First Beach & Cape Flattery 2-20-2012

The last day of our adventure, we started out on the beach outside of our room, First Beach, which we actually hadn’t walked on yet. 

We wandered down to the end where there was a stranded Coast Guard buoy.

Leaving La Push we went up to Hwy 112 and out to the most Northwest point of the contiguous United States, Cape Flattery.  It is a gorgeous cave-riddled point of sandstone, teeming with turquoise waters and birds of all types. 

One stack was sprinkled with seagulls.

The birds in this video are black oystercatchers.

Here was a pair of harlequin ducks, which bobbed around in the waves and dove down for their dinner.

We were pleased to find a majestic eagle also enjoying the most NW point. 

Here we are at Cape Flattery with the Cape Flattery Lighthouse on Tatoosh Island in the background.  It would be a fun lighthouse to visit!

We had lunch in Neah Bay, where we saw this oddity.

There were actually 5 bald eagles in this harbor.  See the one on top of the fishing boat mast?

We also got to see a kingfisher as we ate, but I had trouble zooming in on him clearly.

What an amazing weekend!   It was hard to leave the song of the surf behind.  The sound of my little fish tank at night is just a sad substitute. 

Port Angeles and Rialto Beach 2-18-2012

Saturday morning dawned gray and windy.  A perfect start to a trip to the ocean, and Dave & I anticipated booming waves and frothy surf.  We were not disappointed.  Poor Adventure Dog didn’t get to come along, so after our ferry ride from Edmonds to Kingston, we dropped Cedar with his “Grandma” for a weekend of play.   After that our first stop was my home town, Port Angeles.

We drove past my old home, depressing with all its lovely trees gone, and then downtown to Ediz Hook.  We enjoyed the waves coming in from the Straight on the wild side, and skipped some stones on the tame side.  A couple scruffy eagles were hanging out there too.

Leaving Port Angeles on 101, we meandered out through forest and farm to the coast, where we were staying in La Push.  The hotel ground floor said “partial view” of the ocean only because there was a rise like dunes in between, but we could still see the swell of the waves over the top of the sand and driftwood, and the sound of the surf was heavenly.  We kept our window open the whole time we were there.  After a bite to eat we headed out to Rialto Beach. 

Dave took a picture of a group of people and they returned the favor for us.  As he lined up a good shot we were reminded to never turn your back on the ocean… it sneaked in with its foamy waves right up over our ankles and sent us and our photographer scrambling up the beach.  Pretty funny!

The wind was so strong you could almost lean into it without falling over and the foam from the churning waves was blowing about like snow.

The beach was fun and gorgeous.  Sea stacks and rocks drew the eyes out into the gray where waves were breaking, the thick expanses of pebbles and sometimes sand were strewn with interesting rocks, bright lost fishing floats, and beautiful pieces of driftwood.

We ended up walking the full mile and half to Hole-In-The-Wall, passing many other wind-blown hikers.  We all matched… we were all grinning from ear to ear.  : )

It was a lovely stormy day, a lovely beach, and I can't wait to go back!