Dungeness Spit

The Day after Hoh Rainforest, I headed out to hike Dungeness Spit. Dungeness Spit is a 5.5 mile long sand spit which juts out from the Olympic Peninsula into the Juan de Fuca Strait. At the end of the spit is an old lighthouse staffed by volunteers. The light is automated now, so the volunteers are just there to give tours. Well, really they are there just for the opportunity to live out at the end of the spit. They do enjoy talking about the lighthouse, though. Almost to a painful degree.

The hike was reminiscent of Friends School backpacking trips: a long slog down a beach. This was a little better, though. My pack was lighter, and there was more to look at. For one, the sky was the clearest it had been through the entire trip, and the mountains were gorgeous. Behind me, inland, the Olympic range spread across the sky, and in the direction of the lighthouse stood Mt. Baker, a lone giant on the horizon.


I was keeping my eyes peeled for wildlife the entire time, and I was not disappointed. On the way out I spotted a seal hanging out in the kelp beds. I watched it for a while through my binoculars. It mostly just floated there and stared right back at me. After a while of staring at each other, we wandered off in our separate directions. My camera doesn't have a very powerful zoom, so I wasn't able to take a very good picture of the seal. Here's the best I could do:


At the end of the spit I climbed the lighthouse and looked around for a while. It was cramped at the top and I got trapped in by a family from Tacoma with seemingly endless interest in the lighthouse. But eventually someone called from below that we needed to make way for more tourists, and I escaped.


The walk back was nice, and I took it slowly. The tide was out, so I spent a while exploring the tide pools. They were far less populated than Cannon Beach, but I did find a couple neat things. There was what I assume was a snail of some sort with seaweed growing off its shell. And I also found a small dungeness crab. I think a gull had dropped it on the beach. (you can't really tell, but the first picture here is underwater)


Here's a map of the spit: