Tag Archives: beach

Spencer Spit State Park

Come a short distance from the ferry terminal on Lopez Island and head left and you will soon be near the turning for Spencer Spit State Park.  There are camping sites throughout the park, but we were just interested in wandering down to the shoreline.  It isn’t a long descent from the parking lot to be down by the water.  It appears that the high tide can drive water into the area alongside the spit but that this then gets cut off as the tide retreats.  There seemed to be some algae on the surface of the water which didn’t look great close up but, step back a bit and it seemed more appealing.

More Logs Than the Average Beach Has

Taking a day off on a sunny day is such a lucky break early in the year.  Getting good weather is not guaranteed.  While my main goal was getting some Growler flying at Coupeville, when I had some spare time, I went down to Fort Casey and wandered along the beach.  The beach there has a ridiculous number of tree trunks that have washed up over time.  I don’t know why they end up here but, given how far up the beach they are, I assume the storms force them in this way.  Even getting past them to the shoreline requires some effort.  The almost endless number of them is quite amazing.

Shells, Shells and More Shells

The beach in Eastsound seems to be made up heavily of shells.  Walking across it felt like a very destructive act as the shells crunched under foot.  I don’t recall ever being somewhere that was made up of so much shell material.  It looked very attractive but I didn’t like the breakage that came with it!

What Is Farmed Here?

Eastsound is the main town on Orcas Island.  As you head out of the town center towards the eastern side of the island, you go along the shoreline of a wide bay.  The tide was out as we drove over that way and there were some frames set in to a section of the beach.  Clearly this is an area which would be submerged at high tide so I assume it is used to farm something.  Shellfish of some sort were what I assumed but I don’t know for sure.  If anyone has any suggestions as to what they might be, please let me know in the comments.

Fishing in the Surf

I spent a little time at North Head Lighthouse looking back down the beach I had been walking along earlier in the day.  It is a vast area so the people down below were but specks against the sand.  However, one person did catch my eye.  He was fishing in the surf and standing out in the shallows as he cast into the water.  Not sure how successful a location it is for fishing but it didn’t look like the easiest way to catch your dinner!

The Beach at Cape Disappointment

My Cape Disappointment visit had started with a look at the area best known for big waves but I then decided to head off and explore the other parts of the area.  I drove out along the shore until the road ended and started walking west along the peninsula.  The water was to my left but I could hear the sound of waves from the right.  I eventually came to the beach at which point I could see what the source of the noise had been.

A fantastic beach lay off to the north.  It was a wide expanse of sand with another headland at the end with its own lighthouse.  It was one of those scenes where it was hard to judge how far away anything was.  Since I had not fixed place to be, I started walking north towards the Headland.  The sun was out and it was a gorgeous morning to be out.  There were plenty of people on the beach doing the same thing but the beach was so large, it felt like you could have been totally alone and, if you wanted to avoid everyone, it wouldn’t have been tricky.

I was certainly right about not having a clue how far along the beach things were.  It was true that I was in no hurry and so was ambling along at a leisurely pace.  Even so, I didn’t seem to be getting closer to the headland.  In fact, it was quite a while before I realized I was almost there.  At this point, I glanced back over my shoulder and realized the other end of the beach was disappearing from view.  A look out to see suggested rain coming in from there and that I might be about to get wet.

I turned around and made the return leg with a little more urgency than the outbound leg.  Even so, the rain soon reached me.  Despite this, I actually wasn’t too unhappy.  I had a good coat on and my pants seemed to openly get damp.  The rain didn’t last long and I was dry again not long after.  I did take a slightly shorter route back to the car, though, and a second rain shower hit as I was getting close so I was glad I had done so.

Later, as I visited the North Head Lighthouse, I got a great view from above back down the beach I had been on earlier in the day.  It looked just as large and deserted as when I had been on it and I was quite taken with what an amazing place it was only a relatively short drive from Seattle.  This is a place I shall definitely be back to explore, both in the nice weather of summer and when the winter brings storms.

Sunrise over the Beach

The sunsets at Tofino were beautiful and I included some shots of those in this post.  Sunrise was also pretty impressive.  Winter means the sun is pretty far south so the position it comes up is not so far off that in which it sets.  It does provide a very different light to things with some of the headlands that we could see from the hotel now having nice light on them.  When you wake up to a view like this out of your hotel window, you know you are a lucky guy and are likely to have a good day!

That’s a Big Log!

Seeing logs on the shore is not unusual.  Plenty of logs get washed ashore.  However, when taking a walk along the beach at Shoreline over the holidays, there was a tree trunk that had become lodged on the water’s edge.  It had become wedged in amongst some piles in the water with the roots of the log still out in the water.  Usually the logs appear to have been cut but this was a tree that had got washed out into the sound.  Everyone was taking a look at it or climbing out on to it.  It was pretty big and finding a way to convey the size was something I pondered at length.

Drainage Patterns in the Sand

Walking along the beach at Tofino, you see some interesting patterns in the sand.  He movement of water across the sand causes various ridges in the surface.  There is also water draining down the beach from the land behind the beach.  This water gathers behind the ridges but ultimately needs to drain further.  When it finds a weak spot, it cuts through the ridge.  Once it does so, the water all flows through this breach and it starts to take some sand with it.  It expands the cut and then deposits the sand further down as it slows down again.  This can result in some cool formations in the sand.

Aldeburgh Beach Sculpture

Head up the shoreline from the center of Aldeburgh and there is a beach area with an interesting sculpture.  Called the Aldeburgh Scallop, it is a stainless steel sculpture, funded by public donations.  It is two scallop shells that interlock.  It is nearly four metres across and dramatic, sitting as it does on the open shingle beach.  Very cool.