The National Park is located 80 kilometres (50 mi) west of Esperance on the southern coast.

The park was named after Stokes Inlet, which lies within the park and is its best known feature, which was in turn named in 1848 by John Septimus Roe the Surveyor General of Western Australia while leading a five-man exploration expedition along the coast, commemorating John Lort Stokes' work on HMS Beagle surveying the Western Australian coast.

[3] The park covers areas of coastal heath and scrubland, smaller areas of low dense forest and sandy beaches around the inlet and coast to the south of the park.

It was then reverted to crown land and national park status by 1973.

The Moir homestead ruins from the 1873 establishment at Fanny Cove were on a heritage list by 1993, but have since been destroyed by fire.