger and a cleaner seat once the cover has caught the worst of the creek mud on the way out.

Coastal beach day to the south

The drive south to the dog beaches is a bit of a rite of passage, but check the local rules, because some stretches restrict dogs in peak summer or at set times of day. Off-lead areas do exist if you know the right bay, and a swim tires out a young dog better than any walk on lead, which is why the coast earns its fuel.

• Pack a bottle of fresh water for a rinse at the car before you load up.
• Use a hammock so the shake-off lands on fabric rather than glass.
• Park facing the breeze and in whatever shade you can find.
• Rinse the paws as well, since salt between the toes irritates them later.

The rinse at the car is the step people skip and regret. Salt left on the coat ends up on the cover, and between the toes it itches, so a quick fresh-water splash before loading saves the drive home and the dog, and takes the time you would spend at a servo anyway, so make it the last job at the beach.

A Swan River reserve leg-stretch

Close to home, a river reserve gives a flat, easy walk for an older dog and a paddle on warm days. It is the backup trip when you have an hour rather than a day, and because it is ten minutes from most Perth suburbs the dog still gets out even on a busy week, which is what keeps a routine going.

The cover earns its keep here because river mud is the clingy sort. A hammock with side flaps catches the shake-off at the door, and the flat walk means an older dog loads up without the hill climb, so the whole trip stays gentle, which is exactly what a senior dog needs from a quick outing.

Quiet northern beach swim

North of the river there are calmer stretches where a dog can swim without the crowds, and a weekday morning is the sweet spot. The water is cooler up that way and the sand is firmer, so paws cope better, and a swim up north is the fix for a dog who hates the busy southern bays and the summer restrictions that come with them.

Pack shade, because the northern beaches can be bare. A cover that pairs with a mesh window shade keeps the cabin from baking while you are in the water, and never leave the dog in the car, even for the photo, because the northern car parks offer little tree cover and the cabin warms fast.

Jarrah forest shade stop

Deeper in the Darling Range, the jarrah forest stays shaded when the coastal strip is roasting, so it is the summer fallback. A short stroll among the trees, a drink from the bottle, and back to a car that has sat in shade the whole time. The dog comes home cool, which is the win you cannot get at an open beach at noon.

The forest floor can be muddy after rain, so the cover does double duty, and the tighter tracks mean a smaller car fits where a big ute will not, so match the stop to the vehicle. A hatch with one dog loves the forest; a dual cab with two is happier on the open coast where there is room to move and shake.

Keeping the car clean on the way home

The routine is the same at every stop: rinse, towel, cover, water in the car. A hammock catches the mess, a spare towel takes the worst, and the dog rides home dry enough that the seat underneath stays clean. Do that and the car is still pleasant to sell or hand back, and the dog has had five very different days out.

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