The French Line (or shot line as it's called) is the shortest and most direct route across the Simpson. The route crosses the dunes at right angles and there's about 1200 of them in all.

The Rig Road crosses the southern part of the Simpson Desert and was once capped by clay to make access easier for heavy drilling and earth moving equipment that was transported along this road between oil wells during the early 1960's.

The WAA line is an east-west seismic line similar to the French Line. It is un-clayed and has relatively few people travelling on it. The dunes are less prominent than on the French Line but often contain blow outs (large holes in the sand hills caused by sand being blown out by winds).